Well, I went out and spent more money on a rug than I ever thought I would. Before I put down what I spent, I'd appreciate if a couple folks could give me an estimate so I'll be able to kick myself or pat myself on the back. I will say that I spent >3 hours negotiating and feel like I wore the seller out, plus having a friend with me who spoke Farsi probably didn't hurt. I got the rug for 7000 AED less than the next lowest price on a comparable size/style combination (although I liked mine much better).
The thing that really got me on this rug was the way they intermingled the colors in the background. Instead of a solid brown background, it's like a dot matrix of darker and lighter browns. I used a better camera for this one and all those details should show in the pictures. I also included a picture of the back zoomed way in with a ruler so you can help me estimate KPSI, I counted 24 across for 576; however, the seller insisted that some of those knots were doubled up so my personal count was low, I'd like to hear from an unbiased observer.
Thanks for looking!
msdunkel attached the following image(s):