Jewelry mix of the design and the elegance

The LA Times this week has an attention-grabbing piece on jewelry auction site Bidz.com – which is surely one of the biggest jewelry sellers on the Internet. According to this appearance, it sells 15,000 items per day, of mostly close-outs. It eventually hopes to be a $1 billion business. It is easy to see why. Bidz is a amusing website. They do have some amazing things on there for auction. It has impressive technology that lets you see prices rise before your eyes.  But the now-public company has found itself on the defending because of allegations of, among other things, “shill bidding.”  Those charges have been disputed, and the enterprise notes they mostly came from a commentator who was short the stock.

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Zale Corp. on Thursday reported that second-quarter income fell 31 percent to $52.7 million year-over-year, which comprised a $2.5 million, optimistic effect related to derivative accounting treatment for the corporation’s gold and silver contracts. Total revenues for the period, ended Jan. 31, for the Dallas-based firm were $828 million, compared to $892 million in the prior year, a decrease of 7.2 percent. Same-store sales fell 7.3 percent.

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