For our anniversary I want to buy my wife diamond earrings. I bought her a lab made diamond bracelet in the past and she loved it, but said that she would rather have earth made diamonds because she wants it to retain value to pass on to our daughter.
Looking online I see many sites from jewelers that confirm what she claims, but I do not trust their bias. Is it true that man made diamonds that are considered ‘perfect’ are worth less in the long run compared to their earthen made brethren?
In: 1669
The Gold in a ring will retain value quite nicely. Maybe you should forgo the diamond and focus on just gold if “passing down wealth” is the goal.
After my mom passed away from cancer, some of the jewelry my dad gifted to my wife was eminently more valuable for sentimental purposes than monetary ones.
When you’re passing on heirlooms, monetary value shouldn’t really matter. If anything, I would like to avoid the chance that my kids would need to decide between mom’s ring and paying bills, and in that way lower value is actually better.
My wife wears my mother’s stone in a new setting. It’s not a “wow” stone, but the fact that it’s passed down means more to her and even leads to more conversations than a big stone would.
OOF. I would just be grateful someone got me diamonds, not complain that they werent bloody enough…
The reality is also that most earth diamonds dont actually retain their value either. There’s a reason most are MUCH cheaper on the secondary market.
This is one of those questions that is sensible, but slightly misinformed. The trouble are your sources. You cannot take the advice of anyone selling diamonds. Jewelry stores, for example, want to charge more for diamonds mined from the Earth. This has been their business model for centuries, and they do not want it to change.
The truth is that diamonds haven’t been scarce for a long time. Monopolies and cartels (an organized group that controls supply) have propped up the price of diamonds for decades. The only reason they sell for a lot of money is because A) the group selling them artificially restrict the supply, and B) marketing.
The reality is that the secondary market for diamonds sucks. My wife’s diamond pre-dates the availability of man made diamonds in the commercial market. It’s a high-quality: ideal cut, VS1, F color; and decent size: 1.13 caret. It’s worth less than half what we paid for it new.
Do not believe the jeweler when they try to sell you more expensive Earth-made diamonds on the basis that they’ll “hold their value” better. While it may be true that their value is slightly higher, the reality is that the value of gifted diamond ear rings is in their sentimental value, not monetary value. It is extremely rare for any piece of jewelry to go up in value over time. Buy your daughter something nice that fits your budget, and let her enjoy them in the years to come.
I mean – diamonds (in general) are only really worth what someone is willing to pay for them. They have very little intrinsic value/rarity.
Just do NOT view your ring as an “investment”; view it as a gift.
I don’t agree with her reasoning. An heirloom is valuable because of the family history, not the monetary value.
Because de beers really doesn’t want their giant pile of rocks to become worthless. That’s literally the only difference, the gemstone market is almost entirely cornered and artificial as far as pricing goes. Artificial diamonds are perfect diamonds, or can be made to have any preferred impurities you might favor for special colors. The only reason they are seen as less desirable is because de beers has spent a ton of money and time ensuring dealers, traders and resellers fix the price. Diamonds are not rare or hard to find, but they certainly are controlled.
Your wife is buying into DeBeers propaganda. Diamonds, both naturally occurring and man-made, BOTH actually have HORRID “resale value” among jewelry experts because the prices of diamond gemstones is held up entirely because of the DeBeers monopoly.
The only difference, usually, between a man-made diamond and a natural one is the lack of flaws within the diamond, which logically would be valued more
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