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Diamond prices are in free fall in one key corner of the market

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Re: Diamond prices are in free fall in one key corner of the market

#161

Post by sva_ »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #117
another_poster wrote: post #102

A good analogy is ice. We all use “freezer-grown crystalline water,” but prior to the invention of refrigeration, we harvested natural ice from frozen lakes and stored them in ice houses for use throughout the summer. Sure, there’s some romance from hand-harvested ice, but you can’t beat the price and purity of ice from a freezer.

Ice from a freezer is extremely impure. If it was pure, you could see right through it, the same way you can with a pure diamond. (The freezer, of course, has nothing to do with this - it's the water you're putting into it that's impure.)

So are you saying you're only getting artisanal ice from the lake?

Re: Diamond prices are in free fall in one key corner of the market

#162

Post by OJFord »

Waterluvian wrote: post #71
OJFord wrote: post #5

It's crazy to prefer a natural diamond for anything other than a collectors' item. It's not about being 'cheap' - whatever your budget is, if you're picking an engagement ring say, why not get a technically superior (or larger) stone for the same price tag?

I dunno… it seems no less crazy than people who put “three months salary” on their finger.

My point is whether you use that or any other method to determine a budget, a lab-grown stone at that price will be objectively superior to a mined naturally occurring one at the same.

Or the cheeky version: use such a rule to determine the clarity, colour, etc. of natural diamond you want; then buy that lab-grown and pocket the difference.

Re: Diamond prices are in free fall in one key corner of the market

#163

Post by jncfhnb »

spiderxxxx wrote: post #41
slashdev wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I pitched this to my wife a few years back. She insisted she’d rather have a smaller natural diamond. It makes no sense to me. Shiny carbon is shiny carbon to me. There’s no real logic in it. But given it’s a status symbol that derives its value from its rareness, I suppose it’s no different than a Luis Vutton or a Rolex. It’s not about the function, it’s about the fact that you can afford one. I hate that mentality,…

Diamonds are not that rare. They're durable, so it's not like an old diamond is going to break or something. So, there should be plenty of diamonds for everyone who wants one. Rings made in the 1920s and up probably have some sort of diamond in it, and if you don't like the ring, keep the gem and craft a new ring around it. I prefer more rare stones, such as a padparadscha sapphire, or Alexandrite. I prefer to give m…

Not common until the 30s

Re: Diamond prices are in free fall in one key corner of the market

#164

Post by _huayra_ »

jncfhnb wrote: post #157
typest wrote: post #104

I just got engaged. When we looked at rings, the jeweler asked my fiancé if she wanted natural or synthetic, and she responded “I don’t want a blood diamond!!” Of course, mined diamonds aren’t blood diamonds, but her impression was still they were a little ickier. The jeweler told me that one reason to get a natural diamond was that the prices of lab grown diamonds had been falling, whereas natural hasn’t as much, so…

Go with moissanite. Vastly cheaper. Looks better.

But how on planet Earth will my wife carry around a moissanite ring that's worth the 3 months of salary I'm supposed to spend on this thing? That's a heck of a big chunk of mineral! A diamond is just more practical /s

Re: Diamond prices are in free fall in one key corner of the market

#165

Post by vorpalhex »

dbg31415 wrote: post #128
arcticbull wrote: post #7

De Beers basically controls the whole diamond market. They make it almost impossible to resell them and strictly control the supply. They were also responsible (via advertising agency N. W. Ayer) for the idea that diamonds should be used in engagement rings in 1938-1941. This write-up from The Atlantic from 1982 explains the situation well. [1] Not sad to see the cartel taking an L. [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/ma…

Adam Ruins Everything… https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N5kWu1ifBGU

"Adam Ruins Everything" is a really, really terrible source. I encourage you to take everything you've learned from it and throw it out entirely.

Every episode makes horrific errors, uses subpar sources if any, and frequently gets really basic facts wrong in an effort to "ruin everything" and weave a narrative.

Re: Diamond prices are in free fall in one key corner of the market

#166

Post by llsf »

fragmede wrote: post #113
slashdev wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, that makes sense. It’s not about the function, that’s for sure. > Misunderstanding that is a failure to understand essential human characteristics. I’ll add that to the list of human behavior that I don’t really understand.

That seems supremely othering. Do you have people in your life that you value over humans you don't know? What are the people you know, over the people that you don't, other than them being a meat bag that you know stories about, vs a meat bag that you don't?

At least people can tell their story I suppose, while a diamond cannot really once mounted on a ring (I guess you can get some certificate that tells a story, but it is not something obvious when looking at the ring).

Note: my engagement ring cost $12.00 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/TIGRADE-Titanium-Polished-Wedding-Com...

Re: Diamond prices are in free fall in one key corner of the market

#167

Post by Legend2440 »

vorpalhex wrote: post #165
dbg31415 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adam Ruins Everything… https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=N5kWu1ifBGU

"Adam Ruins Everything" is a really, really terrible source. I encourage you to take everything you've learned from it and throw it out entirely. Every episode makes horrific errors, uses subpar sources if any, and frequently gets really basic facts wrong in an effort to "ruin everything" and weave a narrative.

Any source that has a narrative in every episode should be automatically suspect.

Re: Diamond prices are in free fall in one key corner of the market

#168

Post by Waterluvian »

OJFord wrote: post #162
Waterluvian wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno… it seems no less crazy than people who put “three months salary” on their finger.

My point is whether you use that or any other method to determine a budget, a lab-grown stone at that price will be objectively superior to a mined naturally occurring one at the same. Or the cheeky version: use such a rule to determine the clarity, colour, etc. of natural diamond you want; then buy that lab-grown and pocket the difference.

I agree with you. My point is that logic clearly isn’t playing a role anyways. The origin of the stone, even if it’s fungible or even superior, likely has value to these people.

Re: Diamond prices are in free fall in one key corner of the market

#169

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

OkayPhysicist wrote: post #118
irrational wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When considering getting a Moissanite ring, I spent a significant amount of time researching the differences between diamonds and Moissanite, but I couldn’t explain or recognize the difference between doubly-refractive and singly refractive gems. We’ve even had jewelers who have looked at my wife’s ring and thought it was diamond. Admittedly that was a casual look and not a thorough appraisal, nevertheless, I doubt e…

Oh, looking at one or the other, almost certainly not. I mean that if you lined up 2 diamonds and a moissanite, I'd bet the average person would be able to pick out the odd one out.

Lie to them and say there's one diamond and they'd still pick the moissanite. Just being able to differentiate relatively with a biased test doesn't mean you can tell the difference one way or the other in absolute terms.

Re: Diamond prices are in free fall in one key corner of the market

#170

Post by [deleted] »

_huayra_ wrote: post #164
jncfhnb wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go with moissanite. Vastly cheaper. Looks better.

But how on planet Earth will my wife carry around a moissanite ring that's worth the 3 months of salary I'm supposed to spend on this thing? That's a heck of a big chunk of mineral! A diamond is just more practical /s

[deleted]
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