Hint : It ain't 500%

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one, I think.
Happy collecting!

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Originally Posted by BrandiR

In my opinion it's the equivalent of buying a knock off Hermes for $50 or putting one of those body kits on your car to make it look like a higher end model (I don't know a lot about this, I wasn't really paying attention when it was being explained to me).

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Better leave the car example out. Kits are easy to tell if you know what a real one looks like and they have zero effect on the value of real cars, as the rarity of real ones is the same. My 5k car has no effect on the 52 million dollar real one. :)

As someone who has never really researched this stuff, I don't see how fake diamonds could be a bad thing. I have heard about the monopoly and have heard about the conditions 3rd world countries are put in over diamonds. Is the only argument against it, "it makes the real one less desirable"? It kind of sounds like captive born vs wild caught to me.

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Originally Posted by BrandiR

We'll have to agree to disagree on this one, I think.
Happy collecting!

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Originally Posted by OhhWatALoser

As someone who has never really researched this stuff, I don't see how fake diamonds could be a bad thing. I have heard about the monopoly and have heard about the conditions 3rd world countries are put in over diamonds. Is the only argument against it, "it makes the real one less desirable"? It kind of sounds like captive born vs wild caught to me.

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just dont call them fake :) fake is the word used to describe simulants, as in, materials that look similar but that are not the same. but the synthetics are real in the way that they actually consist of diamond, instead of growing in nature they have been grown in a laboratory. so call them synthetics, but calling them fake is quite inaccurate. the analogy of captive bred versus wild caught is a good one.

another analogy i like is a living palm tree grown in nature, versus a living palm tree grown in a greenhouse or a botanical garden, versus a plastic palm tree that merely resembles some of the optics. i would only call the plastic one fake. and the other two would represent natural diamond versus laboratory diamond / synthetic diamond. natural diamonds can be billions of years old, i see why that has some appeal, and synthetics still have some trouble with reaching the highest color and clarity grades. one real advantage the synthetics have is the fancy colors, intense colors like deep blue, deep red or deep purple or pink are extremely rare in nature. i think naturals and synthetics can exist alongside one another.

it just bothers me a bit that so many traders stay away completely and call them fake. given their quality and how extremely difficult it is to produce them in gemstone quality, i think they deserve a place alongside the naturals, let the customer choose.

I'll retract the car kit example because I really don't know.

I do know diamonds and gemstones though. When I said synthetics devalue naturals, I didn't mean literally. There will always be people willing and able to pay for a natural over a synthetic and there will always be people who will buy synthetics because it's what they can afford in the size/look that they want. I have never sold a synthetic to someone who could afford a natural that met their specifications. The two are not in competition with each other. And for the record, synthetics are not inexpensive (nor are all of the large ones laser inscribed).

I can tell a synthetic from a natural from a simulant with a microscope. Granted, I'm trained. The average untrained eye can't, but it usually also can't distinguish a $50 cubic zirconia from a $7000 diamond.

I have a genuine love of diamonds and gemstones and that's probably the only reason I lean toward naturals. You'd probably not find a lot of hair stylists plugging boxed hair dye.

Pythonfriend, that feeling you get when someone refers to a synthetic as "fake", its the same one I get when I see someone describing synthetics as being the EXACT same as naturals. They're close, but not exactly the same. I have sold synthetics. You're correct, you have to let the customer decide what they want and I don't begrudge anyone for buying what they want.

At the same time, I understand (yes, I've heard this) people feeling a little put off that someone can buy a replica of their $20,000 ring for $1500. People buy luxury items as a status symbol. There was a time when you couldn't have those things until you'd reached a certain level of financial success. Nowadays anyone with the internet and $100 can have a "Rolex". I guess that's my point. I know it sounds kind of snobby (I swear, I have Dr Pop and Great Value Mayo in my fridge right now, I'm not professing to be one of these successful people!) but I think you should earn luxury. Or marry or inherit it :)



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I'd trust someone who's certified in diamonds than someone who was scammed out for a large mark up in another country.

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I have a genuine love of Brandi and it's not for her diamonds!!! Zingerrrr ;)

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Im with Brandi on this.

I don't want a man made recreation, I want the real deal. I'm not sure the wife would have gone for synthetic. Now a-days everything can be made in a lab. While they may be the same composition I don't see them as the same but I'm a person that does think about the process and time it took to create an object like a natural diamond. I am happy to pay for such an amazing object.

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Originally Posted by KMG

Im with Brandi on this.

I don't want a man made recreation, I want the real deal. I'm not sure the wife would have gone for synthetic.

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Which is funny because for me (female) jewelry is just something else to put on when I have to dress up. So, I would prefer synthetic if its less expensive and looks just as nice to the naked eye.

I'm probably unusual in that regard compared to most women though, as it's been well over a year since I've worn any jewelry, including my wedding band.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

Which is funny because for me (female) jewelry is just something else to put on when I have to dress up. So, I would prefer synthetic if its less expensive and looks just as nice to the naked eye.

I'm probably unusual in that regard compared to most women though, as it's been well over a year since I've worn any jewelry, including my wedding band.

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Sounds like you might actually prefer a simulated stone :) A good sized synthetic diamond is still going to be in the neighborhood of $1200. Well, unless you happen to have access to wholesale. Then you can pick one up for about $12.

You aren't alone. A lot of women don't care about jewelry. I've sold it for most of my adult life and I wear my fakey fashion stuff a lot more than my nicer pieces. I work in a jewelry store though, so people just assume that everything I wear is valuable. I'm gonna be so pissed when some dude sticks a gun in my face for my $40 earrings!



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Originally Posted by bcr229

Which is funny because for me (female) jewelry is just something else to put on when I have to dress up. So, I would prefer synthetic if its less expensive and looks just as nice to the naked eye.

I'm probably unusual in that regard compared to most women though, as it's been well over a year since I've worn any jewelry, including my wedding band.

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You're not alone. I don't wear a lot of jewelry anymore. I dont put earrings in every day. When I got married, I wanted the diamond. It's been sitting in my jewelry box for about 5/14 years of marriage. I always smacked it, snagged it, and broke prongs, and had to have them fixed. Now the whole darn thing needs to be reset. So we put it away and got a white gold band. Love it, and never catch it on anything. My job and active life aren't kind to fancy jewelry.