The diamond industry sucks don't get me wrong. But the real culpurists are the dumbfuck diamond buyers.
My friend is a diamond salesperson and told me a story about one of their customers. They were looking at different pieces and the customer kept asking about the purity of the diamonds in the piece. Whenever my friend said it's "SI," the customer would be visibly disappointed and would ask for "VS" or "VVS" which are purer. My friend then got annoyed a bit and told the customer that purity doesn't matter once you reach "SI" since the impurities are not really visible by the naked eye. He even showed the customer 2 pieces with one looking 10 times better than the other but has SI diamonds and the non-pretty piece has VS diamonds. He asked the customer to tell him which is which and the customer wrongly said the SI one was more pure. Even after he revealed his ruse and showed that purity doesn't matter much, the customer kept asking for more pure pieces as if nothing happened.
These "people" literallly are willingly being lied to, and they like it. If a diamond buyer saw a piece, told you they love it, told you they would buy it, then you told them it's a synthetic, they would be disgusted. It's bullshit from all sides and they deserve eachother.
I feel like the high-end buyer's don't care about how much they like their possessions, they care about how expensive their possessions sound when described to others. They couldn't tell that the SI was less pure, but they knew they couldn't describe it to their friends as the purest, so they didn't care.
Funny thing is that this comes from middle class people. There's still VVS and flawless diamonds which are significantly more expensive. But they can't afford one that looks any good. Given the choice they'd absolutely burn their money to buy those though.
There's a concept, 'conspicuous consumption,' that people will use products in such a way for their social power regardless of anything else. So getting higher quality diamonds, whatever imperceptible difference it has, is still worth it to be seen as affording the higher tier. One of the ways in which market economies poison the brain.
If it's wedding ring, the marketing has been about how the purity of the diamond is symbolic of the purity of one's love. So picking an uglier, but purer, diamond then coild be about prioritizing love over beauty or whatever in that person's head.
So not necessarily exclusive to people wanting to present themselves as wealthy, that sort of emotional manipulation convinces broke people to blow their savings on a ring all the time.
has anyone else been getting tons of ads (on streaming services mostly) literally about this? i keep getting these ads about how you should only purchase natural diamonds because only they matter or something and put some pretty woman in the ad to convince you. it's pretty disgusting to make a commercial promoting diamonds stolen from the global south and brushing off synthetic diamonds even if they are literally the exact same rock.
Opals are the superior stone and they actually look awsome. Transparent glass like stones are so boring. They are also much cheaper and not harvested with child labor.
I'm not talking about replacing your diamond drill bit with opal. I mean jewellery
Rings, like engagement/wedding rings, can take quite a beating. You need a hard stone or it won't really last very long.
I have a lab Ruby in my engagement ring and then lab diamonds around it. The lab Ruby is a good alternative because it's a hard stone! Sapphires and alexandrite are also just as hard and could be good stones in a ring you'd wear everyday.
This is what we did. I got my wife a nice ice blue sapphire center stone instead of a diamond. It was less expensive, durable and more unique.
Why does harness matter? You are supposed to wear them, not cut or drill with them.
Hardness absolutely matters in rings. Not as much in pendants or earrings, but people don't realize how rough they are with their hands. Most people do not take their rings off to wash their hands, or do their laundry, or, or, or. So many things have unexpected abrasives that may just feel a little rough on your skin, but can significantly damage a soft stone like opal. In a rush and accidentally bang your hand against the door frame? Chipped opal. Back of your hand itches, so you rub it against your jeans briefly? Scratched opal. They're very fragile stones.
They look tacky as shit regardless of whether they are mined, synthesized or fake.
The DeBeers grift is a constant reminder that if space billionaires actually did start reeling in asteroids to mine, that wealth is not going to magically bring post-scarcity the way space bazingas dream that it will. It would be more hoarded resources and a lot more pollution to push out of whatever those resources get made into for profit.
And the absurd thing is that we probably should use natural diamonds for jewelry, as it is a waste to synthesize such a common rock. If they weren't hoarded and aggressively marketed as something you have to have, they could just be a neat rock some people are into, there wouldn't be child slaves dying to dig them out of the ground.
the alchemists could've been successful, and all the gold mine barons would've been: so, actually, well, you can't see it, but I assure you, and the experts will agree, that there is actually a very fine, yes, a very fine distinction (if you can notice it, it really means you have a refined sense of taste, yes) in shimmer between ersatz, synthetic gold from the alchemist, and that the rare, natural from the earth. Ah . . . . well yes, you're right, the natural gold is ever so slightly duller, but, you see
https://www.ebay.com/itm/195430621450
Do I trust ebay? Not really. Is this a fair sized diamond, cut, for $10? It claims to be.
edit: my bad, synthetic diamonds are also known as moissanite and aren't actually diamonds. Here's a link to two lab grown diamonds, cut, for like $30
https://www.ebay.com/itm/126018751890
Nerevar, you foolish mortal! I have heard your lamentations about the cost of diamonds and how they are too expensive for how common they are. I agree, and I know who to blame. The Bear Company, which holds a monopoly on the diamond industry, is rigging the supply to keep prices high. They use propaganda to create a demand that is disproportionate to the real value of diamonds. What fools they are to think that they can hide such deception from me. I, Lord Dagoth, master of these lands, see through their shallow deceit and call for justice. Now please leave. I have to write upset words on this piece of parchment to show the world how angry i am. Nerevar, do you have a stick with you? Maybe also a stapler? Nerevar please go to the next trader and aquire a new Edding for me. I have let the cap open for too long and now my Edding has dried out.
