| Is
Your Jeweler a Crook?
Jane
was walking through the jewelry district in downtown Los Angeles
when she spotted a store called Diamonds Galore. She had come
from Fresno, California on a business trip and wanted to take
advantage of some free time to find a diamond ring for her
husband. Diamond, Galore had a nice selection of men's rings
in their display window, so Jane went in to have a look.
Mabel,
the owner, showed her a number of rings. Jane finally found
one she liked, but she didn't know if it would look good on
her husband. Mabel said not to worry because e% -en if her
husband didn't like it, it was such a great buy that the ring
could be sold to a jeweler in Fresno for double its cost.
This sounded like a good deal to Jane, so she bought the ring.
As
Jane suspected, the ring wasn't what her husband wanted. She
took it to some jewelers in Fresno, and the most they would
give her for it was about one-third what she paid. The weight
and the quality of the diamonds and gold in the ring were
as Mabel described them, and the price of the ring seemed
fair when compared to the retail prices of similar rings in
Fresno.
Nevertheless,
Jane thought Mabel was a crook who had misled her into buying
a ring by making false claims about its value. If this were
a true story, would Jane be correct in her judgment of Mabel?
According to guidelines established by the Federal Trade Commission
in the United States, Jane would be correct. Deception of
any kind is a fraudulent practice, even when it involves only
the future value or resale potential of jewelry. In fact,
when anyone sells jewelry for purposes of financial investment,
they must inform the buyer that "appreciation or profit
cannot be assured" and that "no organized market
exists for the resale of jewelry industry products by private
owners."
They would give
when
one considers
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