5 ms·

Sounds like they aren't worth billions of dollars anymore.

zadkey 6y ago
You took the words from my mouth.
umvi 6y ago
Well, if a single company manages to own all the piles of diamonds, they could artificially limit supply to keep prices high.
- rayiner 6y ago
  But they don’t.
  - GaryNumanVevo 6y ago
    De Beers held a diamond monopoly and stock piled diamonds to drive up prices for decades. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Beers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Beers
    - rayiner 6y ago
      The monopoly started breaking up decades ago, and is currently at 35%.
- toomuchtodo 6y ago
  Diamonds can be manufactured in a lab at a higher quality than what you can get out of the ground.
  - gruez 6y ago
    But then then went 180 and said that imperfections are a feature, not a bug, and therefore natural diamonds are still worth more :).
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - jacobwilliamroy 6y ago
      Only as long as there are people like you who insist that they are.
- JMTQp8lwXL 6y ago
  The company was De Beers and they no longer have a monopoly: https://www.diamondportfolio.com.au/investor-centre/market-information/de-beers-monopoly-broken/ https://www.diamondportfolio.com.au/investor-centre/market-i...
  - Dahoon 6y ago
    No, but the sharing "partners" might as well be part of De Beers as diamonds are still sold at prices way way above what they are worth. Like "selling iron for gold prices" expensive.
    - sukilot 6y ago
      How can an optional* non-functional luxury good be sold for more than it's worth? *Worth to your lady, not to you Economically, the diamond is a token of wastefulness that serves only to destroy value as part of the human mating ritual. Bitcoin for women, but even less liquid.
      - JMTQp8lwXL 6y ago
        A bitcoin for women analogy might be generous; one diamond isn't fungible for another one. There's sentimental value.
delfinom 6y ago
Not if they don't lower their prices! >Smaller diamond producers have reduced their own prices. De Beers, a unit of mining group Anglo American, and its Russian competitor Alrosa have reportedly rejected price cuts and would rather allow buyers to pull out of previous contracts. $5 they'll hold firm on their prices and just take tax credits in countries for "business losses".
- klyrs 6y ago
  > Not if they don't lower their prices! These are fun semantics... if you can't liquidate your inventory for a substantial fraction of its "price" then I'd say that it simply doesn't have the value you've priced it at. If there are only ten suckers in the world willing to buy a widget for a billion dollars, and you have a thousand of those widgets, then you're sitting on roughly ten billion dollars -- not a trillion.
  - sukilot 6y ago
    They are likely treating it like real estate and taking a temporary loss in order to prop up future value when the economy recovers.
- the_omegist 6y ago
  Can they? Diamonds are a practically useless product (except in science and the industry) based only on the social signalling [0] they give to their owner. And this signalling is due to their high price.[1] De Beers created the demand artificially for engagement rings so they are pretty much done,I guess. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_theory [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_(economics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_(economics)

You took the words from my mouth.

umvi 6y ago

Well, if a single company manages to own all the piles of diamonds, they could artificially limit supply to keep prices high.

rayiner 6y ago
But they don’t.
- GaryNumanVevo 6y ago
  De Beers held a diamond monopoly and stock piled diamonds to drive up prices for decades. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Beers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Beers
  - rayiner 6y ago
    The monopoly started breaking up decades ago, and is currently at 35%.
toomuchtodo 6y ago
Diamonds can be manufactured in a lab at a higher quality than what you can get out of the ground.
- gruez 6y ago
  But then then went 180 and said that imperfections are a feature, not a bug, and therefore natural diamonds are still worth more :).
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - jacobwilliamroy 6y ago
    Only as long as there are people like you who insist that they are.
JMTQp8lwXL 6y ago
The company was De Beers and they no longer have a monopoly: https://www.diamondportfolio.com.au/investor-centre/market-information/de-beers-monopoly-broken/ https://www.diamondportfolio.com.au/investor-centre/market-i...
- Dahoon 6y ago
  No, but the sharing "partners" might as well be part of De Beers as diamonds are still sold at prices way way above what they are worth. Like "selling iron for gold prices" expensive.
  - sukilot 6y ago
    How can an optional* non-functional luxury good be sold for more than it's worth? *Worth to your lady, not to you Economically, the diamond is a token of wastefulness that serves only to destroy value as part of the human mating ritual. Bitcoin for women, but even less liquid.
    - JMTQp8lwXL 6y ago
      A bitcoin for women analogy might be generous; one diamond isn't fungible for another one. There's sentimental value.

delfinom 6y ago

Not if they don't lower their prices! >Smaller diamond producers have reduced their own prices. De Beers, a unit of mining group Anglo American, and its Russian competitor Alrosa have reportedly rejected price cuts and would rather allow buyers to pull out of previous contracts. $5 they'll hold firm on their prices and just take tax credits in countries for "business losses".

klyrs 6y ago
> Not if they don't lower their prices! These are fun semantics... if you can't liquidate your inventory for a substantial fraction of its "price" then I'd say that it simply doesn't have the value you've priced it at. If there are only ten suckers in the world willing to buy a widget for a billion dollars, and you have a thousand of those widgets, then you're sitting on roughly ten billion dollars -- not a trillion.
- sukilot 6y ago
  They are likely treating it like real estate and taking a temporary loss in order to prop up future value when the economy recovers.
the_omegist 6y ago
Can they? Diamonds are a practically useless product (except in science and the industry) based only on the social signalling [0] they give to their owner. And this signalling is due to their high price.[1] De Beers created the demand artificially for engagement rings so they are pretty much done,I guess. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_theory [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_(economics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signalling_(economics)