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The diamond world takes radical steps to stop a pricing plunge

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131–140 of 619 posts

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

#131
post #4

Has anyone ever tried to sell an engagement or wedding ring with diamonds? You get cents on the dollar. Even or I should say especially brand names like Tiffany. The whole thing is a scam from start to finish and I wish I could go back in time and avoid the entire thing.

That's the whole idea. There is no secondary market for diamonds - it's not a scarce resource. Scarcity is completely artificial, combined with decades of marketing campaigns.

"Diamonds are forever". Yeah, they are - because once you buy it, you can't really sell it to break even, let alone make a profit. Gold has natural market price fluctuations at least.

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

#132
post #49

These threads are always great for men posting about how their wives love the imitation stones “just as much” and “I didn’t foolishly spend money.” As always, if it worked for your marriage, it worked, but many of us can sniff out a fake from across the room. And it will always look tacky and cheap and she will be wearing it, in theory, the rest of her life. I have visited exactly one jeweler in my life that set man…

Nobody can tell a lab grown diamond vs real by eye. They are the same. With the right lab equipment you might be able to tell the difference through some fluorescence or other very hard to perceive property. Honestly, what gives away lab grown diamonds is probably the lack of inclusions which mean they are "too" perfect.

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

#133
post #99

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?

>People with wives should tie their own happiness to their wife's, shouldn't they?

No, this invites emotional manipulation and abuse: "do/don't do this or you'll make me unhappy".

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

#135
post #99

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?

> People with wives should tie their own happiness to their wife's, shouldn't they?

I think it's more that the expectation that husbands exist to serve their wives is harmful.

Be honest, do you really think a phrase meaning "keeping your husband happy and satisfied would make your life better" is not harmful?

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

#136
post #49

These threads are always great for men posting about how their wives love the imitation stones “just as much” and “I didn’t foolishly spend money.” As always, if it worked for your marriage, it worked, but many of us can sniff out a fake from across the room. And it will always look tacky and cheap and she will be wearing it, in theory, the rest of her life. I have visited exactly one jeweler in my life that set man…

Wearing a man’s wealth on a finger is tacky too. Goes both ways.

It's tacky when it's your own wealth, too.

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

#138
post #49

These threads are always great for men posting about how their wives love the imitation stones “just as much” and “I didn’t foolishly spend money.” As always, if it worked for your marriage, it worked, but many of us can sniff out a fake from across the room. And it will always look tacky and cheap and she will be wearing it, in theory, the rest of her life. I have visited exactly one jeweler in my life that set man…

I've been married 17 years, and we got a mined diamond engagement ring in a quality setting and quality wedding bands, and I don't really regret it. But for various reasons, we stopped wearing the rings, and that's not uncommon. It is kind of silly to spend so much money on pretty symbolism, especially if it ends up on a ring holder or in a drawer.

If the alternatives look tacky and cheap, which I'm willing to admit they might, even if I can't tell... the rational choice is to skip the symbols all together, or maybe just simple, quality, not terribly expensive wedding bands.

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

#139
post #16

It's about time. Even more useless than gold. Hopefully it's next, though at least it's somewhat fungible and has a small industrial use.

> Even more useless than gold.

Diamonds are excellent heat sinks and that's increasingly often used for electronics:

- https://www.powerwaywafer.com/diamond-heat-sink.html

- https://www.coherent.com/news/blog/diamond-heat-spreaders

Not to mention that gold is one of the most useful metals out there, just several orders of magnitude too expensive.

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

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone wants to spend $20,000 on a rock so that their spouse isn’t “embarrassed in front of her friends.”

Sure, but calling them your spouse then not giving a crap about their feelings is not fair. You were free to marry someone else, who thinks more in line the way you do.

You are making unjustified assumptions.

I am a person who doesn't wish to spend $20,000 on a rock so that my wife won't be embarrassed in front of her friends. And that is why I chose to marry a woman who thinks that spending $20,000 on a rock is a silly thing to do.

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