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Lab-Grown Diamonds Come into Their Own

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51–60 of 110 posts

Re: Lab-Grown Diamonds Come into Their Own

#51
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There already is, it's called De Beers. It's exactly because of the artificially inflated price that the mining practices are damaging.

Once I learnt more about De Beers, I'm wondering if there is any other product that one could pull of such stunt and make themselves billionaires? Step one - find a rare mineral that at this point has value close to zero. It is rare but worthless. Step two - obtain monopoly on mining it or control it as much as you can (buy spots with dense occurrence, etc) Step three - throw money at important and powerful people (s…

[deleted]

Re: Lab-Grown Diamonds Come into Their Own

#52
post #32

The fact that there is so much concern over how to differentiate mined diamonds from grown diamonds seems like insanity to me. I understand that the diamond trade has a vested interest in differentiating, but why would end consumer care? They're the exact same product to the unaided eye. This is a purely emotional response. I guess the thing that bothers me the most is that it's a misguided emotional response -- it s…

a large part of the point of a diamond is the emotional response. It's not just about how it looks, it's about how rare it is, even if only you know it.

Re: Lab-Grown Diamonds Come into Their Own

#53
Let's give Moissanite a new catchy, less complex name. Else, it will remain unknown.

I propose the name Moon Stone.

Star fire would have been great but it'll be confused with Sapphire.

See ffg for effect of company name pronunciability on market share, stock price, brand value...

http://m.pnas.org/content/103/24/9369.full

http://russelljame.com/Fluency_JFE_2013.pdf

Re: Lab-Grown Diamonds Come into Their Own

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's a Mossanite" "...a...what-a-nite?" "A Mossainite. Artificial, spurious, not-genuine and it's worth....fuck all"

Diamonds aren't worth much because they're actually not that rare. The only reason they command the price they do now is because of the De Beers cartel. The "diamond alternative" meme is becoming increasingly popular with our generation, such that I predict that in a few generations nobody will care to buy "real" diamonds for engagement purposes. When this happens, the price of diamonds will fall dramatically (if it…

almost nobody cared about diamonds 3 generations ago too. marketing, nothing more.

when I see women boasting with their ground diamond jewelry they are telling me couple of things: a) they are a bit ignorant; b) they have sheepish crowd mentality; c) they put too much emphasis on what others thing about themselves, which just shows other personality issues; d) and most importantly they are willingly supporting genocide and enslavement for all above

which is OK, good to know immediately who you are dealing with

Re: Lab-Grown Diamonds Come into Their Own

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imperfection are naturally formed, you cant naturally create imperfections that just become by definition artficially created imperfections.

Well, what if it's done randomly? (like, by software that controls the machine that grows it) Or, modify the growing process so that it has a greater element of chance to it? (this is likely multi-dimensional)

Whatever randomization isn't natural (and it can't be completely random as it needs to look natural). But it's not really the point.

A diamonds primary value is the history of it's making. People are unfortunately always going to be paying more for a diamond which has been digged out by hard labour than created in a lab.

Keep in mind the value of diamonds is mostly a perceptive one. I am pretty sure if you only did synthetic diamonds it would soon fail to be valuable as the "womans best friend"

Re: Lab-Grown Diamonds Come into Their Own

#56
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There already is, it's called De Beers. It's exactly because of the artificially inflated price that the mining practices are damaging.

Once I learnt more about De Beers, I'm wondering if there is any other product that one could pull of such stunt and make themselves billionaires? Step one - find a rare mineral that at this point has value close to zero. It is rare but worthless. Step two - obtain monopoly on mining it or control it as much as you can (buy spots with dense occurrence, etc) Step three - throw money at important and powerful people (s…

> I'm wondering if there is any other product that one could pull of such stunt and make themselves billionaires?

Maybe not exactly billionaires, but

If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion. :)

Re: Lab-Grown Diamonds Come into Their Own

#57

This is wonderful! I can't comprehend the need to mine for diamonds any longer. Such a dangerous, dirty, damaging practice. It is sad to see that the industry is trying to paint these as inferior. I would love to see some sort of tariff or sanction placed on mined diamonds to make them restrictively expensive. There is simply no need for them any longer.

Not all diamond types/classes are being manufactured. Synthetic diamonds will always be different from natural stones specifically because they lack natural imperfections. Not everyone wants perfection.

> Not everyone wants perfection.

Really, diamond is one of those stones where it is the less true. Partially because of brilliant marketing, partially because in such a tiny clear stone the effect is mostly to dull it (speaking of it physical characteristics, not the emotional response).

That is not the case in Rubies or Sapphires. Emerald is meant to have imperfection.

Re: Lab-Grown Diamonds Come into Their Own

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's a Mossanite" "...a...what-a-nite?" "A Mossainite. Artificial, spurious, not-genuine and it's worth....fuck all"

Diamonds aren't worth much because they're actually not that rare. The only reason they command the price they do now is because of the De Beers cartel. The "diamond alternative" meme is becoming increasingly popular with our generation, such that I predict that in a few generations nobody will care to buy "real" diamonds for engagement purposes. When this happens, the price of diamonds will fall dramatically (if it…

It was a movie reference though.

Re: Lab-Grown Diamonds Come into Their Own

#59

I've been running a lab-grown diamond company since 2005. I'd be happy to answer any questions in the morning.

Do the lab grown diamonds come out of the process as the cubish shape as rough diamonds? Do you still send them off to be cut/polished by 3rd parties? How do you sell them?

Re: Lab-Grown Diamonds Come into Their Own

#60

Let's give Moissanite a new catchy, less complex name. Else, it will remain unknown. I propose the name Moon Stone. Star fire would have been great but it'll be confused with Sapphire. See ffg for effect of company name pronunciability on market share, stock price, brand value... http://m.pnas.org/content/103/24/9369.full http://russelljame.com/Fluency_JFE_2013.pdf

Moonstone already exists.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonstone_(gemstone)

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