3 ms·
Please note that while high in retail value, diamonds are a marketing creation. A large diamond really can't be sold due to its notoriety, while a mid-sized or
by iwwr 16y ago
Please note that while high in retail value, diamonds are a marketing creation. A large diamond really can't be sold due to its notoriety, while a mid-sized or smaller would net pennies on the dollar (compared to purchase prices).
Considering artificial diamonds can already be made of a better quality and cheaper, diamonds are going to be reserved as a high-fashion rather than a consumer item. In other words, your grandma's wedding-ring diamond may be worth actual pennies if you ever want to sell it.
- klbarry 16y agoI wouldn't say pennies on the dollar - I've never seen a used diamond on Craigslist for even $50 - but the sentiment is of course true.
- hugh3 16y agoEighty-five pennies on the dollar is still pennies on the dollar.
- eli 16y agoBut you can break a large diamond into one or more smaller diamonds. It's very likely that the Hope Diamond was originally part of a truly enormous diamond stolen in France and pared down.
- mseebach 16y agoThat particular diamond wasn't valuable because of it's (theoretical) retail value, but because of it's historical value to the austrian people. Which makes the heist even more unsympathetic: the thing he stole had some value to the people he stole it from, but no value to himself. He could easily have dropped it somewhere undetected, but he just didn't care enough to do it.