Well…here we go again ! This morning’s NBC early news carried a
story to the effect that the Zale Corporation is pulling all it’s
tanzanite off the shelves because of its purported link to
terrorism. If this has the effect that I think it might, it is going
to cause a monumental hatred of America in East Africa. It also will
incur enormous losses by the people in the trade who have large
investments in the stone.
If the truth were known, you could be sure that the noble ( Sic! )
action of the Zale Corporation was based on ulterior motives. One is
the fact that it is , in all probability, a headline grabber
deliberately designed to curry the favor of those who still carry a
burden of grief and dismay about the WTC disaster. The other, as I
strongly suspect, is that they ( The Zale Corporation ) have
probably had a big return rate as a result of their indiscriminate
use of this very fragile stone. ( I would never use it in anything
but earrings or pendants…they’re just not suitable for rings.! )
Based on my own personal knowledge and experiences in East Africa I
know that Tanzanite is a freely traded commodity and is not
dominated by any narrow segment of the market. On the other hand, it
would be very naive for anyone to assume that ANY special interest
group or politically motivated person would not freely pursue his or
her own best investment opportunities. Sadam Hussein ,at one point
in time, had a major investment in Elle magazine. I am quite sure
that one would find that big money of all political and/or religious
persuasions invests heavily in any stock market that will show them
the best returns. Ron at Mills Gem, Los Osos, CA.
Once again, IF the stone is being bought up directly from the miners
by Al Queda like US intelligence has claimed then this is a
reasonable response. I personally would not want to buy tanzanite
right now until the sources become a little more clear. Granted I am
very small time in comparison on this list, but it does afford me the
ability to choose what I will and won’t carry (ah the joys of
catering to a small special interest group). I am not that worried
about East Africa changing there opinion of us. For one thing they
don’t exactly like us over there already. We lost the PR war a LONG
time ago - just look at the events in the area, read the daily news
from that area (the BBC has great links). I have known several
people that have gone over there and done business over there. From
what they have said, opinions will not be changed by this.
I for one will be grateful that there will be fewer C grade pale
purple grey broken or worn in 6 months rings out there. The price of
tanzanite, for its color and properties was driven far beyond
reasonable limits long ago. I prefer sapphires, garnets and basically
tougher stones. Even Iolite is to be preferred because at least with
that it is priced like a soft non durable stone.
JMHO,
Alicia Miller
Ron, You are right.They are doing this as a stunt.In the first place
has anyone seen the Tanz they are selling it is the dredge of the
barrel.Very,very pale.Iam sure it has not financed anything but the
pockets of Zales upper management who are like all the rest of the
chain store industry raping I er mean reaping great profit from the
unknowing public(I happen to work for a similar chain)taking all they
can from the shareholders and jumping a sinking ship that they have
helped to sink to move on to another company.It is probably memo
merch anyway that they had to return after Christmas.What a Joke.How
about removing the Conflict Diamonds then they could change their
name to Watch world.But wait.What if Binladen was involved in the
manufacturing of Quartz movements? Keep it Real J Morley Coyote
Ridge Studio