Paul Deasy Spills the Beans about Technibond!

Technibond. That word will cause fights to break out. It's a loaded word in certain circles. The best deal in gold jewelry or the biggest bunch of bubble-gum-machine-crap ever manufactured. Which is it???

Paul Deasy has spilled the beans on what really happened with the controversial line:

I was at HSN when technibond was originally launched. There have been many changes over the years. The first product was 18kt over sterling silver with a very thin polymer coating over top of that. This made it hypo-allergenic and helped to prevent the gold from coming off. This also is why the original product had a lifetime guarantee. Then somebody in their infinite wisdom decided to save money and not put the coating on. The resulting disaster nearly killed the product line. Then they fixed the problem for a couple of years. When I returned to HSN, they changed the formulation again and switched to 14kt gold over sterling silver. They also discontinued the guarantee. The bottom line? I figure that over time with wear the gold may begin to come off. That being said, I think for the price it is a pretty good value, especially with the cost of gold today. If you want something with a bit more gold over silver, always look for something classified as vermeil. That has a minimum standard (120 mils of gold over silver) and should last a bit longer.

And what does he think of QVC's plated jewelry lines?

I always liked the epiphany collection. Platinum clad over silver makes lots of sense to me, as far as helping anti tarnish. The only downside there, is when you are coating with platinum you can't size rings, but that is a very minor point. I like the veronese, but I admit I am not up to speed on what is the thickness of 18kt over the silver. I can find out, though, as I know very well the person who brought it to QVC.

So, in reality, EVERYONE WAS RIGHT! It really was that good and it really did get that bad. I just wish that these shopping channels would get it through their collective thick skulls that their customers aren't as dumb as they'd like to think they are (or wish they were anyway).

ETA: Click here to find out what Paul and Judy are up to now!