dashriproc1
55619
1738
14
Man-made diamonds continue to diminish the industry. Couldn't happen to a more deserving group of market manipulating assholes like DeBeers. Fuck 'em.
Sauce: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/05/diamond-industry-in-trouble-as-lab-grown-gemstones-tank-prices-further.html#:~:text=Dwindling%20diamond%20demand&text=The%20end%20of%20pandemic%20restrictions,all%2Dtime%20high%20in%202022.
SinisterSlaw
Diamonds are boring clear rocks.... Its only the jewelry industry convincing people that they are expensive.
thatsmeinanutshell
I’ve never understood why people prefer natural diamonds since lab made diamonds have been a thing. Lab made diamonds are cheaper, more ‘pure’ (less flaws), and you don’t have to worry about verifying the ‘anti slave labor’ certificates, which I still don’t trust.
SyntheticCK
The price they paid is as important as the thing itself. I once heard the phrase "Some people want a $500 burger." (bragging rights).
marsgoose
Well the suffering gives it the juju.
therenee
I bought a diamond in 2013, wanted a lab one but found that the lab diamonds were more expensive than natural. Now, yes, the lab diamonds were better grades, but I didn't care, I just wanted something that was "good enough" for my eye. Couldn't find a cheaper lab diamond anywhere in the Metro area. At least my diamond is from Canada (so they said) 🤷♀️
thatsmeinanutshell
Interesting. That was not my experience as of 2016. Maybe you were looking at box stores only? I think my ring was purchased through a website.
gablestout
This is not very representative of the diamond industry as a whole.
For GEMSTONE QUALITY diamonds, the only group that is down is the 0.5-1.0ct group. All others have dropped off, but are still rising at 3-10% year-over-year.
Meanwhile, over 80% of the diamond market (in dollars) is industrial, not jewelry, where the overwhelmingly dominant source is natural diamonds.
marsgoose
Ok but we had over 10% inflation year over year since covid. inb4 cpi and cope numbers in corporate press, I can see the price of grocieries every week
gablestout
U.S. inflation hasn't been over 10% since 1981, and the U.K. has only had YOY inflation over 10% once since 1982 (2022).
CompletelyUniqueUsername
Official* us inflation. Actual Is complex, but obviously higher.
gablestout
That IS the actual YoY inflation rate. https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/historical-inflation-rates/
RaxianTheta
ChelChehalem
Honestly, I don't care if it is a natural diamond, manufactured, or even another crystal including glass. Who cares? I'm an anomaly perhaps because I don't find gold all that exciting either.
KalmaWallu
Diamonds, outside of certain industrial and technical applications, are useless, the opposite of ecological, and so unbelievably unethical that I would never ever buy anyone a single stone even if I could afford it.
Kingdomonsterdeath
Diamonds are not a rare gemstone. If you want something special, buy an actual rare gem or mineral. Topaz, periwinkle, Amolite, and so many more. They are brilliant and beautiful! I got my wife's engagement ring with pink sapphires. They look amazing!
FarceMajeure
"You can't propose unless you spend two months salary on a diamond ring" Yeah, fuck that industry to death
Fanner50
It makes no sense that the proposal ring is the costly ring
coughingintensifies
Life hack: propose when you’re unemployed. That’s how I did it.
Dracology
I mean just think of the ring you can get someone when you switch that over to artificial diamonds. It becomes a selling point for their competition XD
statelessnfaithless
Two months salary can't even buy you one month's rent today, but sure, millennials / zoomers are killing the diamond industry or whatever
nikki10
.. along with the "upgrade it later" mentality. Everybody trying to keep up with the Jones'. My husband spent less than a week's salary, and I still thought it was too much lol. What happened to "It's the thought that counts"?
pwnedbill
Capitalism
BigJT
I went to school for jewelry design, and I was a certified gemologist and diamond grader, so trust me when I say that the diamond industry deserves to die. Exposure to the diamond industry was what started me down the road of anti-capitalism. The whole diamond industry runs (ran?) on artificial scarcity enforced by horrible companies and worse governments.
onetimepost9
Da Bears
donsterkay
DeBeers much?
FeloniousMonk13
Yes, from time to time, but more of a cannabis guy, myself.
donsterkay
LOL! quick thinking!
taurondir
It doesn't matter. The people that wanted to make money made money, bought yachts, went yachting all they wanted, and are now old and retired with a ton of money and a yacht. They already got away with all that shit, they don't care anymore. These bullshit ideas should be nipped in the bud at the START, not 30 years later.
DidItForScience
A short but great book that the author published online. He explains just how bs the diamond industry is. And how they are not good investments. http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/diamond/prologue.htm
pr3viso
The double treat is Russia is the biggest supplier of diamonds and a crash keeps them from financing the war
SleazyBijou
If only DeBeers could perhaps… pay reparations for the pain and suffering they have caused… perhaps Christie’s, Bonham’s, Sotheby’s… who else?
JARNSB
Oh nooooooo not the diamond industry what will i do if i can't spend money rocks
dorenavant
Bit late for that. The industry has made undeserving families some of the richest in the world while causing permanent and irreversible longterm damage to many countries around the globe.
ScootiePuffJrSucks
Won't somebody think of the diamond profiteers?!
littlecoatfatguy
Yep, turns out when you can get a molecularly-identical product for a lower cost WITHOUT severe human rights abuses, people jump on board.
VaultGirl69
That and they're scarcity is a farce. Much like a lot of the pricing around metals. Hoard what they can and only release enough for maximum profit. The problem is we either don't care about or can't afford diamonds. Or both.
MediocreExtremist
less flawed. lab grown is superior
MapleSyrupMafia
"But... my human suffering?????" - Some CEO.
Radix865
The blood and suffering on each stone costs extra you know!
madeejit
"Stopping the child labor now would be unfair to all the kids we've already murdered"
malbec
Well that’s not very capitalistic hellscape of you
littlecoatfatguy
Thank you.
ArgentXero
But why would I want a lab diamond? The cost comes from the sacrifice put into it. That's why it has value. It's like how people prefer to eat real meat vs the lab cloned version. Taking an animals life for sustenance is the highest form of delicious sacrifice. Just like how diamonds are more beautiful soaked in blood sacrifice. Your sacrifice is my deliciousness om nom nom.
LychFinderGeneral
Children died for these diamonds, to buy the lab diamonds after that would be disrespectful to their memory. /s
BlueDsc
It upsets me that there actually are people that unironically think like that.
littlecoatfatguy
Poe’s Law.
zombiebatman
Guys diamond mines are a literal orphan crushing machine. Of course that means they’re vital to the economy
Stewierules
Canadian diamond mines are not like that. I make a living that’ll let me send my kid to university without him needing student loans. They also have agreements (water licenses, local hiring and prioritizing trade apprenticeships for locals) with the local indigenous nations. The mining companies still make a killing, but nobody is dying here.
OppaGangnamPyle
They're still exploiting the land
9e210a9c3a325c37ccc7efc43f9f2acafdfb6fdd
You're exploiting the land.
OppaGangnamPyle
Ok
Perkunas687
Have the orphans tried not being orphans?
Overextendeddullard
Technically, the parents of the kids died in the mines, then the kids became orphans, and the mining company took the kids to work the mines....until they're crushed.
Boatsntoes
And environmental damages.
Sidewaysgts
Anyone else see a tie fighter?
peterbozeman
This sounds like a job for millennials!
They can kill any industry!
ElbowDeepInTheElbowDeepBandwagon
I'm helping the cause. I bought a 2 karat artificial diamond for my fiance's engagement ring at 1/4 the price of a similarly appraised natural diamond. No one but her and I know it's artificial.
TriumphRider24
Same! Slightly less at 1.5c because she wanted an oval which would have been HUGE on her if I went any bigger, but for the savings I totally could have! If anyone asks, YES it is a real diamond. No one has because it is tacky, but fuck em! Had fun finding the stone online and building a ring with a local jeweler, and the wife was super happy to have something I hand picked and designed. I had no problem telling her it was lab too because she would have killed me if I spent natural money on that!
WolfFromTheTVShowFutureMan
And no one will know, unless it’s a jeweler that views them under a microscope. That’s the only way to tell. To the naked eye they are absolutely the same! So you’re free to say whatever you want and no one could ever catch you on it.
munkis
And even then jewelers can only tell as the lab grown ones don't have cracks and gunk. The highest clarity natural ones are close enough to be judged as being lab grown.
umbrellamaker
But I thought they were forever /s
Dracology
I've never understood the desire for diamonds. Why would you want some shiny clear thing when you could have gems with amazing colors
somerandomusernamebecauseididntlikemyoldone
Very good advertising and market control. Also people's desire to feel wealthy or show off their wealth. Same reason people buy garbage just because it's expensive and has a brand name
somnif
Diamonds do have a rather lovely "fire" effect, their refract light in quite pretty ways. But moissanite does it too, more intensely.
Hextant
Right? Look at moonstones. Jade. Opals.
I curse everyone whose birthstone is opal, because god damn do I wanna wear a fire opal, but apparently it's bad luck unless it's your birthstone, haha. Shit is so pretty.
I have too much bad luck without enticing it. ... maybe it'll cancel out.
skrimg59
what if i told you that the concept of “wearing a certain rock causes bad luck” isn’t true
Dracology
Counterpoint. Uranium
XuncuTheTiger
Counter counterpoint: if it actually *was* about "luck," and not objective stupidity/ignorance, *radium* products wouldn't have been on the market: https://www.nuclearmuseum.org/virtual/vex1/toc.htm
mstalltree
Israel is heavily involved in trading blood diamonds. Several regions in Africa are suffering because Israel white-washes these blood diamonds and sells them to the world. I hope this entire blood diamond industry just crashes and burns.
skrimg59
ah yes, the good old “jews control the diamond industry” trope
crabePeople
Where did he mention Judaism?
mstalltree
https://mondoweiss.net/2020/12/human-rights-watch-gives-israels-blood-diamonds-a-free-pass/
mstalltree
https://en.israelidiamond.co.il/about-the-israeli-diamond-industry/ There isn't a single diamond mine in Israel. How is it obtaining and exporting stones worth in the billions? Look at Congo.
shinagami091
Just wait for them to come up with some whacky standard that is a must have that sets real diamonds apart from fake ones. The way I see it, if you can’t tell the difference without a magnifying glass or microscope, it’s good enough.
cosinewave
You mean the incredibly rare and beautiful gems that everyone seems to own? The gems that can be sold the next day for only a fraction of the price you paid for them? Gems that can be artificially produced but the industry has too much integrity to allow that? I don't believe it. /s
Imademyselfsquirtle
It's a fucking rock. Stupidest tradition humans have invented. Ooh look a 20k$ rock on my finger that does absolutely nothing. Meanwhile oh 20k$ got us new TV, PC parts, Food, Outings etc is much better. Case and point, co worker lost her 5k$ ring at work, no one found it, her hubs bought a new 5k$ engagement ring just so she could have a shiny rock on her finger, they been married 15 years, the ring isn't what kept you in this is it?
crazyspelling
... he'd better have swapped the new stone out for cubic zirconium...
Marsupialmessiah
Technically is not a rock, its allotrope of carbon, that happens to be crystalline. Fluorite and calcite are rocks.
MeatPopsicleMultiPass
You mean the mostly monopolized diamond market that has warehouses full of diamonds, but they purposely decrease supply in the market so they can charge more and claim that they're more rare?! 🫨🫨
lamoinejeff
The same gem that is somehow both the most abundant AND the most rare of gems at the same time? The one where the market demand and price is the same as points on Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Marsupialmessiah
The same gems that adorn cutting wheels and drill bits everywhere? Those rare gems?
notacobra
Well, I mean those aren't the same.
The diamond material used in drills and for cutting is not gemstone quality. Just like your sandpaper isn't covered in rubies, it's just corundum.
Think of it like a snowcone vs an ice sculpture.
You can grind down a sculpture and make snowcones, but you can't go the other way without melting and re-freezing the snowcone.
ProfessorDumbass
Those two diamonds in the post can cost either five dollars or five children. But apparently you can print more children
NorthmanoftheNorth
To be fair, man-made diamonds cost more like $100 to make.
ProfessorDumbass
I read a story about guy who makes them. He went to a jewellery store and threw a couple of 10 carat cut stones on the counter and said they cost $16 each to make. But ...inflation
wouldClimbForCash
Children cost way more than 1 diamond. At least around here.
munkis
If your diamond came from African mines, it already cost 5 children
popejubal
I mean… you can kind of print more children. That doesn’t mean anyone should do bad things to the existing children that have already been printed but you can totally make more.
memepawn
I think Jay Leno said it best. “Crunch all you want, we’ll make more.”
BeaverOnFire
Martellus
BeaverOnFire
adoration0x
You mean shiny rocks made out of the most common element on the planet? Nooo! Millenials will be blamed for this!
Exyr
If someone really wanted go upset the market. Stop laser printing artificials and just flood the market with them.
Jamabope2
The laser etch comes from the grading company, if you want the stone graded, lab or natural, it needs to be tracked back to a grading certificate somehow. That being said, grading is very subjective and two identical stones on paper can look vastly different to the eye IRL. So, it's almost not worth it anyway, I wouldn't care if my stone was graded or not, so long as it looked good!
akambe
I thought it was DeBeers that was laser etching the diamonds
Exyr
It's happens by the iga graders. The labs have to sell them to grading companies to be certified. Then the grading companies etch their origin. Be it lab or natural.
DancesWithHippos
Based on the comments you received, and they seem to know a lot more about it than me, this could still work if you crimed differently by laser etching lab ones as natural and flooded the market.
Exyr
The thing is the etching are done by diamond grading labs. So they label them lab v nat and if you don't sell to the diamond grader they are worth nothing.
DancesWithHippos
So if a person labeled unlabeled lab as nat, and gave it a bogus serial number, and flooded the market, it would destroy confidence in the market, theoretically. Not that I'm recommending such an action. That's just, theoretically what the poster seems to be thinking. As a fictional exercise.
Exyr
Yes but you'd have to be the industry diamond grader tondo that. And there is only two IGA and GAI
DancesWithHippos
No, you'd just have to use a laser graver to do that. Buy lab unlabeled and label it with a bogus number.
donkeymoney
"laser printing"? what, they are labeled as artificial?
IceWeaselX
Certifying companies do it when they grade them.
Edowyth
In advertising and sales, the FTC requires that any lab-grown or made diamond be accompanied with "lab-created", "lab-grown", or "[manufacturer]-created" conspicuously printed / stated. AFAIK, none of them have to be etched in any way. The etching is apparently only done by diamond miners to certify that the diamond was NOT lab-created.
donkeymoney
Wow. I bet DeBeers required the artificial labeling.
JerryCan7331
These days, a lot of diamonds have serial numbers inscribed on their girdle for insurance purposes.
donkeymoney
Good to know, thanks. ...since they are so strong at the molecular level, I wonder if they are a candidate for dense data storage. Like, couldn't you inscribe at the molecular level? Hmm..
ComicSansHumor
Yes. This has been attempted with glass a few years ago: https://www.theverge.com/2016/2/16/11018018/5d-data-storage-glass
donkeymoney
really cool. Thanks for sharing.
DancesWithHippos
Carbon is a nifty atom.
FintanRamm
seenunseen
Can't buy diamonds when you're broke..also, jade is cooler imo
somnif
On a silly note, Diamonds are technically cooler (their thermal conductivity means they usually feel quite cold to touch)
Euchre
Colored stones have a lot more character and are far more personal.
moxiefoxxy
Real certified jade is more expensive than diamonds these days.
seenunseen
Because certified matters
moxiefoxxy
Jade is so beautiful 😍
wavepig12
Australian black opals are pretty cool too
keystotheairlock
So is petrified wood, meteors, antlers, fossils, amber, and the gold fillings from the teeth of slaughtered private equity executives.
Valkyr1987
That last one sounds really expensive though
keystotheairlock
It's just the labor involved, really. They're easy to find.
03448203970326357609
If you're not afraid of some poaching, you can procure it yourself.
keystotheairlock
It's not poaching, they only think they're a protected species. In all reality, the forest conservation community would probably pay your expenses for vermin control.