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What sustains the price is primarily the restricted supply which is tightly controlled. The long (and impressive) marketing campaign was only one part of the st
by amirmc 13y ago
What sustains the price is primarily the restricted supply which is tightly controlled. The long (and impressive) marketing campaign was only one part of the strategy.
- ghshephard 13y agoIf "restricted supply" was relevant to the price, then you would be able to sell a diamond after you purchased it, which, from everything I've read, you can't (unlike gold). De Beers contribution isn't so much restricting the supply, as it is ensuring that once purchased, diamonds lose most of their value.
- nailer 13y agoYou can certainly buy diamonds second hand. Sotheby's sell them: I brought one in a room of a few hundred 50-60 year old diamond merchants in 2008.
- ghshephard 13y agoThat's interesting. I wonder if the same opportunity available to Sotheby's is also available to your average diamond consumer (minus a reasonable handling fee). I.E. If I go buy a Diamond for $1000, And Sotheby's sells it second hand for, let's say, $750, could I sell it to Sotheby's for $500? I'd be interested in hearing what mechanisms exist for your average consumer to sell a diamond. There is quite an active market for second hand Gold, and the handling fees are quite reasonable. My understanding, from everything I've read, is that such a market does not exist for Diamonds.
- nailer 13y agoYes, you could. Most of the diamonds on offer were from deceased estates, sold by ordinary consumers.
- ghshephard 13y agoThe real question is, where the diamonds subject to a "reasonable" handling fee, or where they sold for pennies on the dollar to Sotheby's?
- dllthomas 13y ago"What sustains the price" and "what sustains the tradition" are not the same thing.