Many jewelers have created web pages and are selling to their customers via the Internet. A check of many of these sites uncovers some valuable information for consumers, and occasionally other jewelers can glean valuable information from them, too.

One such site is that posted by New Spirit Jewelers and Crystal Gallery, Shorewood, WI. The page itself is well organized and contains information about jewelry offered by the company, along with considerable material on the subject of crystals. Several links to other jewelry-related topics are included, and for fun, you'll find a few pages of jewelry jokes.

But the section that could be of most interest to jewelers is the one titled "Diamond Alert." Click on this and you'll find a discussion about laser drilling of diamonds, and another link will take you to the full text of the recently-released Federal Trade Commission guidelines on disclose of laser-drilled diamonds. If you have patience and can wade through some legalese, it makes for some interesting reading, especially some of the remarks from people in the jewelry industry who responded to the call for comment.

The authors, store owners Diane Vandeveld and Mike McKnight, are quite critical of the final decision handed down by the FTC, saying they are too soft. This is interesting, because at the beginning of the page, they indicate that they do not sell diamonds as part of their normal product mix. So why devote so much of their web page to the subject? In their words, addressing their customers, "Why should you care? Well it's your hard earned money you spend."

- by Jack Heeger