Man Made Diamonds? Smart Investment?

I don’t think of Cubic Zirconia as an investment.

Bad idea. I had a lovely brooch and matching earrings made with real turquoises, real small diamonds and synthetic emeralds. The jewelers could spot the emeralds easily and refused to try to resell my stuff.

The only people who make money selling either jewelry, precious metals or gemstones are wholesale jewelers.

I’m not talking about Cubic Zirconia I’m talking about man made diamonds… Obviously until this post you didnt know they existed so I won’t be taking your advice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_diamond

I’m reading how man made diamonds are becoming more and more popular because they are now flawless and the only way the jewerlies can tell they are man made is because they are “too perfect” so I doubt anyone would be able to tell the difference.

Man made diamonds are starting to flood the market and Debeers (and every woman who’s husband spent 3 month of their salary) are getting scared and I don’t want to jump on a sinking ship (i.e. investing in VCR’s or Laser Disc’s)

http://www.israelidiamond.co.il/english/news.aspx?boneid=918&objid=2093

http://www.wwaytv3.com/node/363

they will never be worth as much as natural diamonds…..

proof please -

See my answer above. The synthetic emeralds were 100% real but not chemically. Every jeweler knows that the lab cannot do things the was Mother Nature does. Wear them, glitter and be happy, but don’t expect them to be Apple stock.

Since you don’t want our experience or advice, why are you bothering to ask?

(whose is possessive: who’s = who is ..abbrevation.)

Yes but what I am talking about is synthetic diamonds, not emeralds. Man mad diamonds are chemically the same and most jewelers can’t (there have been multiple tests) and th

http://www.ivanhoe.com/science/story/2007/02/241a.html

“Structurally they’re, they’re identical. Optically, chemically and physically they’re identical to a mine diamond,”

the reason I am discrediting your answers is because I was hoping that someone that knew a little more about the industry would answer. Hopefully someone in the industry that knows about the diamonds that are flooding the market and worrying jewelers all over the country.

Again, I’m not talking about Cubic or Moissanite – I’m talking about 100% real chemically and structurally identical diamonds.

DollarWise
Man-made diamonds: a girl’s new best friend?

advertisement
No, not cubic zirconia. Real gem-quality diamonds grown in labs are now entering the market—and are much cheaper than natural stones.

By Jennifer Mulrean

Most people are all too familiar with having champagne tastes on a beer budget. But when it comes to diamonds, you may be able to have it both ways.

That’s because gem-quality diamonds are now being grown in laboratories in places like Sarasota, Fla., and Boston. Forget cubic zirconia and Moissanite, which are made to pass as diamonds. Lab-grown stones are the real deal. And instead of the millions of years it takes to create natural diamonds, they’re grown by man in a matter of days.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/savinganddebt/p97816.asp

“We’ve essentially recreated the same conditions that occur hundreds of miles below the surface,” says David Hellier, president of Gemesis, the Florida company that specializes in growing colored diamonds. “After about four and a half days, we get a three-carat rough diamond. From that day forward, there’s no difference between that diamond and one that comes from the ground.”

If nothing else, David Hellier will make some money. Buyer beware. Stop in at a reputable jeweler’s and ask him his opinion..

I did stop in to several reputable jewelers and they all where very under educated on the newer synthetic diamonds. I’ve even revisited some and showed them information and they refuse to even hear it.

think about it, if you are a jeweler and something that has the potential to devalue your entire industry comes along (think Napster a few years back) would you support it? I doubt it…

What makes it worse is all these married couples are walking around thinking their rings are worth $5,000 and now a process might exist that would devalue them to $500. I’d be scared too – it’s like losing your investment over night.

The value in diamonds is the rarity. Man made diamond removes that rarity and so the value. While they may be useful for certain industrial process in jewelry they just strike me as cheap.

Also this whole questions smells of a certain brand of canned luncheon meat.

You are having a hard time understanding this so I’ll explain it like this :
Natural diamonds are like antiques, and synthetic diamonds are like reproduction antiques…...anyone who knows anything about antiques ( or diamonds) knows that a reproduction may look nice but it’s just not a smart investment for a dealer…..maybe if it’s just for housewife “show and tell” to try and impress their friends… but not for true collectors or dealers…...do you get it now

Cheeb, I do understand what you are saying but there are many more mined diamonds than synthetics and even the manfacturers of syntehics say there is no way they could ever compete with the mined industry. You do know that diamonds are not that rare and Debeers There are literally billions of carats mined every year and only a small fraction are every distributed:

http://www.belgianexperts.com/diamonds.php

Surprisingly, diamonds are not rare, whatsoever! This might come as a shock to a person who has just paid 1,000 dollars for a one-carat stone, but there are enough diamonds in the world to give every man, woman, and child in America a cupful.

So if there are enough diamonds to give dozens to everyone one in the world dozens why are they antiques? DO you get it now?

What I’m asking is how this industry come to an end? Has this man made inflated industry finally met it’s end because in time a guy in his basement could make a diamond for $5? O.k. that might be pushing it but every year these man made diamonds are going to become cheaper to make and every year are becoming harder and harder to detect. Maybe that blows people’s minds that an industry like diamonds could ever fall apart but it could happen especially because they only thing that make them “antiques” is a monopoly refusing to release a fraction of a percent to the market to keep demand high.

But im not an expert, I don’t know if this will happen… I just don’t want to be one of the last people to buy into a dieing technology. Here are my fears:

1. I buy a fat rock and in 10 years undetectable synthetics flood the market making it (and all other diamonds) near worthless.

2. I buy a fat synthetic and the synthetic industry never takes off (maybe they find a 100% effective way to detect them) and in 10 years the “fake” diamond becomes worthless.

3.I buy a synthetic and the technology becomes cheaper and cheaper and while mined diamonds keep a higher value synthetics become ultra cheap and thus losing value every year.

I’m not saying I can read the future but acting like you can doesn’t help either. This is a very rocky time for the diamond industry and I think the next 5 years is going to determine the future of the industry and depends greatly on if man made diamonds can become undetectable.

With all this said, after all my research. I would probably buy a mined diamond and NOT a man made because I feel the risk of it becoming worthless or losing value is greater. But we’ll have to wait and see – I still feel it’s very probable that synthetics are going to lower the overall cost of diamonds in time

@Great: you seem to want very badly to buy a synthetic. Why not just eat buy one and see what happens?

Or get a CD or some shares of a S&P 500 fund.

Investing is always about risk. You’re never going to get a guarantee.

@Gail – how do you get 7,000+ rep points without reading replies?

With all this said, after all my research. I would probably buy a mined diamond and NOT a man made because I feel the risk of it becoming worthless or losing value is greater. But we’ll have to wait and see – I still feel it’s very probable that synthetics are going to lower the overall cost of diamonds in time – GreatEscape

GE: it’s easy. I have the entire Fluther collective under my magic spell.

From talking to a jeweler friend who has just gotten out of the business after 30 years. He explained it this way. At one time you could tell the difference in the man made stones from the natural stones, because the man made stones had a small seed crystal to start the process. Locating the seed crystal allowed the gemologist to tell which were the man made stones. However, he said that in the past year, new developments have come in man made diamonds where there is no longer need for the seed crystal to start the stone. Meaning now it is possible to make a D flawless stone that even a gemologist can’t tell from the natural one. The only difference in the man made stones is going to be that the crystals grow in one direction and they are going to harder and stronger with less propensity for breaking than a natural stone. In other words the difference is the man made stones will be better without defects and not prone to chipping. He also said that the cost for producing the stones is about 600 per carat now. Which, when and if the information gets out as to how the process works the price will start to come down. That is when and if competition enters the market.
Whereas according to where you go and who you talk to the same stone in a nature made diamond can cost 8000 to 25000 or more. The only thing is the technology is new and Debeers has the market monopolized so that there is no way to know what will happen. Plus Debeers might decide to do to the man made diamond market what Ford, Chevrolet and Chrysler did to the electric cars. It could be decades before the technology is finally out there. In addition Debeers owns enough diamonds that they could potentially flood the market to the extent that the man made diamonds are no longer feasible to produce. This is the trouble with monopolies in the marketplace and Debeers is the largest and worst example of a Monopoly that I can think of anywhere in the world. If it were an American company the government would have ripped it apart with antitrust laws long ago.