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Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#311

Post by lotsofpulp »

astura wrote: post #307
lotsofpulp wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the opposite in my opinion. The richer the social circle, the less people care about stuff like diamonds or 2 months salary (which I never even heard of outside of online discussions). A diamond ring is barely a notable expense for a dual six figure earning couple.

>(which I never even heard of outside of online discussions). Here's some ads from the 1980s advocating for two months salary - https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/media/images/74843000/jpg/... http://cdn.cavemancircus.com//wp-content/uploads/2020/08/dia... https://yourdiamondteacher.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/De...

I'm sure the jewelry businesses were peddling it, but I don't recall it ever being mentioned amongst people as if it were a cultural thing. Then again, maybe women talk about this kind of stuff, whereas men don't.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#312

Post by duckfang »

I got my wife a ring made of YAG and platinum setting. I got a custom cut, and designed the ring myself.

The YAG (yttrium aluminum garnet) is https://www.stagandfinch.com/product-page/Paraiba-YAG

It looks like nothing else out there.. And she's happy that we didnt contribute to the slave and blood diamond trade.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#313

Post by woofcat »

float4 wrote: post #302
woofcat wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I'm not understanding a lot of the sentiment here. I suppose if you're a fresh grad, or not making a ton of money. However if an engagement ring's cost is some barrier to getting married... perhaps you're too young to get married? Life is expensive, and between cars, house, the actual wedding, kids, etc. The money I spent on my wives engagement ring seems like child's play. Also I feel like most women want it,…

> Also I feel like most women want it, because it's what everyone asks of them. To me it feels more like a classic case of mimetism: all beautiful / successful / happy / rich people have a diamond ring, so most women naturally want one too. It's not really about fear, but more about a strong desire to have the same object as your role models.

Perhaps mimetism. Do you lump say all fashion under that category as well?

I think there is an unofficial "pecking order" of society. People treat you differently if you roll up in a new Mercedes vs a new Honda. If your purse is a Louis Vuitton or a Walmart brand. They all functionally do the same thing, but society uses these things to lump people into camps.

In that same regard, I've seen women who are not materialistic seem embarrassed to show off their modest ring which is wrong. I think a lot of people treat engagement rings in the same way as designer bags, and nice cars.

We can say it doesn't matter, but if society ranks you differently I think it does matter on some level.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#314

Post by astura »

jogjayr wrote: post #262
grw_ wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The economics behind diamonds are better explained by an sociologist, not a geologist- the high cost and useless-ness of the gift are a feature not a bug! The burning of significant amount of wealth is a costly signal of commitment to the receiver. I heard from a friend who worked at a diamond company (and as such could purchase stones with significant discount to market price) that his fiancée had specifically rejec…

> The burning of significant amount of wealth is a costly signal of commitment to the receiver. So why not buy something practical and expensive? Like a house or a car?

Because houses and cars are useful, the GP pointed out that being uselessness is the entire point

>the high cost and useless-ness of the gift are a feature not a bug

The other thing is the marketing says diamonds are "forever," presumably like your love, but houses and cars require expensive maintenance and are easily damaged. Not good if you're buying something symbolic.

Not that I personally agree, far from it, we didn't make any jewelery purchases when we got married.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#315

Post by bluedevil2k »

faet wrote: post #227
tda wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was an article the other day that talked about the resale value of diamonds. Basically jewelers refuse to buy back diamonds at any reasonable price (compared to original retail value. And refuse to make new rings with old diamond etc. So there is very little market for second hand diamonds. Sounds like a business ready to be disrupted Edit: Found the article: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/15/fashion/jewelry-d…

Diamond prices are fairly stable, the issue is jewelers mark prices way up and most people don't know what a good price is. If a diamond goes for $5k wholesale, chances are they're looking to sell it for $10-20k. Since most people only buy 1-2 engagement rings in their lifetime they don't know what is a reasonable price. They "shop around" at three stores that are all owned by the same company. So they end up paying…

This is all correct! I've worked in the diamond business for almost a decade now and see people complain on HN and Reddit constantly about diamonds all while barely understanding the industry at all. The common complaint of "you can't sell them for what you paid" is a dumb complaint because they don't understand the HUGE markup the stones receive at retail.

Here's the profit margins that the stones receive along the way: - Miners selling to cutters - 10-15% profit - Cutters selling to wholesalers - 3-5% profit - Wholesalers selling to retail - 10-20% profit - Retail to consumers - 100-200% profit

Everyone on these threads is always mad at the miners and I never see any anger placed on the Jared's, Kay's, Zale's of the world (all owned by the same company btw).

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#316

Post by warmwaffles »

cyberpunk wrote: post #3

Married members of HN, what did you do if you think diamonds are utterly ridiclious however due to societal constraints some kind of ring is required for your SO?

Instead of a diamond ring, I went with a saphire ring. My wife likes blue and it was all I could afford at the time (~$800). She loved it either way and knows we were dead ass broke at the time and doesn't complain.

She works as a physical therapist now and wears a silicon ring because she bent the wedding ring giving CPR to a patient in a hospital a few years ago (patient lived).

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#317

Post by hobs »

sandworm101 wrote: post #263
vagrantJin wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Okay class, child labour, a few thousand poor people dead, terrorist groups starving hundreds of thousands, destroying schools and libraries. That is where diamonds come from. How many would still want a natural diamond because diamonds are forever?" The elephant in that lecture hall was probably the hypocrisy. I think if you still raise a hand after hearing all that, the issue isn't branding at all. It's narcissim,…

Don't apply logic to fashion choices. Why do some sneakers sell for thousands? It is all about the attached backstory. Two identical shoes, but one was owned by a celeb. The backstory, the notoriety of owning the embodiment of that backstory, is the value. Some people want to own something 'from the earth'. Some would even pay more for an object that people suffered to produce. Lots of people certainly pay more for o…

>Don't apply logic to fashion choices

Fast fashion is literally harming the earth, screw everyone who says that and thinks about that, I absolutely reject it and we SHOULD apply logic to fashion choices that directly harm us and our planet.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#318

Post by WhompingWindows »

qw wrote: post #104
joeblau wrote: post #65

Random diamond story! As a freshman in college, I took a geology class and our teacher asked all of the women in our class to raise their hand if they would rather have natural or human-made diamonds. Most of the women (over 80%) raised their hands for natural. The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Then our teacher gave another analogy. He asked if people would ra…

It's mostly about the emotional attachment. If you find two identical pens, and one of them was used by a famous writer, you would expect a price difference. There is no difference in the quality of those pens. They both work the same, and using the writer's pen will not make you a better writer by itself. I personally would not buy a natural diamond because of the ethical issues, but I do understand the students who…

I don't think your metaphor of a famous writer's pen is apt. For that to work, we'd have to be able to reproduce writer's pens in a lab for less money and less ethical violation. Probably a better analogy would be using some rare squid ink vs. using manufactured chemical ink.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#319

Post by kingsuper20 »

vagrantJin wrote: post #197
qw wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's mostly about the emotional attachment. If you find two identical pens, and one of them was used by a famous writer, you would expect a price difference. There is no difference in the quality of those pens. They both work the same, and using the writer's pen will not make you a better writer by itself. I personally would not buy a natural diamond because of the ethical issues, but I do understand the students who…

"Okay class, child labour, a few thousand poor people dead, terrorist groups starving hundreds of thousands, destroying schools and libraries. That is where diamonds come from. How many would still want a natural diamond because diamonds are forever?" The elephant in that lecture hall was probably the hypocrisy. I think if you still raise a hand after hearing all that, the issue isn't branding at all. It's narcissim,…

I'd say it's more like:

"Okay class, a very small percentage of diamonds are made via child labour, a few poor people dead, terrorist groups etc while most are made via modern mining practice. That is where diamonds come from. On the other hand, a successful marketing campaign has occurred declaring that all natural diamonds are made by torturing children. It may well be that your iPhone's supply chain causes more misery. How many would still want a natural diamond because diamonds are forever?"

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#320

Post by Loughla »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #290
Loughla wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think everyone kinda knows about synthetic diamonds, they just don’t care. I 100% disagree. The stigma around cubic zirconia and 'fake' jewelry is real and alive, and absolutely carries over to any kind of man-made gems. I also don't think most people have any idea at all about the issues in the gem trade. Source: My highly educated co-workers who were astounded to read about conditions in emerald mines after Elon…

what does elon musk have to do with emerald mines?

There was the story about Elon Musk's family ties to apartheid and an emerald mine in like 2017-2018. That's where that comes from.
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