Need opinion on fluorescence and stone

[geno]

I found a stone that interests me greatly, but since I am new to this I am very unsure of it. I have tried to read up on fluorescence, but could use some opinions. The majority of what I have read has said that some is good, but this stone is GIA listed as Very Strong Blue. Here is the cert.
Round Brilliant
7.60-7.63x4.49
1.58 carat
59% depth
62% table
thin - med girdle
no culet
polish good
symmetry very good
clarity Internally Flawless
Color I
Fluorescence VERY STRONG BLUE

Do you think I should shy away from this due to the VERY STRONG fluor?
Also the price is $8150, opinions on this as well?

 

[golfer]

Very interesting stone. If the cut is pretty good (could go either way given the depth/table -- can you get the crown/pavillion?) and the fluorescence doesn't cause cloudiness or milkiness (which is apparently rare even in very strong blues), this could be a good value.

 

[fajar]

It all depends on how you feel when you see the stone. Does it make you smile; are you unable to tear your eyes away from its sparkle?

Maybe you could compare it with a diamond of similar weight, clarity, etc, but without the blue fluorescence; check their prices. The discount may be in the range of 30% for the fluorescence.

I could tell you about another tiny diamond I have, with blue flurorescence. But it is so small, just 0.41 , its not worthwhile talking about it.

JMHO

 

[diamatuer]

Personally, I bet you could find a better stone - and I am big proponent of fluorescence.

It looks like with your table and depth that you might fall into a bad HCA score when you get the crown and pavilion measurements - but I'm no expert.

More importantly, why do you want such a high clarity and a somewhat low color? The fluorescence will improve the color, which is good. But why sacrifice in one area and not in another. You could improve to a G/VS1 for a similar price.

Try niceice.com or goodoldgold.com.

 

[diamatuer]

Scratch that, I tested a couple of specs and your HCA score *could* be okay. I was concerned you might get into a fish-eye range.

Still, I think you can reduce the clarity and improve the color. The fluorescence is what it is - it just needs to be seen outdoors on a sunny day to make sure it is not cloudy.

 

[student]

There are links to some interesting articles on fluorescence from midwestgems.com. The gist of them seems to be that fluorescence only rarely makes a diamond looks worse, and often makes it appear to have better color. One notable detail is that the GIA does color grading with lamps that emit some UV light (which is the kind of light that brings out fluorescence), whereas the AGS does not. This means that if a diamond has fluorescence, the GIA might give it a slightly better color grade than the AGS would. Perhaps one of the experts could offer an opinion on how much this difference affects color grading. Is the difference miniscule, or is it a grade or two?

Also, I would be interested to hear some more opinions from experts about fluoro in general. After reading the articles I mentioned above, I began to think that a stone with fluoro might be a pretty good deal. It seems to me plausible that the simple fact that Fred Cuellar warns against fluoro could keep the prices of these stones down, because so many consumers read his book. (I'll 'fess up. I bought it and read it myself before I knew better.)

Martin Rapaport has an article about the pricing of fluorescent stones. He is an economist, and has quite a bit of faith in the free market to settle on the "right" prices. However, there are some features of the diamond market that I think could lead to consumers make mistakes. Most consumers don't know too much about the diamonds they are buying. It is a good sales tactic for retailers to offer advice about selecting diamonds different from what other retailers provide, because the consumer thinks: "He is the only one telling me about what might be an important fact about diamond quality, so I'd better be on the safe side and follow his advice (and buy a diamond from him)". When someone with such a large audience as Fred Cuellar offers such advice, it could have a big effect on consumers' demand for diamonds with particular characteristics, thus affecting their price. Another feature of the diamond market is that consumers are spending a lot of money on something to which they attach emotional importance. They want to be assured that they are getting good quality, and so will often be willing to pass up a potential bargain in order to have more confidence in their purchase. This leads to a herd mentality: you are safest if you get what everyone else thinks is best. Another thing is that consumers want to believe that they have gotten the best that can be had, so they aren't very open to new information that might show they could have done better, and they keep spreading the same advice that was given to them.

In short, it seems there is a lot of potential for myths about diamonds to spread widely and have significant effects upon price.

If it is a myth that fluoro is a large danger, then my guess is that the myth will be around for a while, but not forever. This would make fluoro stones a bargain, because they would be likely to gain in value somewhere down the line. And in the meantime, those who buy them will have something with aesthetic value equal to that of non-fluoro diamonds with higher market value.

What do the experts think about this? Are stones with fluoro a bargain or a risk? Or a bit of both?

 

[pricescope]

(highlight is mine):

"Probably the main reason fluorescent diamonds are discounted is that the presence of the comment on a cert makes it just

A lesser known reason is that some lab diamond grading lights emit a small amount of ultra violet light, so blue fluorescent diamonds are sometimes assigned a better grade than they really should.

Avoid very strong blues unless you can actually compare them side by side with non-fluorescent diamonds in shaded daylight. You may find like me that strong and medium fluoro diamonds have an extra life of their own. If they come a little cheaper then this is a bonus.

Rarely diamonds fluoresce yellow or orange. Avoid them unless you can personally eyeball them in a variety of lighting environments."[/u]

 

[student]

Thanks for the link, Leonid. Is there something missing after "just"?

 

[pricescope]

"We believe the main reason fluoro diamonds are discounted is because of the effort required in explaining it to customers and the staff in a store."

 

[Rook]

I am not a fan of flou. but I have met some women who like a strong flou. It is different and adds charachter like Leonid said. One thing I do like about flou, is it gives you one more identification characteristic of your diamond to help insure that you know your diamond!!

Just a thought

 

[Rook]

www.demsjewelers.com/index.php?submenu=diamonds&src=gendocs&link=Fluorescence

Another good article on fluo.

Leo, how do you make this a link?

 

[geno]

Thanks for the feedback