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Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

bbc.co.uk

161–170 of 686 posts

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#161
The diamond industry managed to convince consumers that diamonds are rare, highly desirable, and something that traditionally one gives as an engagement ring. None of those are particularly true.

They’re nice gems but true traditionalists generally prefer other gemstones. It’s about time the world moves on from the mined diamond charade.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#162
post #137
post #65

Random diamond story! As a freshman in college, I took a geology class and our teacher asked all of the women in our class to raise their hand if they would rather have natural or human-made diamonds. Most of the women (over 80%) raised their hands for natural. The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Then our teacher gave another analogy. He asked if people would ra…

Diamonds are precious partly because they're rare. If you find a way of 'making' a diamond it loses some of that value. It's interesting to me that someone would even try making a comparison between a precious stone and something like water/ice which is mostly desired for utility and not any sentimental reason.

But the rarity leads to intensive mining and human rights abuses. There's a good kind of rare (like say, an original painting, bought from the artist) and a bad kind of rare.

Sentiments can change. Diamonds will not become unemotional, but the emotional reaction will likely go into reverse soon.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#163
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does anyone, other than geologists of course, really care about the back-story of the diamond, how it was created and how it was mined? Yes, very much so, as is the case with all lifestyle products. People want to believe that they’re buying something special.

Really? I've never met anyone that talked about it at all. Maybe I don't have conversations about diamonds very often, but people only ever seemed concerned that they were 'real', and latterly that they were conflict-free. > People want to believe that they’re buying something special. What if it turns out they're not?

Jewelers provide certifications when buying diamonds. They'd be a) on the hook if they sold counterfeit products, and b) they wouldn't be able to sell anymore because of a tarnished brand.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#164
post #65

Random diamond story! As a freshman in college, I took a geology class and our teacher asked all of the women in our class to raise their hand if they would rather have natural or human-made diamonds. Most of the women (over 80%) raised their hands for natural. The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Then our teacher gave another analogy. He asked if people would ra…

The economics behind diamonds are better explained by an sociologist, not a geologist- the high cost and useless-ness of the gift are a feature not a bug! The burning of significant amount of wealth is a costly signal of commitment to the receiver. I heard from a friend who worked at a diamond company (and as such could purchase stones with significant discount to market price) that his fiancée had specifically rejected the idea of receiving a stone from his company on the grounds that it being 'discounted' devalued the gesture.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#165

Married members of HN, what did you do if you think diamonds are utterly ridiclious however due to societal constraints some kind of ring is required for your SO?

We bought an antique one, containing two diamonds and a nice large amethyst. Because the diamond secondhand market trades at such a detriment to new ones this was very affordable.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#166
post #137
post #65

Random diamond story! As a freshman in college, I took a geology class and our teacher asked all of the women in our class to raise their hand if they would rather have natural or human-made diamonds. Most of the women (over 80%) raised their hands for natural. The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Then our teacher gave another analogy. He asked if people would ra…

Diamonds are precious partly because they're rare. If you find a way of 'making' a diamond it loses some of that value. It's interesting to me that someone would even try making a comparison between a precious stone and something like water/ice which is mostly desired for utility and not any sentimental reason.

They’re actually not all that rare. Big Hope Diamond stones yes, but your run of the mill variety that 99.9% of people have are not all that rare. The “rarity” comes mostly from the the tight grip a small number of companies have over mining and production of raw stones. You can make tap water “rare” if you run the waterworks.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#167
post #65

Random diamond story! As a freshman in college, I took a geology class and our teacher asked all of the women in our class to raise their hand if they would rather have natural or human-made diamonds. Most of the women (over 80%) raised their hands for natural. The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Then our teacher gave another analogy. He asked if people would ra…

He should have explained about DeBeers. That would have brought the number of raised hands down.

The ice analogy is a bit faulty because no one is eating their diamonds and the impurities are technically advantageous (though most people want the shiny "perfect" diamond which are much easier to come about artificially).

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#168
post #137
post #65

Random diamond story! As a freshman in college, I took a geology class and our teacher asked all of the women in our class to raise their hand if they would rather have natural or human-made diamonds. Most of the women (over 80%) raised their hands for natural. The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Then our teacher gave another analogy. He asked if people would ra…

Diamonds are precious partly because they're rare. If you find a way of 'making' a diamond it loses some of that value. It's interesting to me that someone would even try making a comparison between a precious stone and something like water/ice which is mostly desired for utility and not any sentimental reason.

The "rarity" is mostly marketing too.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#169
post #65

Random diamond story! As a freshman in college, I took a geology class and our teacher asked all of the women in our class to raise their hand if they would rather have natural or human-made diamonds. Most of the women (over 80%) raised their hands for natural. The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Then our teacher gave another analogy. He asked if people would ra…

Would you rather buy a Banksy NFT Or JPG of a Banksy they are the same image at a fraction of the cost?

You can turn around and resell a Banksy for something comparable to what you just paid.

Try doing that with a diamond. You walk out of the diamond showroom with it, and its resale value plummets to the value of the base metals, the work of the setting, plus a small fraction for what you had just paid for the diamond.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#170

Married members of HN, what did you do if you think diamonds are utterly ridiclious however due to societal constraints some kind of ring is required for your SO?

Engagement rings are rings of ownership - They are a marker to tell other prospective suiters that the wearer is is 'off the market' and belongs to someone else. If you think you are any kind of forward thinking person, you would not be on board with this archaic practice at all. Also, De Beers invented[1] the concept of diamond-based engagement rings back when diamond jewellery sales were at an all time low, as a bu…

It's disingenuous to proclaim that this is the only meaning - every person and culture that uses rings in this way applies their own meaning to it.

That said, when I was deciding whether or not I, as a male, wanted a wedding ring, this was exactly the reason that convinced me. I got married much younger than average and liked the idea of being visible "'off the market' and belongs to someone else."

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