Please Discourage Me on this Stone!

[JewelFreak]

Tell me something that makes it not a good buy! I have been visiting it for 2 wks on its website & it's more than I should spend. If I buy it I'll have to hang around the house to beat my husband to the door when it comes & tell him the package is dog medicine or something.

Heliodor, 4.8 ct. 11mm x 9mm, depth not noted but you get an idea in pic. Untreated. He gives it a 5 out of 5 for clarity. $1150.


Also, the color change sapphire below: I love the colors but is it so dark it would black out in low light? Umba sapphire, 1.4 ct, VVS, untreated, 6.87mm x 6.84 x 4.08. Marked down to $440. Pics taken in flourescent light & outdoors in shade. (Have another in incandescent but it isn't allowed to post 5. Similar to outdoor in color but shows about the same brilliance as the flourescent pic.)

Both are from reliable vendors per you folks. Thanks for your advice to a newbie.

--- Laurie

 

[chrono]

Ooh…time to put on my disabler cap.

Heliodore:
1. Light saturation so it’s more of a muted yellow rather than bright yellow.
2. Big stone so the setting might cost more. I cannot tell the depth from the picture due to the angle.
3. It looks very "boring" face up? The step cut doesn't take full advantage of the RI of the stone.

CC sapphire:
1. Very little shift?
2. Shows a gray modifier (yeah, I know the price reflects it but I’m trying to disable you, all right?)
3. Dark toned?

 

[jleb]

Hi, I can help.

First off that heliodor has a green masque/overtone. You don't want that in helidor, it lowers the value. You just want a nice clean yellow/golden yellow. They are generally very clean/flawless so don't let that influence your decision. Also it's overpriced imho. Not worth $200 / ct. and as chrono said, needs more saturation.

Sapphire has a grey masque from over reduction of the Iron at some point in either natural or man made heat treatment. Thus you get the steely grey overtone in it. When done correctly you get the nice blue we are familiar with. You can do better.

 

[T L]

I have heard/read that heliodors can be irradiated to a yellow color, so that's something to consider if treatment bothers you. That seems incredibly expensive for a heliodor. Honestly, I think $50/ct is too expensive for a heliodor

 

[T L]

Hi, I can help.

First off that heliodor has a green masque/overtone. You don't want that in helidor, it lowers the value. You just want a nice clean yellow/golden yellow. They are generally very clean/flawless so don't let that influence your decision. Also it's overpriced imho. Not worth $200 / ct. and as chrono said, needs more saturation.

Sapphire has a grey masque from over reduction of the Iron at some point in either natural or man made heat treatment. Thus you get the steely grey overtone in it. When done correctly you get the nice blue we are familiar with. You can do better.

Really? I thought the green overtone didn't matter. I would think you wouldn't want too much grey or brown, whether it's golden yellow or greenish yellow.

 

[chrono]

I have also read somewhere that a green tinge really lowers the price of heliodor as well. Might be a good time for me to check up on this.

 

[JewelFreak]

Oh, thank all 3 of you! The heliodor was the one I really shouldn't afford -- very glad to hear you say it's overpriced. The slight green tint lowering value was something I didn't know -- great! They seem often to tend toward brownish, which is icky. It is untreated, so whatever is there is there. I sure wouldn't pay that for a treated stone, in fact wouldn't buy a treated stone. But I figured there had to be a reason it hasn't sold in a fair bit of time.

The vendor says the sapphire doesn't show the gray these often have. As we've said, it's impossible to tell on a monitor -- in fact, I set up a new computer yesterday & find colors on this monitor a little different from the old one. Anyway, my concern on that is not its price unless it's gonna be too dark, which it looks like it might. Or show gray, as you mentioned.

--- Laurie

 

[smitcompton]

Hi,

I have a yellow helidor just under 2 carats. It is a beautiful, yellow yellow.(no green or brown) It has been irradiated and it cost me $ 8.00

I do like it, but won't set it.
Annette

 

[Fly Girl]

Oh, thank all 3 of you! The heliodor was the one I really shouldn't afford -- very glad to hear you say it's overpriced. The slight green tint lowering value was something I didn't know -- great! They seem often to tend toward brownish, which is icky. It is untreated, so whatever is there is there. I sure wouldn't pay that for a treated stone, in fact wouldn't buy a treated stone. But I figured there had to be a reason it hasn't sold in a fair bit of time.
--- Laurie

Don't want to encourage you, or anything, but the vendor of the heliodor says it is a beautiful pure canary yellow. So I would check with him before assuming that the gemstone is greenish in real life.

 

[ValentinesJewelryDesign]

Oh, thank all 3 of you! The heliodor was the one I really shouldn't afford -- very glad to hear you say it's overpriced. The slight green tint lowering value was something I didn't know -- great! They seem often to tend toward brownish, which is icky. It is untreated, so whatever is there is there. I sure wouldn't pay that for a treated stone, in fact wouldn't buy a treated stone.
-------------------------------------------------
More stones are treated than you might think! A common misconception is that most Blue Topaz is a natural color....and the list goes on!

Matt

 

[diva rose]

Did you see Gary's yellow sapphire? If you are going to spend big $$ - I'd go for that one.

http://www.finewatergems.com/new-gemstones.html