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There already is, it's called De Beers. It's exactly because of the artificially inflated price that the mining practices are damaging.

by inimino 10y ago

joering2 10y ago
Once I learnt more about De Beers, I'm wondering if there is any other product that one could pull of such stunt and make themselves billionaires? Step one - find a rare mineral that at this point has value close to zero. It is rare but worthless. Step two - obtain monopoly on mining it or control it as much as you can (buy spots with dense occurrence, etc) Step three - throw money at important and powerful people (such as Spielberg, so that in his new movie today's Marilyn Monroe is wearing your ore as a form of very high luxury) other media stars, politicians etc. Step four - continue with excellent PR until enough wives or soon-to-be wives come to their soon-to-be husbands and request them to update their luxury status by buying your ore. Step five - collect trillions of dollars across the globe, by tightly controlling your ore and its harvest. Edit: step six - rinse and repeat for 50 years getting yourself even wealthier.
- dragonwriter 10y ago
  Creating artifical preference for something peoplease can only get from you is pretty much what the entire field of marketing is about; deBeers may be an outstanding success, but they aren't doing anything (in those terms) fundamentally different than pretty much every business on the planet is trying to do, just with different mechanisms of establishing moats.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- qb45 10y ago
  > I'm wondering if there is any other product that one could pull of such stunt and make themselves billionaires? Maybe not exactly billionaires, but If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion. :)
- lordnacho 10y ago
  > Once I learnt more about De Beers, I'm wondering if there is any other product that one could pull of such stunt and make themselves billionaires? Various sports. Formula One, for instance, is the epitome of racing despite there being plenty of other ways to race cars. Bottled water. Competes with a spout that everyone has several of in their home, yet people still pay up for it.
  - Grishnakh 10y ago
    Bottled water tastes better than tap water; that's why people buy it. Tap water tastes terrible in most localities. A cheaper alternative is RO water which you can buy from dispensers and fill 3 or 5-gallon bottles with cheaply. Formula One doesn't require consumers to spend anything directly; all the money appears to be in the advertising. Also, F1 is only the epitome of racing in Europe. In the US, most people don't even know what it is, and NASCAR is the epitome of racing. And there too, most of the money comes from advertising. I think you need a better example of something that's so entirely unnecessary and horrifically overpriced yet so many consumers have been brainwashed into purchasing. I honestly can't think of anything, not even Apple products (ducks). I mean, there's plenty of examples of stupid, overpriced, trendy products (like Beats headphones, Nike Air shoes, various other fashion trends), but none of them come close to comparing in terms of longevity and market penetration. Most fashion trends only affect younger people anyway (esp. teenagers), and only last for a few years at most, and they aren't so massively overpriced or involve an international cartel and horrible environmental and human rights practices. The scope and scale of the diamond scam is simply unprecedented I think.
- superchink 10y ago
  Not sure if anyone will appreciate this, but if you haven't seen it, it's oddly relevant to your comment: http://www.cc.com/video-clips/acaxis/key-and-peele-the-heist http://www.cc.com/video-clips/acaxis/key-and-peele-the-heist It's a skit by Key & Peele describing a genius plan for a bank heist. I won't ruin the punchline by going any further.
SixSigma 10y ago
Except De Beers gets to keep the money, thus making it attractive to dig big holes. If they had to hand it over to the Customs Officers those holes would suddenly be less attractive.
- inimino 10y ago
  Conflict diamonds would still be profitable, and diamonds are easy to smuggle. If lab diamonds can overcome the marketing problem, they will bury De Beers and drive the price into the ground for natural diamonds, and the whole dirty industry goes away.

There already is, it's called De Beers. It's exactly because of the artificially inflated price that the mining practices are damaging.

by inimino 10y ago

There already is, it's called De Beers. It's exactly because of the artificially inflated price that the mining practices are damaging.

joering2 10y ago

Once I learnt more about De Beers, I'm wondering if there is any other product that one could pull of such stunt and make themselves billionaires? Step one - find a rare mineral that at this point has value close to zero. It is rare but worthless. Step two - obtain monopoly on mining it or control it as much as you can (buy spots with dense occurrence, etc) Step three - throw money at important and powerful people (such as Spielberg, so that in his new movie today's Marilyn Monroe is wearing your ore as a form of very high luxury) other media stars, politicians etc. Step four - continue with excellent PR until enough wives or soon-to-be wives come to their soon-to-be husbands and request them to update their luxury status by buying your ore. Step five - collect trillions of dollars across the globe, by tightly controlling your ore and its harvest. Edit: step six - rinse and repeat for 50 years getting yourself even wealthier.

dragonwriter 10y ago
Creating artifical preference for something peoplease can only get from you is pretty much what the entire field of marketing is about; deBeers may be an outstanding success, but they aren't doing anything (in those terms) fundamentally different than pretty much every business on the planet is trying to do, just with different mechanisms of establishing moats.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
qb45 10y ago
> I'm wondering if there is any other product that one could pull of such stunt and make themselves billionaires? Maybe not exactly billionaires, but If a man really wants to make a million dollars, the best way would be to start his own religion. :)
lordnacho 10y ago
> Once I learnt more about De Beers, I'm wondering if there is any other product that one could pull of such stunt and make themselves billionaires? Various sports. Formula One, for instance, is the epitome of racing despite there being plenty of other ways to race cars. Bottled water. Competes with a spout that everyone has several of in their home, yet people still pay up for it.
- Grishnakh 10y ago
  Bottled water tastes better than tap water; that's why people buy it. Tap water tastes terrible in most localities. A cheaper alternative is RO water which you can buy from dispensers and fill 3 or 5-gallon bottles with cheaply. Formula One doesn't require consumers to spend anything directly; all the money appears to be in the advertising. Also, F1 is only the epitome of racing in Europe. In the US, most people don't even know what it is, and NASCAR is the epitome of racing. And there too, most of the money comes from advertising. I think you need a better example of something that's so entirely unnecessary and horrifically overpriced yet so many consumers have been brainwashed into purchasing. I honestly can't think of anything, not even Apple products (ducks). I mean, there's plenty of examples of stupid, overpriced, trendy products (like Beats headphones, Nike Air shoes, various other fashion trends), but none of them come close to comparing in terms of longevity and market penetration. Most fashion trends only affect younger people anyway (esp. teenagers), and only last for a few years at most, and they aren't so massively overpriced or involve an international cartel and horrible environmental and human rights practices. The scope and scale of the diamond scam is simply unprecedented I think.
superchink 10y ago
Not sure if anyone will appreciate this, but if you haven't seen it, it's oddly relevant to your comment: http://www.cc.com/video-clips/acaxis/key-and-peele-the-heist http://www.cc.com/video-clips/acaxis/key-and-peele-the-heist It's a skit by Key & Peele describing a genius plan for a bank heist. I won't ruin the punchline by going any further.

SixSigma 10y ago

Except De Beers gets to keep the money, thus making it attractive to dig big holes. If they had to hand it over to the Customs Officers those holes would suddenly be less attractive.

inimino 10y ago
Conflict diamonds would still be profitable, and diamonds are easy to smuggle. If lab diamonds can overcome the marketing problem, they will bury De Beers and drive the price into the ground for natural diamonds, and the whole dirty industry goes away.