Do you know if that shell is seamless? Black Beauties are seamless and, as far as I know, the only non-cast brass shells that are. There are quite a few Black Beauty knock-offs out there - Pork Pie Big Black, Pearl SensiTone Elite Brass, even Ludwig's Black Magic, to name just a few. By looking at that picture, I can see that the snare throw is identical to the Pearl (which I own) and Pork Pie's, so I wouldn't assume that the Gretsch shell is seamless. I couldn't find it in their brochure, but it would be worth finding out about. Also, I noticed it has only 8 lugs instead of 10 - not necessarily a bad thing...
Anyway, that's a lot of money for some gold hardware and a SF signature badge. You could get a Black Beauty for less than that (the real McCoy), or one of the others I mentioned, which are likely equivalent (sans bling), for 1/3 of what Gretsch is asking. All I can think of is that must be real gold.
(sorry if I sound like a killjoy)