I have wanted a 3k Diamond plate for quite some time, ever since the late Ken Schwartz made a 3k Diamond plate for Michael Christy. The price was $10.99 on
Amazon. I used it new out of the packaging, and it left a finish a little south of the DMT 8k Mesh (3u, ~4k-5k JIS). The diamond surface seemed uniform and set firm in the plate, unlike some cheap diamond hones I have gotten that shed the diamond surface pretty fast. All in all, not a bad deal for the price. The plate is very thin, so it needs to be placed in a stone holder or on a block to be used easily.