Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? (1982)

theatlantic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 239 posts

Re: Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? (1982)

#141

Post by Nick_C »

Gustomaximus wrote: post #104

Great read. Amazing what wealthy interests can do to a market. I had to smile at the ending: "By the mid-1980s, the avalanche of Australian diamonds will be pouring onto the market. Unless the resourceful managers of De Beers can find a way to gain control of the various sources of diamonds that will soon crowd the market, these sources may bring about the final collapse of world diamond prices. If they do, the diamo…

I've held a plastic bag of raw Australian diamonds -- they look like dirty grainy sand. Almost all of the Kimberley pipe's output is industrial quality, not gem quality, although the pink gemstones are very nice.

Australian gem quality output was never going to seriously disrupt De Beers, just challenge them a bit. That was known at the time, and I'm slightly perplexed why The Atlantic's article says what is does.

Re: Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? (1982)

#142

Post by instakill »

elwin wrote: post #34
HorizonXP wrote: post #26

Wow, absolutely brilliant. I can't believe this article popped up on HN's front page tonight. I just got back from looking at engagement rings with my girlfriend. I've known about this monopoly for a while, and so has she. Heck, one of the first movies we watched together when we first started dating 7 years ago was Blood Diamond. Here's the conversation we had while in the jewellery store tonight. Me: "Sweety, I rea…

> I swear, De Beers has probably pulled off the greatest marketing stunt in the history of humanity. De Beers has the advantage of selling a luxury good. The point of buying a diamond is to demonstrate one's financial ability. People don't really want cheap diamonds. I doubt their marketing campaign is a good pattern for normal products.

Their products are Veblen goods, economically speaking.

Re: Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? (1982)

#143

Post by confluence »

htf wrote: post #140
confluence wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free markets always tend towards monopoly/oligopoly/cartel structures in the long term - because the firms that do so retain their pricing advantage (profits) and the firms that don't - die. I have to think that the idea of free/natural markets has to be one of the greatest tricks ever pulled by anyone at any time (next to communism). Markets are artificial and restrictive for a reason - they're created by government…

> Free markets always tend towards monopoly/oligopoly/cartel structures in the long term - because the firms that do so retain their pricing advantage (profits) and the firms that don't - die. Can you give any example? > Free/natural markets are probably one of the greatest lies ever sold. What do you mean? Free markets are not a lie. There are tons of free markets. If I buy bread at the supermarket, I can choose amo…

Any industry that makes money will tend towards this in one form or another. This does not mean that there are no competitors or independents not making money - it merely means the vast majority of the market is consumed by a few companies/brands who set the prices and keep price floors.

Bread is an example of a cartel structure reinforced with marketing, economies of scale (monopoly) and previous consumer buy in. You can choose from multiple brands - but you'll notice the price of bread isn't falling very quickly - it's an implicit pricing pact - you can undercut your competitors - but not for long, and definitely not forever.

Re: Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? (1982)

#144

Post by dkobia »

HorizonXP wrote: post #26

Wow, absolutely brilliant. I can't believe this article popped up on HN's front page tonight. I just got back from looking at engagement rings with my girlfriend. I've known about this monopoly for a while, and so has she. Heck, one of the first movies we watched together when we first started dating 7 years ago was Blood Diamond. Here's the conversation we had while in the jewellery store tonight. Me: "Sweety, I rea…

I read a similar article right before I married my wife. Trust me when I say it's a losing battle trying to rationalize how we've been duped by marketing. You'd have to convince both her and her social network... Good luck with that.

Re: Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? (1982)

#145

Post by nasmorn »

HorizonXP wrote: post #26

Wow, absolutely brilliant. I can't believe this article popped up on HN's front page tonight. I just got back from looking at engagement rings with my girlfriend. I've known about this monopoly for a while, and so has she. Heck, one of the first movies we watched together when we first started dating 7 years ago was Blood Diamond. Here's the conversation we had while in the jewellery store tonight. Me: "Sweety, I rea…

Buy her the moissanite and deBeer stock worth the price difference. It is just as pretty, shows your financial prowess and will pay for a year of your future childrens college.

Re: Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? (1982)

#146

Post by confluence »

andyjsong wrote: post #135
confluence wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free markets always tend towards monopoly/oligopoly/cartel structures in the long term - because the firms that do so retain their pricing advantage (profits) and the firms that don't - die. I have to think that the idea of free/natural markets has to be one of the greatest tricks ever pulled by anyone at any time (next to communism). Markets are artificial and restrictive for a reason - they're created by government…

> Free markets always tend towards monopoly/oligopoly/cartel structures in the long term - because the firms that do so retain their pricing advantage (profits) and the firms that don't - die. This might be true, but short term profits are still attractive to people who want to disrupt the industry. If I discovered a significant diamond mine in my backyard, I'd undercut the inflated prices of the current cartel befor…

I completely agree. But you'll become the next De Beers eventually - if you want to survive.

"You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

-- Batman

Re: Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? (1982)

#147

Post by mng2 »

jcastro wrote: post #19
tptacek wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is just you. That article is a classic in long-form investigative journalism.

That's how I started figuring out it wasn't a recent article. I ran into this link from the G+ HN circle and didn't see a mention of the date. Then about 1/3 of the way through I started thinking "what the hell, no article can be this long", then I looked at the date. A great read though, it does a lot to remind us how articles used to be back in the day before our current attention spans.

It's more a function of the magazine the article runs in. Mags like the Atlantic and the New Yorker still run plenty of long-form journalism.

Re: Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? (1982)

#148

Post by guard-of-terra »

HorizonXP wrote: post #26

Wow, absolutely brilliant. I can't believe this article popped up on HN's front page tonight. I just got back from looking at engagement rings with my girlfriend. I've known about this monopoly for a while, and so has she. Heck, one of the first movies we watched together when we first started dating 7 years ago was Blood Diamond. Here's the conversation we had while in the jewellery store tonight. Me: "Sweety, I rea…

"That's what everyone gets" sums it up.

If a person is content to get something "what everyone gets", they are good to be defrauded while supporting labor violations in some third word country. Accepting "what everyone gets" is a real no-go, it's a surefire way to measure a person up. "Too light".

Me and my wife, we got outselves a pair of titanium rings for the wedding. They look downright alien, everybody asks about them on sight. But all those opportinities are lost to you once you accept "what everyone gets"

Re: Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? (1982)

#149

Post by raleec »

jquery wrote: post #57
majormajor wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trick is to turn a less luxurious good into a luxury good. Which is rather like what they did. Cars are an area where this is really common. BMW doesn't bring their lower end stuff into the US. Toyota created Lexus to be a luxury brand. Or there's the pricier sorts of bottled water...

> Or there's the pricier sorts of bottled water... Tell me about it. On my honeymoon in Maui I accidentally spent $9 on a bottle of water at Ferraro's.

It was "complementary" with an "e"...

Re: Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? (1982)

#150

Post by pbhjpbhj »

Tichy wrote: post #95
icelancer wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A belief in a higher power can easily be a rational decision.

Interesting: how can a belief ever be a rational decision? Isn't it irrational by definition?

All things you think you know are ultimately founded on axioms, beliefs.

Why do you trust sense-data to be real? Brains in vats, holosuites, yada-yada ...

Post reply on HN