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

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

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 270 posts

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

#81

Post by Someone »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #62
paxys wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good Rolex at least has a thriving resale market, and can actually increase in value over time. Same for a lot of other luxury goods as well as other stores of value (like gold or Bitcoin). Diamonds on the other hand are effectively worthless the moment they leave the store. Their high prices are a product of marketing and social pressure, nothing more.

I agree with the rest but... > Diamonds are effectively worthless the moment they leave the store That's not the case! You can have the stone removed from the ring and, in case you don't have the original certificate, sent to a certification authority (like GIA) to have it graded. I think it also, once graded, gets automatically laser-engraved (above a certain carat) but I'm not sure about that: maybe you need to pay…

> I think it's mandatory that every lab-grown diamond above a certain carat are laser-engraved

https://www.gemsociety.org/article/lab-grown-diamonds-faq:

“Many lab-made diamonds have an inscription that identifies them as lab-made.

Diamonds can also have a lab report number inscribed on the girdle”

I think it’s very likely that, If that “above a certain carat” were true, that page would have mentioned it.

I also cannot think of a good argument why it would be reasonable to require producers of artificial diamonds to add such markers.

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

#82

Post by Xcelerate »

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 want a lab grown diamond in the shape of a giant wafer. That way I can build a pan around it and use that to cook food in. That incredible thermal conductivity is wasted sitting in a piece of jewelry.

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

#83

Post by OkayPhysicist »

paxys wrote: post #50
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,…

I personally find the decision to buy lab grown diamonds to be weirder, because if you are already thinking logically rather than emotionally and can resist the social pressure then why waste money on a diamond at all? There are plenty of gems or metals out there that are cheaper, prettier, more rare and hold their value better than diamonds (whether natural or lab grown).

If you like the shininess of diamonds, they're really hard to beat on the "pretty" front. Diamonds have a crazy internal refractive index, which, once exemplified by an appropriate cut, gives them a pretty unique shininess. The only gems that come close are substantially softer, meaning they lose they lose the precise cuts that give them the extra shimmer relatively quickly.

Don't enrich Russia by buying mined diamonds, but there's definitely a compelling argument for lab-grown ones.

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

#84

Post by RandomLensman »

paxys wrote: post #45
londons_explore wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> effectively worthless the moment they leave the store I hear this a lot... But where can I buy a massive diamond 2nd hand for a few bucks?

Look at it the other way. If you have a diamond in good condition, can you sell it anywhere for "market price" the same way you would gold or silver? No, because the rock is not rare, and there's basically no way to verify its origin outside of the store. Look up Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace in your area and you'll find plenty of cheap listings for diamond jewelry. Will you really take a chance on any of them t…

Large, good quality diamonds are rare, smaller ones not so much (certain colors aside).

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

#85

Post by hammock »

londons_explore wrote: post #40
paxys wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good Rolex at least has a thriving resale market, and can actually increase in value over time. Same for a lot of other luxury goods as well as other stores of value (like gold or Bitcoin). Diamonds on the other hand are effectively worthless the moment they leave the store. Their high prices are a product of marketing and social pressure, nothing more.

> effectively worthless the moment they leave the store I hear this a lot... But where can I buy a massive diamond 2nd hand for a few bucks?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bid%E2%80%93ask_spread

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

#86

Post by ChainOfFools »

scottiebarnes wrote: post #79
ChainOfFools wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because lab grown diamonds are naturally grown, unless humans are supernatural.

humans are natural, therefore all human creations and processes are natural? so my plastic bottles are naturally grown?

Naturally made, yes. the specific process called "grown" would better apply if there was, say, a plastic bottle-fruiting plant, but whether that plant was designed by humans or simply found by them in the environment does not change whether it is natural.

There is no such thing as natural versus unnatural, this dichotomy is a holdover from the time when we believed there was another plane of reality outside or distinct from the "natural" universe, which was somehow tainted by flaws unique to humans, being creatures with one foot in both realities.

I realize it sounds like a technically correct Internet argument of the nitpick variety, but I think that the norm of asseting an unchallenged bias toward "natural," and against "artificial," could use a general reassessment as it is constantly exploited by people using this ultimately baseless distinction as a way to bias opinion uncritically toward one kind of behavior or another.

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

#87

Post by nelgaard »

londons_explore wrote: post #40
paxys wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good Rolex at least has a thriving resale market, and can actually increase in value over time. Same for a lot of other luxury goods as well as other stores of value (like gold or Bitcoin). Diamonds on the other hand are effectively worthless the moment they leave the store. Their high prices are a product of marketing and social pressure, nothing more.

> effectively worthless the moment they leave the store I hear this a lot... But where can I buy a massive diamond 2nd hand for a few bucks?

Not a few bucks, but for 10 percent of the valuation/retail price:

https://www.konkurser.dk/search/?s=diamant

It is in Danish, but it is bankruptcy auctions, the high price is the valuation (typically the retail price before bankruptcy), the low price is the final highest bid, all in DKK.

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

#88

Post by irrational »

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 purchased a 1 carat diamond ring for my now-wife in the mid-1990s for $600. For our 25th wedding anniversary my wife and I designed a new solid gold ring using Moissanite stones that cost about $700. She loves her new ring and everyone thinks the stones are real diamonds. We've even had jewelers comment on her diamond ring. I truly don't understand why anyone would go with diamonds these days.

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

#89

Post by gnicholas »

irrational wrote: post #88
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 purchased a 1 carat diamond ring for my now-wife in the mid-1990s for $600. For our 25th wedding anniversary my wife and I designed a new solid gold ring using Moissanite stones that cost about $700. She loves her new ring and everyone thinks the stones are real diamonds. We've even had jewelers comment on her diamond ring. I truly don't understand why anyone would go with diamonds these days.

Where did you get the stones, and did the jeweler who built the new ring care at all?

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

#90

Post by willcipriano »

zokier wrote: post #23
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…

Lots of things have happened in the 40 years since that article was written. De Beers do not control the market anymore the way they did before. Wikipedia says > De Beers's market share of rough diamonds to fall from as high as 90% in the 1980s to 29.5% in 2019 > De Beers sold off the vast majority of its diamond stockpile in the late 1990s – early 2000s and the remainder largely represents working stock (diamonds th…

[flagged]
Post reply on HN