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Crystal G said: Things that accrue in value slowly over time are diamonds, firearms, gold, stocks, bonds, and real-estate. Usually.
I thought diamonds were a terrible investment. De Beers lost it's monopoly years ago and slowly but surely their decades of market manipulation are unwinding. Diamonds are worthless, they can be flawlessly manufactured in labs and there are huge stockpiles held back from the public. Those stockpiles will eventually be dumped.
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RiderOnTheStorm said: I thought diamonds were a terrible investment. De Beers lost it's monopoly years ago and slowly but surely their decades of market manipulation are unwinding. Diamonds are worthless, they can be flawlessly manufactured in labs and there are huge stockpiles held back from the public. Those stockpiles will eventually be dumped.
The value of diamonds and firearms both increase over a long span of timetime. Haven't you noticed? When I was a kid in the 80's a 2 carat engagement ring could easily be purchased from Tiffany's for under $3,000. Now it would cost at least $10,000.
Diamonds can indeed be manufactured now, however there are numerous methods that labs use, and while ordinary people can't tell the difference professionals can.
The most realistic-looking "fake" diamond labs still use mined diamonds to create their finished product, by combining mined diamonds with synthetic diamonds. The cheapest labs won't even use diamonds, they just use high-quality silver or cubic zirconia that have lots of density and radiance and hardness to it, and then simply market it as "synthetic lab diamonds," when there's really no diamonds in it at all. I know this because I did lots of studying online from various studies, from stores such as Blue Nile, Diamond Nexus, and Carat, and I corresponded through email with all these manufacturers to find out exactly what their diamonds were made out of.
One UK-based manufacturer who was called Carat markets so-called "lab diamonds." When I emailed them, they were very evasive about what their diamonds were made out of. It wasn't until I emailed back and forth that they finally admitted to me their products are cubic zirconia. No wonder 4 carats was only going for $2,000! That seemed WAY too cheap for even "synthetic" lab diamonds. Anything above $200 is a RIP-OFF if your "lab diamond" ends up being cubic zirconia!
I still have yet to find a lab that creates 100% "REAL" synthetic diamonds for a cheap price. The "real" ones are not much cheaper than mined diamonds. The cheapest but best quality lab diamonds will be, at best, cubic zirconia or some other stone in the middle of the core, with a real diamond coating layered on the very outside surface.
I also went to jewelry stores in person, and their synthetic diamonds were not much cheaper than the real diamonds. They were still $1,000 per carat. And that wasn't even for engagement rings, that was just for earrings and necklaces, and other types of jewelry that are supposed to be way cheaper than engagement rings.
Diamonds are still very much in demand, and it appears that lab diamonds have not influenced the value of mined diamonds at all. Even if DeBeers has competition now, I don't see diamonds getting much cheaper. Maybe a little bit, but not to less than a thousand per carat.
Competition tends to price their items relatively close to the other competition. Look at gas companies. They always differ by cents, not by increments of dollars. Gym memberships as well. When LA Fitness got word of the fact that 24 Hr Fitness was increasing their rates from $39.99 to $49.99, LA Fitness also increased their membership prices by $10.
Edited by Crystal G (12/07/13 04:45 PM)
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