that does help. I was looking in to the eddy meters but as you said, they are expensive. I think I'm on the right track, as I've dipped some test pieces in to gasoline, brake cleaner, and lacquer thinner, and in the end, I found out that it cleans the piece pretty well!
no color runs (yay!)
I tried a simple abrasive test on it as well, just simply took two pieces, one anodized and one not from the same stock, and tried to scratch one another. the anodized piece remained flawless.
If anyone has any other suggestions on testing for quality, I'm all ears!!!