Do you remember May 2008? That’s when we reminded our readers to get their claims in to get their piece of the $135 million class-action settlement against diamond miners, merchants, and pseudo-monopoly holders De Beers. Since then, class members have been waiting for their settlement checks. And waiting. Then waiting some more.

Periodically, readers would write in to ask whether we had heard of any checks getting cut. No, we hadn’t: until now. Yes, that’s five years later. Reader Sean was the first to let us know. He filed a $3,000 claim over his overpriced shiny objects, and now has a check in hand for… 48 bucks.

Imagine my excitement when I see a piece of mail from the Diamonds Claims Administrator today. The five year wait for the DeBeers settlement is over! I remember the discussions long ago with people estimating claim returns of 10 to 20, maybe even thirty percent. My total? Forty-eight dollars on a claim that was over $3000.

Talk about a let down. I think I wasted more money of that in time just reading the case updates on the website over the past five years.

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