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Buried in that article I found this little gem: ...lab-grown diamonds are identical in structure and appearance to natural ones. They are, however, much cheaper

Buried in that article I found this little gem: ...lab-grown diamonds are identical in structure and appearance to natural ones. They are, however, much cheaper. Baruch says savings may be as high as 40 percent in some cases... All this noise about a lousy forty percent discount? I was looking for a ninety eight percent discount. I was looking for diamonds flowing out of our faucets like water. Meh.

Sharlin 10y ago
The whole raison d'être of gemstones is to be expensive! Diamonds for non-ornamental usage are already dirt cheap. If jewellery-grade diamonds were to drastically drop in price, nobody would want them anymore.
- thaumasiotes 10y ago
  People still want cubic zirconia. Diamonds are technically superior in several ways; at the same price you'd see at least as much demand.
  - vidarh 10y ago
    People often want a look-a-like product because the alternative is expensive. If the diamond price nosedived, I'm sure there'd still be some demand, but it would also remove a significant reason for people to want anything that looks like diamonds. Demand might still be there because it looks nice, but whether that combined with the lower price would make overall demand go up or down is anyones guess.
    - thaumasiotes 10y ago
      I think this is a good point, but I have some disorganized thoughts in response: I don't think people often want a product specifically because it looks like something expensive, since there are two factors at play that severely undermine using a lookalike to appear richer than you are: (1) Most of the people you interact with already have a good sense of whether you can afford the real, expensive, thing or whether you'd need to buy the lookalike; and (2) people who have one genuinely expensive thing generally have a lot of other expensive things, but you (the generic you) don't, making it difficult to carry off the impression. People definitely do often want a product specifically because it is itself expensive; I find wanting a product because some other product is expensive somewhat farfetched. You'd have to be targeting people you rarely interact with. I have a small collection of synthetic gemstones, and when I show them off to other people the responses have generally fallen into one of three groups: "Huh. What's the point of having those?"; "Wow, they're beautiful!"; or "They look fake." (I'm not sure what the group 3 people imagine gemstones are supposed to look like.) Demand in group 2 will rise with a price drop. I met one girl who made it clear that she loved my clear cubic zirconia despite my telling her it was only an imitation diamond and suggesting that I preferred the colored stones.
flashman 10y ago
It will come. Once upon a time computers were a lot more expensive than hiring a pool of secretaries to do the same work. The price of lab-grown diamonds embodies the energy, materials, equipment costs and technical knowledge that goes go into their creation. Competition will drive cost reductions in all four of those areas, I predict.

Sharlin 10y ago

The whole raison d'être of gemstones is to be expensive! Diamonds for non-ornamental usage are already dirt cheap. If jewellery-grade diamonds were to drastically drop in price, nobody would want them anymore.

thaumasiotes 10y ago
People still want cubic zirconia. Diamonds are technically superior in several ways; at the same price you'd see at least as much demand.
- vidarh 10y ago
  People often want a look-a-like product because the alternative is expensive. If the diamond price nosedived, I'm sure there'd still be some demand, but it would also remove a significant reason for people to want anything that looks like diamonds. Demand might still be there because it looks nice, but whether that combined with the lower price would make overall demand go up or down is anyones guess.
  - thaumasiotes 10y ago
    I think this is a good point, but I have some disorganized thoughts in response: I don't think people often want a product specifically because it looks like something expensive, since there are two factors at play that severely undermine using a lookalike to appear richer than you are: (1) Most of the people you interact with already have a good sense of whether you can afford the real, expensive, thing or whether you'd need to buy the lookalike; and (2) people who have one genuinely expensive thing generally have a lot of other expensive things, but you (the generic you) don't, making it difficult to carry off the impression. People definitely do often want a product specifically because it is itself expensive; I find wanting a product because some other product is expensive somewhat farfetched. You'd have to be targeting people you rarely interact with. I have a small collection of synthetic gemstones, and when I show them off to other people the responses have generally fallen into one of three groups: "Huh. What's the point of having those?"; "Wow, they're beautiful!"; or "They look fake." (I'm not sure what the group 3 people imagine gemstones are supposed to look like.) Demand in group 2 will rise with a price drop. I met one girl who made it clear that she loved my clear cubic zirconia despite my telling her it was only an imitation diamond and suggesting that I preferred the colored stones.

flashman 10y ago

It will come. Once upon a time computers were a lot more expensive than hiring a pool of secretaries to do the same work. The price of lab-grown diamonds embodies the energy, materials, equipment costs and technical knowledge that goes go into their creation. Competition will drive cost reductions in all four of those areas, I predict.