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July 29, 2007
That's Quite a Rock
Wall Street Journal
Retail prices for rough-diamond jewelry vary considerably, from $600 for a small uncut diamond set in a stainless steel ring at De Beers to $750,000 one-of-a-kind necklace of pearls and rough diamonds by Frank Gehry at Tiffany.But because some of the usual key standards for assessing a diamond's value, such as cut and clarity, don't apply to uncut stones, it can be tough for consumers to evaluate pricing. "It's pretty much a blind purchase for consumers," says Tom Moses, a senior vice president at Gemological Institute of America, which set the widely used "4C" standards (cut, color, carat and clarity) for cut diamonds. The institute doesn't have a system for evaluating uncut diamonds.
NoLandGrab: The "4C" standard can also be applied to the Atlantic Yards proposal: tax Cuts, division on Color lines, Clarity of the public process, and the dangling Carat. (ok, wrong carrot, but try finding a pun on carat!)
Posted by amy at July 29, 2007 10:12 AM