Hype has always played a huge role in the marketing of diamonds. It's been a myth for decades that the price of a diamond was somehow correlated with its rarene

Hype has always played a huge role in the marketing of diamonds. It's been a myth for decades that the price of a diamond was somehow correlated with its rareness. Diamonds were, and are not, rare. DeBeers, as a cartel, was able to control the market and release diamonds from their cache such that the demand always out-stripped the supply. Now that diamonds are being mined outside of South Africa and the manufacture of synthetic stones is a reality, their hold is slipping away.