3 ms·

This is all correct! I've worked in the diamond business for almost a decade now and see people complain on HN and Reddit constantly about diamonds all while b

This is all correct! I've worked in the diamond business for almost a decade now and see people complain on HN and Reddit constantly about diamonds all while barely understanding the industry at all. The common complaint of "you can't sell them for what you paid" is a dumb complaint because they don't understand the HUGE markup the stones receive at retail. Here's the profit margins that the stones receive along the way: - Miners selling to cutters - 10-15% profit - Cutters selling to wholesalers - 3-5% profit - Wholesalers selling to retail - 10-20% profit - Retail to consumers - 100-200% profit Everyone on these threads is always mad at the miners and I never see any anger placed on the Jared's, Kay's, Zale's of the world (all owned by the same company btw).

bkor 5y ago
> The common complaint of "you can't sell them for what you paid" You and the other person gives loads of reasons why people giving that complaint are entirely right. The marketing is (partly) that it is valuable. In practice you'll not be able to resell it for a similar value.
- bluedevil2k 5y ago
  I was hoping the takeaway would be “don’t buy diamonds from retail”. BlueNile is the best option here in the US for buying diamonds, usually around a 10-15% markup over wholesale.
  - banbanbang 5y ago
    No. Costco is the best option. You can also return for a full refund.
conductr 5y ago
My wife is a jewelry buyer for big retail , this is accurate but people also don’t understand the overhead and cost associated with retail in general. It’s much more burdened that some B2B middleman. My opinion after countless conversations with her about the industry is the best model would be something like Trunk Club where they mail you a bunch of rings, you decided which to keep. It probably exists in some format, if not, the obvious problem is the value of the inventory and the potential for fraud/theft that it would attract. Unfortunately it’s essentially what’s been going on in our house since covid WFH, she had a million dollars of product sitting on a shelf in her home office.

bkor 5y ago

> The common complaint of "you can't sell them for what you paid" You and the other person gives loads of reasons why people giving that complaint are entirely right. The marketing is (partly) that it is valuable. In practice you'll not be able to resell it for a similar value.

bluedevil2k 5y ago
I was hoping the takeaway would be “don’t buy diamonds from retail”. BlueNile is the best option here in the US for buying diamonds, usually around a 10-15% markup over wholesale.
- banbanbang 5y ago
  No. Costco is the best option. You can also return for a full refund.

conductr 5y ago

My wife is a jewelry buyer for big retail , this is accurate but people also don’t understand the overhead and cost associated with retail in general. It’s much more burdened that some B2B middleman. My opinion after countless conversations with her about the industry is the best model would be something like Trunk Club where they mail you a bunch of rings, you decided which to keep. It probably exists in some format, if not, the obvious problem is the value of the inventory and the potential for fraud/theft that it would attract. Unfortunately it’s essentially what’s been going on in our house since covid WFH, she had a million dollars of product sitting on a shelf in her home office.