Uplifting News

My wife is wears a .45 carat moissanite on her engagement ring. The stone cost 80 euros three years ago.

Thank goodness, maybe I’ll finally be able to buy a diamond pickaxe for what few emeralds I have. I’ve been having to use stone tools in this economy and I’d really like some obsidian for a nether portal.

26% down from a wildly inflated peak isn’t all that earth shattering tbh.

However the growth in popularity and price drop with synthetic diamonds - that’s what’s newsworthy here.

Bottom falls out on commodity made artifically rare through imperailism and corruption. Is this the part where I'm supposed to feel bad for De Beers?

Good. Hope the whole industry goes bust.

Good. Fuck rich people.

I respect jewelers and stonesetters as an art, but the rock itself has negative value in my eyes.

I'd buy more diamonds, but I spent all my money on avocado toast.

Finally, rocks might be worth what rocks are worth.

Lab-grown rocks

When I was getting married a few years ago, I remember thinking fuck real diamonds lab-grown are literally the same thing. I remember getting some push back from some weirdos about how "real" diamonds are some how better or how people will think I'm a cheapskate or how people will feel bad for my wife...

Well, fast forward a few years and literally nobody cares, thinks about, or has said anything negative about my wife's ring. We are both 1000000% happy and satisfied with the decision to buy lab grown.

I bet there still over priced.

i never understood why a mined diamond has a bigger value than an artificially made one when the only difference is the suffering of the workers. ppl who like diamonds are stupid.

Diamonds are worthless outside of industrial uses.

You know, it must be that food and rent are a bit higher priority than the pressure stones... especially when more and more people cant afford those... food and rent i mean.

Artificially expensive shiny rocks less valuable than advertised.

Fun fact, reputable pawn shops don't pay for gemstones because they're effectively worthless. They only pay for previous metals. If you sell a wedding ring they'll only pay you what the metals are worth.

Paying overprice for a lump of carbon is insane.

Fuck De Beers.

Prices are so bad that De Beers is for sale?! Wild.

Geoffrey Farrow at Raphael, a jeweller on the other side of the street, can only just bring himself to sell lab-grown diamonds. “They are synthetic,” he said. “Lab-grown sounds exotic, but it’s created – they make it by the buckets. There’s no history to it. The price is going to go down further and further.”

I find that a very interesting perspective. I prefer the idea of something we made with human ingenuity as opposed to some thing you dug out of the dirt, probably with a shoddily-hidden special history of slavery and tears, and before that, just sitting in the ground like a bunch of other boring things. The history of a lab-grown is entirely mine and my hypothetical partner's to create.

If I was a diamond person anyways. I'd be more worried about losing the expensive ring somehow and worrying over it, and would much rather buy the cheapest thing that can still socially function as "look, I am married, don't hit on me!" without having to wear some ugly shirt that says that. Ideally both me and my hypothetical partner would just forgo expensive rings (and don't get me wrong, I'm adamantly not a T-shirt and jeans person, I like to dress up, I have just never been a ring person) and spend it on something else we would both like.

For those who do not share my opinions on wedding rings, which is valid, I am also glad to hear lab-grown prices are down so people can still get that ring they love without breaking the bank and without supporting De Beers.

My mother was always bitter that an anniversary ring my father gave her turned out to be synthetic, but I think back in the 80s lab grown diamonds went cloudy after a while.

She could also have been complaining about anything and Everything my father had done 24/7 once the separation and inevitable divorce were in effect.

The longer I live, the clearer I see that the beliefs of my youth were just capitalist lies.

I'd like to see new uses for diamonds that take advantage of their material properties. For example, the thermal conductivity of diamonds is very high.

Now this is my kind of uplifting news!