But my wife is really happy with her $250k diamond. Saved my ass on many occasions!
Diamonds Suck
101–110 of 171 posts
Re: Diamonds Suck
#102This is wrong:
> 3. A diamond is an illiquid asset, not an "investment". Don't believe me? Try to sell a second-hand diamond ring on eBay or at a pawn shop. Do you really think you'll get anything close to what you paid for it?
Yes you'll get close to what you paid for it if you buy it the same way jewelers buy it. There's an ultra liquid market for diamonds: a friend jeweler showed it to me. He needs a diamond to make a ring? He goes on a website where diamonds are sorted by their four Cs (clarity/cut/color/carat) and their price and all guaranteed legit. And he buys it at market price.
Of course if you overpay 3x the price by buying the diamond as part of a complete ring, you're sorry out of luck.
Now the diamond market may crash too, but that is another topic.
If your wife/fiance really insists on having a diamond: find a reputable jeweler and tell him you want to pick the stone with him, on such a site. And that you're willing willing to pay for the ring and his craftmanship but that you don't want to pay the stone 3x the price for what is actually two clicks for him.
Heck, you can even bring your own stone to the jeweler (I did it, with a family heirloom diamond). You can even bring a picture of a famous brand and say you want the same shape of ring: they're not supposed to do it but they'll gladly copy the famous ring (I didn't do that but I know someone who did).
BTW while you're at it buy a diamond that comes with a certificate.
And if you want to pay 1/5th of the price: then buy a lab-grown diamond instead of moissanite for 1/10th of the price. To me moissanite is a bit too shiny.
While a lab-grown diamond or a "real" diamond are the exact same thing.
See user glimshe 's comment in this thread.
Re: Diamonds Suck
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you have lots of money and like fancy rings, sure, go for it! If you just finished your college, sit on a big pile of student loans, work in your first job and then spend several months of income on a shiny rock, then that is a bad financial decision, no matter whether you love diamond rings or not. (And from what I hear, this situation happens a lot, due to social pressure and "desired social status".)
I personally would never even think of denying a poor graduate from trying, however clumsily, to impress the girl he fancies with some unaffordable ring. Bad financial decision? Maybe. Story of beautiful romance? Absolutely.
> Story of beautiful romance? Absolutely.
Going into unaffordable debt for a trinket is a story of beautiful romance to you? That's just profoundly sad.
Re: Diamonds Suck
#104My partner and I specifically avoided diamonds (and ultimately all gemstones) for our engagement rings. We went for unobtrusive silver rings, then shelled out for good quality gold wedding rings from a craftsperson we both knew. I think we spent about $1500 on rings in total and, can you believe it, our marriage has not fallen apart because we didn't spend thousands of dollars getting shiny rocks for our fingers.
Well, you did spend 1.5 thousands of dollars... I know people who buy a car for that price
I've bought cars in that price range, but I wouldn't say any of them were "forever".
Re: Diamonds Suck
#105This is wrong: > 3. A diamond is an illiquid asset, not an "investment". Don't believe me? Try to sell a second-hand diamond ring on eBay or at a pawn shop. Do you really think you'll get anything close to what you paid for it? Yes you'll get close to what you paid for it if you buy it the same way jewelers buy it. There's an ultra liquid market for diamonds: a friend jeweler showed it to me. He needs a diamond to ma…
> If your wife/fiance really insists on having a diamond:
... rethink whom you are marrying and maybe the practice of marriage itself.
Re: Diamonds Suck
#106I, as a European, cannot fathom how anyone would spend a significant amount of money on an engagement ring! The engagement rings we got ourselves cost 18$ and were made from wood. After all, they only need to last a few months, or maybe 1-2 years, until the wedding. Regarding the wedding ring, I can understand slightly better how someone would put a bit more money into that, considering that you wear it for life. But…
But surely doing whatever works for you is OK? Some people love "creating memories", some people love to have more "social status", some love $4 wooden rings, some love $40K diamond rings; everyone is different, let all the flowers bloom. (De Beers are still the big baddies though)
Social status is positional and follows arms race dynamics. Everyone would have more money and nobody would suffer worse ring-positional-status if everyone spent proportionately less.
Also, there is a deep body of economics and psychology literature describing how individual spending decisions are sometimes suboptimal in predictable ways, particularly that we under-value experiential purchases.
It doesn't contradict general "live and let live" principles to think that cultural emphasis on positional goods is bad, nor that individuals might be better off if they made different consumption choices.
Re: Diamonds Suck
#107This is wrong: > 3. A diamond is an illiquid asset, not an "investment". Don't believe me? Try to sell a second-hand diamond ring on eBay or at a pawn shop. Do you really think you'll get anything close to what you paid for it? Yes you'll get close to what you paid for it if you buy it the same way jewelers buy it. There's an ultra liquid market for diamonds: a friend jeweler showed it to me. He needs a diamond to ma…
Also, jewelery is a luxury, an indulgence ideally bought to feel good and enjoy. If you treat luxury goods as investment, unless your job is buying and selling luxury goods, you are already out of luck from the very start.
Re: Diamonds Suck
#108The real question is, Josh are you still married? This was originally written in 2006.
Re: Diamonds Suck
#109This is a socially engineered marketing racket. The earth diamond peddlers came out with a laser mark/blemish visible under a microscope to create a non fakeable brand for earth diamonds and are trying to hold those as a premium 'natural' product. A desperate rear guard action to preserve their racket - that is what it is, - a racket https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racketeering
isnt all of marketing socian engineering?
Re: Diamonds Suck
#110The diamond tradition became a ridiculous cultural trait, buy lab-grown diamonds can help greatly mitigate the wastefulness of regular natural diamonds. I don't think Moissanite is the right replacement - they have too much of the so-called "fire", almost too sparkly as the article shows. I think Moissanites are inferior to diamonds in appearance in my personal, subjective opinion. Lab-grown diamonds, however, can be…
>I think Moissanites are inferior to diamonds in appearance in my personal, subjective opinion. Yeah, same. They have too much bling and look exactly like something the nouveau riche would parade around. To make things worse, moissanite jewellery usually has too many gems, something you couldn't afford with diamond.
> To make things worse, moissanite jewellery usually has too many gems, something you couldn't afford with diamond.
That is a bit hilarious. The fact that you couldn’t afford it with diamonds makes it worse? Am I misreading you there?