GCAL certificate -- meaningless??

[tenbinko]

I know Karl has mentioned that GCAL's grading methods lack peer review... and recently, I saw on truthaboutdiamonds.com the follow exchange:

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Andy says:

August 31, 2012 at 7:30 am

Is there a reason why the signature cut diamonds at BN have a GCAL certification as well as GIA? Is GCAL a very legitimate outfit?

Andy

Reply


Mike says:

August 31, 2012 at 5:24 pm

GCAL is a meaningless certificate. BN uses it for their in house branding. Don’t waste money on a BN Signature.

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I understand that some might not find GCAL all that reliable, but is it downright meaningless?

And very few people seem to support BN signature... is it really that bad?

 

[denverappraiser]

What you learn by a dealer supplied GCAL report is that a 3rd party has looked at the GIA document and the stone and agrees with it. They've added their own filter do divide what they consider to be more excellent from what they count as less excellent (assuming we're talking about round brilliant cuts) and they applly a bit of grading to some of the non-rounds that some people find helpful. The ones they don't like have been rejected so the fact that you see it means that they approved. Is that meaningless? No. It depends on what you want and what you find useful. I must admit, I wouldn't pay much extra for it and, more importantly, if you want their opinion I would suggest you hire them yourself rather than letting the dealer do it in advance for you. This applies to all appraisers by the way. You are in a better position if YOU are the client. GCAL is run by good people and they're a quality lab that CAN be very useful. Whether the way Blue Nile is presenting their work to their customers is useful is a different question.

One other benefit of GCAL, by the way, is Gemprint. Every GCAL graded stone for the last several years has been Gemprintted in advance and every Gemprinted and registered stone is eligible for a discount at a growing list of insurance companies including some biggies like State Farm and Jewelers Mutual. For most people who want a Gemprint it's necessary to show up at a Gemprint center for the scan but if you've got a GCAL they've already completed that part and you can do the registration online without ever leaving your comfy chair. For people with pricey things this can actually be a significant savings. State Farm gives 10% for example. A $50,000 declared value policy from them typically costs about $750/year depending on your address and dedutible so the discount is worth something like $75/year. Registration costs $50 once and lasts forever. That's a pretty big payoff.

 

[Karl_K]

Even if I find the gcal report not that valuable I do find this statement to be overblown:
"GCAL is a meaningless certificate. BN uses it for their in house branding. Don’t waste money on a BN Signature."
BN Signature with rounds if often a quick way to find some of the better cut diamonds they do have when using their site/search engine.
They are not always top of the line but usually are some of the better ones they have.
Using pricescope to search for AGS0 they may have is another way and I would do both if shopping B.N.

 

[tenbinko]

Hi Neil, I've contacted GCAL and I must say that their staff is very patient and professional... and both you and other respectable industry experts have said that it's accurate and reliable (in terms of color and clarity grading anyway).

You said that their system is very different from AGS's ASET... could you be a bit more specific? I've been to their website and I remember seeing a short video somewhere where the procedure for producing the optical brilliance image was explained, albeit not in great detail. It's something like taking a picture of the actual light that the diamond's reflecting/refracting out of the top, so I've kind of remembered this setup as being akin to taking an Idealscope photo.

Does the collaboration of Blue Nile and GCAL automatically weaken the credibility of the GCAL report? I wish I had the opportunity to send the stuff to GCAL myself, but honestly, it'd be easier to buy a diamond that already came with all the reports we're interested in, haha.

But again, as GCAL is reputable and respected, it doesn't seem logical that if the client is Blue Nile instead of the average consumer, the validity or reliability of the report is automatically discounted or diluted... or perhaps you know better, as you're an appraiser and know much more than most of us do.

Thanks for the info on insurance... but I've always wondered about something... say somebody bought insurance for the first two months and then sold the diamond and then told JM that they lost the diamond, they'd get compensated? I'm sure most people are honest, but if some weren't, they'd still get away by lying and sticking to their fabricated story that they lost the diamond somewhere? If somebody did actually lose the diamond, they might not be able to prove it either...

 

[denverappraiser]

The colored image on the GCAL report is some sort of mapping of the light that enters the stone and that leaves out the vertical access. The problem is the ‘some sort’ qualifier in the above sentence. Without knowing what the methodology is, the image in isolation is meaningless.

It’s not a matter of collaboration. Blue Nile is the client. You are not. This is a problem that would apply to the buyers looking at reports prepared by ANY appraiser, including me. It’s rather like the problem of receiving legal advice from opposing council. BN ordered a custom report designed just for them that contains the information they want it to contain. They further filter by rejecting from their sales channel the stones that don’t meet their standards, whatever those standards may be at the time. These standards are not available. If GCAL disagrees with the GIA grades, that would surely be grounds for rejection so I think it’s fair to assume that if you’ve been shown the stone it has passed this hurdle. I suppose it’s possible but I’ve never seen one of their ‘signature’ series of stones where the two labs disagree in any but the tiniest of details. Is there any sort selection criteria based on the cutting or on their light map? Not as far as I can tell but then, I’m not the client either. If you send in the stone yourself to them, to me, to Dave Atlas, to Jeff Averbook, or any other skilled appraiser, YOU are the client and the very first step in the appraisal process is to identify what your criteria and objectives are and the last step is to explain to you the data being presented. Fully half of my typical appraisal session involves discussion with the client about this sort of topic and it’s almost entirely lost on some 3rd party who does nothing but reads the report. This isn't a criticism of GCAL or even Blue Nile. It's the nature of the transaction.

Insurance fraud is certainly possible. It's also a crime. Yes, I'm sure people do it and the insurance companies have whole departments for the purpose of ferreting it out. That's one of the reasons they like 'replacement' type policies rather than making it easy to walk away with a bunch of cash.