Selah to Hagah

The problem with diamonds isn’t their scarcity, but their abundance.

A friend of my wife was asking for some articles about diamonds and its overly priced facts. I myself has known the ‘truth’ since 2003, which was about 6 months after I bought my first (and last ) diamond ring for my fiancée back then. But I don’t have any regret. After all, this was for a lady I will share the rest of my entire life with. Still, I’d consider myself lucky because she shares similar opinion since I revealed the ‘truth’ to her.. (or maybe not that similar )

Here are some articles from my ‘research’ (googling around):

• A Perception of Rarity (part of “How Diamonds Work”)
  Some diamonds, like the Hope Diamond, are extremely rare. However, most diamonds are much more abundant than we are led to believe.
• Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?
  While those who attempt to sell diamonds often experience disappointment at the low price they are offered, stories in gossip columns suggest that diamonds are resold at enormous profits.
• Ten Reasons Why You Should Never Accept a Diamond Ring
  from Anyone, Under Any Circumstances, Even If They Really Want to Give You One
• The Diamond Invention
  A whole book about the subject, long but very comprehensive.
• The New Diamond Con (August 3, 2000)
  The problem with diamonds isn’t their scarcity, but their abundance.
• Is a diamond’s price a true measure of its value?
  (contains a little note about Epstein above)
  … but I bet if your wife knew the real story she’d prefer her next gift to be a nice socket-wrench set. Diamonds are a con, pure and simple.
• Africa’s Diamond Wars
  Across vast stretches of Africa, diamonds fuel war.
• The New Diamond Age
  Armed with inexpensive, mass-produced gems, two startups are launching an assault on the De Beers cartel.
  “It’s too perfect to be natural. Things in nature, they have flaws. The growth structure of this diamond is flawless.”
• The cartel isn’t for ever
  With its near monopoly as a trader of rough stones, De Beers has been able to maintain and increase the prices of diamonds by regulating their supply.
  … Consumers believe diamonds are valuable largely because of decades of clever marketing by De Beers and its clients.
• Diamonds Aren’t Forever
  This one has nothing to do with De Beers et al… but still a good read.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 7th, 2005 at 12:17 and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.