Diamonds are a...

[CheapBastid]

…monopolistic artificially created marketing scam forcing fellas to spend?

(OK, so it doesn’t have the same ring as Marilyn’s postulate.)

With the recent return to the U.S. of DeBeers I did some searching and I found it odd that the one thing the Straight Dope has on Diamond Engagement Rings had no reference to the Created Market that DeBeers has been foisting on the populous.

So are the cries of foul overdone in regards to the foolishness of purchasing diamond jewelry?

[clairobscur]

Your search wasn’t probably extensive enough, since I’ve read a lot of threads and posts about the very issue you’re mentionning.

[CheapBastid]

@clairobscur

Your search wasn’t probably extensive enough, since I’ve read a lot of threads and posts about the very issue you’re mentionning.

I did a scan of threads, and I found a few, but the only Mailbag/Cecil responses seemed to repeat the fallacy that it is a centuries old tradition to give a diamond engagement ring.

That is what I found odd.

[spingears]

@CheapBastid

…monopolistic artificially created marketing scam forcing fellas to spend?

(OK, so it doesn’t have the same ring as Marilyn’s postulate.)

With the recent return to the U.S. of DeBeers I did some searching and I found it odd that the one thing the Straight Dope has on Diamond Engagement Rings had no reference to the Created Market that DeBeers has been foisting on the populous.

So are the cries of foul overdone in regards to the foolishness of purchasing diamond jewelry?

So buy her a Zirconia! Quiturbichen. It’s only high powered hype!

[bughunter]

Diamonds are a…

… tasty Mercotan appetizer, well accompanied by a glass of 12 year old bromated chlorofluorocarbon chilled to a brisk 50K and aged in petrified oak barrels.

Where’s Qadgop??

[John_Kentzel-Griffin]

General Questions is for questions with factual answers. This is a Great Debate.

Off to Great Debates.

DrMatrix - GQ Moderator

[Zagadka]

@CheapBastid

…monopolistic artificially created marketing scam forcing fellas to spend?

Not only that, but a proximate cause for the deaths and maiming of millions of civilians throughout Africa.

[Abe]

I found one of the threads on diamonds, though it wasn’t easy. What is wrong with the Search function??

Fake diamond = better than real diamond?

There’s a post in there in which I give a link and comments to an analysis of the amazing communications campaign that turned diamonds into a cash cow for De Beers – worth reading that article. The story is at http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/82feb/8202diamond1.htm and I repost the extract quoted in my post here:

From the above link at The Atlantic:
THE diamond invention – the creation of the idea that diamonds are rare and valuable, and are essential signs of esteem – is a relatively recent development in the history of the diamond trade. Until the late nineteenth century, diamonds were found only in a few riverbeds in India and in the jungles of Brazil, and the entire world production of gem diamonds amounted to a few pounds a year. In 1870, however, huge diamond mines were discovered near the Orange River, in South Africa, where diamonds were soon being scooped out by the ton. Suddenly, the market was deluged with diamonds. The British financiers who had organized the South African mines quickly realized that their investment was endangered; diamonds had little intrinsic value – and their price depended almost entirely on their scarcity. The financiers feared that when new mines were developed in South Africa, diamonds would become at best only semiprecious gems.

The major investors in the diamond mines realized that they had no alternative but to merge their interests into a single entity that would be powerful enough to control production and perpetuate the illusion of scarcity of diamonds. The instrument they created, in 1888, was called De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd., incorporated in South Africa. As De Beers took control of all aspects of the world diamond trade, it assumed many forms.

<snip>

De Beers proved to be the most successful cartel arrangement in the annals of modern commerce. While other commodities, such as gold, silver, copper, rubber, and grains, fluctuated wildly in response to economic conditions, diamonds have continued, with few exceptions, to advance upward in price every year since the Depression. Indeed, the cartel seemed so superbly in control of prices – and unassailable – that, in the late 1970s, even speculators began buying diamonds as a guard against the vagaries of inflation and recession.

[spingears]

Just a few short years ago there were alllegedly two different groups that were getting set up to manufacture synthetic diamonds, one in the US the other ???

They persons interviewed on TV claimed they were being harrassed by the cartel.
There has been no follow up since and presumably they were eliminated or bought off (bribed) to cease and desist.

[chrisk]

Also somewhat relevant:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=257305 “Are Diamonds About To Be Cheap?”

[hawthorne]

@CheapBastid

I did a scan of threads, and I found a few, but the only Mailbag/Cecil responses seemed to repeat the fallacy that it is a centuries old tradition to give a diamond engagement ring.

That is what I found odd.

I hope I’m not out of line in saying this, but I’ve been sent a couple of items from the mailbag and this is one of them. So in the fullness of time, there will be a Staff or Guest Report on this.

[Algernon]

@spingears

Just a few short years ago there were alllegedly two different groups that were getting set up to manufacture synthetic diamonds, one in the US the other ???

There are two companies who are currently manufacturing diamonds. Not synthetic diamonds, but pure 100% true diamonds. Gemesis and Apollo Diamond.

chrisk provided the relevant link to the thread where this is discussed, and in which there are other links.

Apollo Diamond is still in startup stages, manufacturing only tens of thousands of carats a year. They plan to get to millions of carats a year in the not too distant future.

This of course has nothing to do with the tradition of giving diamond engagement rings, but I thought I’d answer the ancillary question.

[Jon_the_Geek]

@Algernon

There are two companies who are currently manufacturing diamonds. Not synthetic diamonds, but pure 100% true diamonds. Gemesis and Apollo Diamond.

<pet peeve>
What those companies produce are synthetic diamonds. They are also 100% true diamonds (and more perfect than the mined ones, actually). They are simply not mined diamonds.

From [url=http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=synthetic]M-W.com’s definition of synthetic:
4 a (1) : of, relating to, or produced by chemical or biochemical synthesis; especially : produced artificially <synthetic drugs> <synthetic silk>
</pet peeve>

[Jon_the_Geek]

@Jon the Geek

From [M-W.com’s definition of synthetic:

<pet peeve 2>God I hate screwed up formatting. Here’s the correct link: [url=http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=synthetic]M-W.com’s definition of synthetic](Synthetic | Definition of Synthetic by Merriam-Webster). I’ll preview this time (like I usually do, but forgot) to make sure it’s right
</pet peeve 2>

[Algernon]

I stand corrected Jon the Geek. You’ve lived up to your name.

In my mind at least, synthetic has connotations of artificial, so that’s the root cause of my error. Not to make excuses, but I was trying to ensure that people knew that these Apollo Diamonds were not artificial.

Thanks for your clarification.

[Jon_the_Geek]

@Algernon

I stand corrected Jon the Geek. You’ve lived up to your name.

In my mind at least, synthetic has connotations of artificial, so that’s the root cause of my error. Not to make excuses, but I was trying to ensure that people knew that these Apollo Diamonds were not artificial.

Thanks for your clarification.

Yeah, um. Hate to do it again… but they are artificial, as in man-made

They’re just artificial diamonds that have the same properties and chemical composition as natural diamonds

BTW, this link worked on preview. I blame the hamsters if it doesn’t work.

[Algernon]

[Maxwell Smart]
Would you believe I meant to say they’re not imitation diamonds?
[/Maxwell]
And to make sure this time, I looked it up: imitation = “not genuine”.