The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge • Hacker News Board

Re: The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

#121

Post by eru » Mon, Nov 13, 2023, 4:12 AM UTC

SamBam wrote: post #73

squigz wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get what?

That the diamond industry has convinced people that the amount of money you spend show the worth of your love? Tell you what, I can set up a website that sells moissanite for 10x their retail price if you like. Give me a day to set up a Square account and you can buy from me.

Buying from your website might burn the requisite amount of money, but it wouldn't be conformist enough.

Signalling conformity with social norms is also important to some people.

Re: The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

#122

Post by yial » Mon, Nov 13, 2023, 4:12 AM UTC

biglyburrito wrote: post #80

brink wrote: post #3

I would like to take this moment to thank https://diamondssuck.com/ for preventing me from buying my wife a diamond, and getting her a much prettier moissanite instead. It's been on hn's front page several times.

I just did some cursory searching, and moissanite still seems pretty expensive. Am I missing something?

On Etsy, I see some 2 ct equivalent rings in sterling for as low as $40. Loose cut stones for as low as $7.50.

However, being in the market myself, I do think for a nice setting and stone you will pay $500-$1,500 for them if looking or certain cuts (kite cut as an example), sets, or styles.

Re: The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

#123

Post by lazycouchpotato » Mon, Nov 13, 2023, 4:13 AM UTC

kmeisthax wrote: post #96

wolfgang42 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This happens if you use 1.1.1.1 as your DNS resolver, the result of a long-running dispute between Cloudflare and Archive.is[1]; searching HN for “archive cloudflare” will get you lots of discussion. As I understand it: the technical cause is that the Archive.is authoritative DNS server refuses to respond correctly to requests without EDNS subnet information, and Cloudflare’s resolver refuses to send requests with it…

Sooooo the weird thing for me is that I never actually used 1.1.1.1, and it's not in my DNS. archive.today loads correctly in Chrome without a problem so I suspect Firefox is just using 1.1.1.1 over DoH or something.

That might just be the case. You can try switching to NextDNS within Firefox's settings.

Re: The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

#124

Post by eru » Mon, Nov 13, 2023, 4:14 AM UTC

climb_stealth wrote: post #104

Loughla wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, second hand diamond and other gemstone jewelry seems like such a missed opportunity. I feel like people would go for it, with the new focus on sustainability and what-not. I wonder why that's not a thing?

It can feel like a bad luck kind of thing. Basically the only reason someone would have to sell their wedding rings are divorce or some other downturn. And don't want to invite bad luck by buying it. Similar to not buying clothing from someone deceased or a wedding dress from someone divorced. Can argue that this is not very rational. But much about the wedding process isn't :)

> Basically the only reason someone would have to sell their wedding rings are divorce or some other downturn.

That's why your shop should only sell the weddings rings from people who had a long and successful marriage and died peacefully in their sleep at age 95.

Re: The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

#125

Post by jimbob45 » Mon, Nov 13, 2023, 4:14 AM UTC

smt88 wrote: post #99

ta93754829 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Do you, uh... want to explain? It's definitely a cringy, antiquated phrase, but it doesn't seem harmful. People with wives should tie their own happiness to their wife's, shouldn't they?

I always thought it was an observation that people (often men) tend to underestimate how involved and intertwined in their lives their partners are. To these men, having a newly-happy wife improve their life seems like magic. To outside observers, it seems blatantly obvious that having the person you live with be happy will improve your life.

Re: The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

#126

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Nov 13, 2023, 4:16 AM UTC

selcuka wrote: post #116

twelve40 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Currently the US government holds 8,134 metric tons of gold in reserves. You can call it "hording" (whatever that means) but clearly someone thinks it's worth keeping half a trillion dollars worth of the country's money in it.

> You can call it "hording" (whatever that means) Isn't it "hoarding" (acquiring an excessive number of items and storing them in a chaotic manner)?

[deleted]

Re: The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

#127

Post by shiroiuma » Mon, Nov 13, 2023, 4:17 AM UTC

xwdv wrote: post #41

Diamonds are worthless, but reject them at your own peril. When my friend proposed to his girlfriend of 3 years, because the ring didn’t have a diamond she said no.

He avoided a doomed marriage to a shallow woman. It's just too bad he wasted 3 years on her.

Re: The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

#128

Post by toast0 » Mon, Nov 13, 2023, 4:17 AM UTC

climb_stealth wrote: post #104

Loughla wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, second hand diamond and other gemstone jewelry seems like such a missed opportunity. I feel like people would go for it, with the new focus on sustainability and what-not. I wonder why that's not a thing?

It can feel like a bad luck kind of thing. Basically the only reason someone would have to sell their wedding rings are divorce or some other downturn. And don't want to invite bad luck by buying it. Similar to not buying clothing from someone deceased or a wedding dress from someone divorced. Can argue that this is not very rational. But much about the wedding process isn't :)

Just gotta market it right. Maybe section off by length of marriage and dissolved by death or divorce.

A 60 year marriage, ended by death of one spouse shouldn't be unlucky. Especially if it was actually the death of both spouses in some tragically romantical way.

Re: The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

#129

Post by climb_stealth » Mon, Nov 13, 2023, 4:19 AM UTC

eru wrote: post #124

climb_stealth wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can feel like a bad luck kind of thing. Basically the only reason someone would have to sell their wedding rings are divorce or some other downturn. And don't want to invite bad luck by buying it. Similar to not buying clothing from someone deceased or a wedding dress from someone divorced. Can argue that this is not very rational. But much about the wedding process isn't :)

> Basically the only reason someone would have to sell their wedding rings are divorce or some other downturn. That's why your shop should only sell the weddings rings from people who had a long and successful marriage and died peacefully in their sleep at age 95.

Haha, yes indeed. It'll be the free-range eggs equivalent for buying jewelry. Ethically farmed from happy wedded couples.

Re: The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

#130

Post by bradknowles » Mon, Nov 13, 2023, 4:21 AM UTC

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #86

xivzgrev wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guys, buying diamonds, can complain all day about what a rip off it is (it is). But if you apprise your fiancé of the alternatives / opp costs (moissanite, man made, second hand, etc) and she still wants a new diamond, just get her a new diamond. It will make her happy for years. My wife had her heart set on a pink diamond, so that’s what I got her. I made it clear though that if I got this, she is not getting a new…

I tend to agree. This falls in the same realm as a fancy wedding versus a trip to a courthouse to get married. Some couples are fine with going to a courthouse, others will never accept it even if they have to borrow to accomplish it. When it comes to big weddings there is no such thing as a smart expense. Most couples would be better off by going to a judge to get married but that just can't be accepted by many. Dia…

My wife and I had a pretty expensive wedding. You could buy a nice car for that amount. It wasn't supposed to be that way.

But we were living in Europe at the time, and the wedding was going to be in Maryland, so we had to get a wedding coordinator to make it go well. And she introduced us to florists, chefs, photographers, etc....

She helped make that wedding the best it could possibly be, and I don't regret any of the money we spent. Nor does my wife. That was one of the best events we have ever participated in, and over the decades we still get positive comments from our friends who were present there.

So, yeah. It was a lot of money. But we feel it was money well spent.