Bad Blue Fluorescence - What can I do with it?

[allowingtoo]

Is there anything you can do with a bad blue Fluorescence stone? I have a .75 diamond that looks nice inside but outside in the daylight turns that dreaded milky color. I'd forgotten all about it and ran across it the other day when I was looking for something else.

 

[Circe]

You can sell it to me? (JK, sadly - PS doesn't allow sales.)

But you could sell it to someone who really loves fluorescence ... that way you could perhaps buy a stone without it that would please your eye. Insofar as I know, there's really no way to conceal or mitigate it.

 

[allowingtoo]

I love Fluorescence. My wedding ring is a Strong Blue. I bought it by accident before I found this forum and started educating myself. The seller gave me a choice between 2 diamonds and I asked him if I could look at them outside - the only "clue" I had at the time. My stone gave off Blue flashes of light and other gave off orange flashes. Orange just happens to be my LEAST favorite color so I chose this one because it looked the whitest to me. It's an EGL H but looks like a D.

Sadly this other stone is hopeless. It's pretty eye clean though. I was hoping I could have it treated or something. I guess I could take it to a Pawn Shop.

 

[Circe]

You'll be making someone happy ....

Seriously, I would *love* to find a nice overblue. My favorite stone posted on this site, ever, is a ring that one of the pros had made - will see if I can find it. And, yes! Though the PS engine sucks these days, googling "overblue" and PS brought it up ....

Is that what your stone is doing?

 

[allowingtoo]

Yes. I'll have to get out my camera and see if I can emulate that lighting situation. That one looks kind of like they had a black light shining on it though. It's not as attractive in the daylight - believe me

It just looks milky. Well - it's not 100% all the time - you just kind of think - are my eyes deceiving me? I guess the lighting has to be just right or something.

 

[allowingtoo]

Well I don't know that I got a fair representation of the earring but here are a few pictures anyway. I used my 60X LED Loupe and sure enough the right one was High Blue Fluorescence. I'm still thinking a Pawn Shop might be the way to go, they might not see it if I"m lucky and I can trade it out for something else. I wouldn't want to sell it to someone else. I can see it every time I look at it.

You can see they look OK in normal lighting in the bottom picture.

 

[starryeyed]

Hi allowingtoo.

I actually think the stone on the right looks brighter and more pleasing to my eye!

You could try posting just the fluorescent one, or the pair, **edited by moderator** . I'd fully disclose the fluoro because that would MAKE the sale for some people. Would you consider selling the fluoro one and then getting yourself another diamond in its place? Or do you want to start over?

It may help to take a picture with a black light. I bought a bulb at "Spencer's" in the mall and put it in an inexpensive socket from the hardware store. It's very portable and whenever I look at diamonds, I bring it along and plug it in.

 

[MarkBroumand]

Sadly this other stone is hopeless. It's pretty eye clean though. I was hoping I could have it treated or something. I guess I could take it to a Pawn Shop.

Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done in order to reduce or eliminate fluorescence! Therefore selling, trading in, or maybe leaving it for a evening-only piece are options?!?!

 

[Siamese Kitty]

Allowing,

Are you 100% positive this is a fluorescence issue? I only ask because my mom had a stone that would sometimes be completely clear, other times a little "milky". We were certain it could be attributed to strong fluor, but it turned out to have none according to a GIA report we had done on it. It ended up being I-clarity grade setting twinning wisps. Completely eye-clean in most lights, but every now and then, i.e. direct sunlight and halogen lighting, it is a little milky. Just thought I'd throw it out there. That said, these earrings are really pretty and an amazing size. I'd bet they look beautiful on and the milkiness isn't that obvious. HTH

 

[arjunajane]

Allowing,

Are you 100% positive this is a fluorescence issue? I only ask because my mom had a stone that would sometimes be completely clear, other times a little "milky". We were certain it could be attributed to strong fluor, but it turned out to have none according to a GIA report we had done on it. It ended up being I-clarity grade setting twinning wisps. Completely eye-clean in most lights, but every now and then, i.e. direct sunlight and halogen lighting, it is a little milky. Just thought I'd throw it out there. That said, these earrings are really pretty and an amazing size. I'd bet they look beautiful on and the milkiness isn't that obvious. HTH

allowingtoo,
I'm pretty sure from your pics that Siamese is correct, this appears more like a clarity than a fluor issue to me.
The stone on the right is quite heavily included, do you know the grade? It could be that the sunlight is 'highlighting' these inclusions.

Do you mind if I ask do you have a report to say the stone actually has fluor? I don't think that is the issue, tbh..

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Can you just wear them on days when you'll be inside? lol That's probably what I'd do

 

[denverappraiser]

Blue fluorescence is an inherent property of the stone and there is nothing you can do to alter it. Whether or not it's 'bad', on the other hand, depends on the owner and what you like. As you can tell from several of the above posts, it's far from universal that everyone dislikes fluoro. If you've got a stone that you don't like for whatever reason, you can sometimes trade it in at a dealer for something you prefer or you can simply sell it to someone else who likes it better. Start by talking to the place where you bought them to see if they're willing to do an exchange. The clarity and the matching is likely to make these a difficult item to sell but this too depends on the taste of the buyer as well as the price you set.

 

[allowingtoo]

One of my other pair of earring was Strong Blue and I didn't know it. I would have included my wedding ring but it is still in the shop. The other pair of earrings (pictured far left is not apparent as a Strong Blue in the daylight - it matches nicely with the other earring)





Might visit a few pawn shops this weekend and see what's out there for trade.

 

[allowingtoo]

Well I was offered $125 for the pair of earrings at one shop LOL - I didn't bother asking after that. Ok, really, I expected that. Of course they had a 2 carat solitaire with an appraisal from someone I can't remember - it's appraised value was $18000.00 and they would take $14000.00 and I asked them wasn't the selling price usually half the appraised value? He said he was giving me a good deal giving me $4000.00 off the price. The diamond really did look nice but still..........

OTOH - I saw some incredible diamonds at some other shops at some ridiculous prices. Some of the places didn't even have the carat sizes right. One place had a pair of 1 CT earrings that were clearly 1.5 for $899 on sale for $699 that were not too bad looking. I had to really had to struggle not to buy them just to replace the ones I had. A Tension set ring for $39.00. Some really clean diamonds and one ring - beautiful diamonds and hallmarks that I couldn't make out but I knew it had to be a really nice ring.

I'm going to quit shopping eBay and start going back to the Pawn shops. Didn't find any old cut diamonds - he said he had one come in yesterday but it wouldn't come out for 30 days.

I'll just throw the earrings back in the drawer or something. Makes you want to run an ad on Craigslist for those poor people that actually have to sell their stuff to the pawn shops.

 

[denverappraiser]

Ah, this is always the rub. The question isn't really if you can sell them, obviously you can, the issue is how to get the price you want.

For that you need a reality check both on what you have and your asking price, and for that an independent appraisal can be very helpful. How much a particular store is willing to give you is NOT a very good test (nor necessarily is how much it 'appraised' for or even how much you paid). I think you're right that it's unlikely that you'll get big money for these and simply keeping them for later is an entirely reasonable choice but if you really want to know where you sit, an IA that's addressing the correct question (resale value) in your situation is often the answer.