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HOW TO BUY DIAMONDS 355
diamonds
among many small dealers and some large ones, enables cutters and
importers to market a considerable quantity of not altogether
desirable goods at profitable prices, it is also true that the
customers of the uninformed dealer know less about them, so that the
public pays for his errors.
The
diamond dealer is often confronted with problems as ludicrous as they
are difficult. One, a short time back, received in the morning mail, a
letter from a retail jeweler, saying that he had a customer for a
blue-white, perfect carat stone, and that he could pay a hundred and
twenty-five dollars for it. " Kindly send one such on memorandum." As
the dealer would have liked to buy such stones for twice that amount,
he was somewhat disgusted. " What do you think of such an order as
that?" he asked of an importer who was present, tossing the letter
across the desk for his perusal. The importer, after reading it, handed
it back, remarking quietly : " Of course the man knows very little
about diamonds. Send him the best you can for the money and say
nothing." The dealer did so. Shortly after, he received a check for the
price of the stone with a letter thanking him for sending such a fine
stone, and assuring him that the writer would certainly send to him
any further orders he might have for diamonds.
Though
diamond rough, during the reign of the London Syndicate, has had a
definite price, from the time it leaves their hands and is cut, values
begin to vary. Cutting, assortments, and prices differ. All cutters
and importers have cheap lots and dear lots, the dealer, therefore,
must have good judgment and use it, to be most successful. If he is
successful as a poor buyer he would
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