Im at a loss. there use to be an appraise skill. in 5e im sorta stuck sometimes. my view as a dm is if a char is proficient in a typr of armour or weapon they can look at a weapon of that type and say it looks good ok or bad. same with armour. im not talking magical but if its worth taking to sell or better than one you have. jewels and jewelry i go with proficiency in jewelry tools other than that no chance except to say if they are pretty (assuming non magic). other stuff found like hides teeth would go down to a tool proficiency or nature maybe. but if they find a painting or statue what skill would they use to see if its worth trying to sell?

For a painting or statue, I'd use Intelligence (History) to estimate the worth of artwork and unique magical weapons and armor (as in, it's not just a +2 Longsword, but Viper's Grin, the fabled +2 Longsword of the pirate Teethface). Maybe Intelligence (Investigation) for appraising gems and generic weapons and armor (the generic +2 Longsword goes here as well).

The Intelligence score measures reasoning and memory and you make such check to reason or remember. Tools and Skills proficiency can apply. Personally,

Intelligence (Investigation) check could be used to appraise anything by default 

Intelligence (Animal Handling) check could be used to appraise animals and related gears.

Intelligence (History) check could be used to appraise things of historical nature.

Intelligence (Medicine) check could be used to appraise things of medical nature.

Intelligence (Nature) check could be used to appraise things of animal or plant nature such as poison.

Intelligence (Performance) check could be used to appraise musical instruments.

Intelligence (Religion) check could be used to appraise things of religious nature.

Intelligence (Arcana) check check could be used to appraise things of arcane nature.

Beyond that, I'd give players who have relevent backgrounds a leg up in this regard:

• Soldier/guard: could reasonably assess the quality of weapon's/armor
• Sage: Probably good with a plethora of different gewgaws depending on their specific background and especially historical artifacts.
• Artisan/merchant: Any sort of trade good and especially those relating to their personal proffession.
• Criminal/charlatan: jewellery, gems and such.
• Outlander: plants, animal bits.
• Noble: any sort of historical item relating to the state.
• Acolyte: religious artifacts.

Part of that whole "roleplay" thing folks go on about :)

Quote from ueauvan >>

Im at a loss. there use to be an appraise skill. in 5e im sorta stuck sometimes. my view as a dm is if a char is proficient in a typr of armour or weapon they can look at a weapon of that type and say it looks good ok or bad. same with armour. im not talking magical but if its worth taking to sell or better than one you have. jewels and jewelry i go with proficiency in jewelry tools other than that no chance except to say if they are pretty (assuming non magic). other stuff found like hides teeth would go down to a tool proficiency or nature maybe. but if they find a painting or statue what skill would they use to see if its worth trying to sell?

In the 2024 rules, all appraising falls under a tool proficiency: as you said, jeweler's tools to find the value of a gem, but also leatherworker's tools to determine the quality of leather armor or smith's tools for a weapon or metal armor, painter's supplies to appraise a painting or mason's tools for a stone statue, etc.