Field report · 097
Why we disclose treatments on every listing
The trade's quiet rule says you don't have to disclose universal treatments. We disagree, and here's our case.
The colored-stone trade has a quiet convention about treatment disclosure: when a treatment is so universal that nearly every stone in a category has been through it, the trade considers disclosure optional. The reasoning is that the disclosure has become redundant — everyone in the trade knows.
By this convention, the following don't need to be disclosed:
- Blue topaz is irradiated (because virtually all is)
- Tanzanite is heated (because all of it is)
- Most commercial citrine is heat-treated amethyst
- Most commercial smoky quartz is irradiated
- Most ruby and sapphire are heated
The convention assumes a buyer who is familiar with these trade norms. For a buyer who isn't (which is to say, most retail buyers), the convention creates an information asymmetry: the seller knows; the buyer doesn't; the trade considers this acceptable.
Why we disclose anyway
Three reasons.
First, the convention is wrong about who it's for
If 95% of buyers don't know the convention, the convention doesn't serve buyers — it serves sellers who'd rather not have to explain treatments at every transaction. Disclosure costs us perhaps thirty seconds per listing. The information cost to the buyer of NOT being told is potentially significant: they may make different decisions about price, about choosing untreated alternatives, about wearing or storing the stone.
Second, the convention degrades trust
When a buyer learns — months or years after purchase — that their stone was treated, the discovery often produces frustration directed at the seller. "Why didn't you tell me?" The convention's defense — "the trade considers this disclosure-optional" — is technically valid and emotionally hollow.
Trust in retail is hard-won and cheap to lose. Disclosure is a small cost paid up-front to preserve a relationship that's potentially decades long.
Third, the convention assumes treatments are negligible
For most heat-treated and irradiated stones, the treatment doesn't affect performance — the stone is durable, color-stable, and visually identical to untreated equivalents. But:
- Oiled emerald can deteriorate over time and need re-oiling
- Lead-glass-filled ruby is genuinely compromised — it's a composite stone, not a pure ruby
- Dyed stones (some lapis, agate, turquoise) can fade or shed dye
- Some buyers genuinely prefer untreated material for personal or collector reasons
The convention treats all treatments as if they were heat treatment of tanzanite (permanent, undetectable, irrelevant to performance). They're not all that.
What this looks like in practice
Every listing on our site has a Treatment field. Possible values:
- No treatment — verified untreated, with documentation
- Heated — declared heated by source; supported by inclusion analysis when relevant
- Irradiated — declared
- Heated and irradiated — both
- Oiled — with notation of oil type if known
- Dyed
- Stabilized / impregnated
- Treatment status unconfirmed — when our source couldn't or wouldn't disclose, and lab verification isn't economical
What this costs us
Disclosing treatments costs us some sales. Buyers comparing stones across sellers see our stones labeled "Heated" while a competitor's identical stones don't have that label. To the un-informed buyer, our stone may seem inferior — same stone, more disclosure, same price.
We accept this cost. The buyers we want are the ones who care about disclosure. The buyers who don't, often discover they do, eventually, and come back.