Here it is, boys and girls...in black and white. Please, ladies, for the sake of all of us males, don't buy into the hype. From http://www.howstuffworks.com/diamond3.htm :

A Perception of Rarity
Diamonds are made in the molten magma deep inside the Earth. Only nature can create diamonds, but it is people who have created the artificial rarity that has spurred demand for these gems. Carbon is one of the most common elements in the world, and diamonds are a form of carbon. Naturally occurring diamonds are no more rare than many other precious gems. The truly rare transparent diamonds are those rated as flawless, meaning that they don't have the slightest imperfection.

Photo courtesy Smithsonian Institution
Some diamonds, like the Hope Diamond (pictured here), are extremely rare. However, most diamonds are much more abundant than we are led to believe.

Diamonds were not always so popular with the American public, and they were not always so pricey. A diamond placed in a mounting on a ring has a markup of about 100 percent to 200 percent. The only reason why we pay so much more for diamonds today than for other precious gems is because the diamond market is controlled almost entirely by a single diamond cartel, called De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd., which is based in South Africa.

De Beers stockpiles diamonds mined from countries around the world and releases a limited number of diamonds for sale each year. De Beers produces half of the world's diamond's supply and controls about two-thirds of the entire world market, according to a Washington Post report. At times, just to keep prices up, De Beers has bought tremendous numbers of diamonds from countries attempting to inject large quantities into the market. If De Beers were a U.S.-based company, it would be in violation of antitrust laws for fixing the prices of diamonds.

The secret to De Beers' success is a marketing campaign that convinces women that they should receive a diamond ring from their fiancee and convinces young men to pay "two-months salary" for that ring to show how much their love is worth. Prior to the 1930s, diamond rings were rarely given as engagement rings. Opals, rubies, sapphires and turquoise were deemed much more exotic gems to give as tokens of one's love, according to the book "Twenty Ads that Shook the World," by James B. Twitchell. Twitchell goes on to describe how De Beers changed the world diamond market.

This idea of connecting diamonds to romance was captured in a brilliant ad campaign begun in the 1940s, causing demand for diamonds to increase. Surely you've heard the De Beers advertisement telling you that "A Diamond is Forever." This ad campaign, which was created by the N.W. Ayer advertising agency in 1947, changed the diamond market. In 2000, Advertising Age magazine named the ad campaign the slogan of the 20th century. De Beers infiltrated Japan with the same ad campaign in the 1960s, and the Japanese public bought into the idea as much as the Americans did.

Later ads by De Beers told consumers to hold onto their family's diamond jewelry and to cherish them as heirlooms -- and it worked. This eliminated the aftermarket for diamonds, which further enabled De Beers to control the market. Without people selling their diamonds back to jewelers or to other people, the demand for new diamonds increased.

There are fewer than 200 people or companies authorized to buy rough diamonds from De Beers. These people are called sightholders, and they purchase the diamonds through the Central Selling Organization (CSO), a subsidiary of De Beers that markets about 70 percent to 80 percent of the world's diamonds. De Beers sells a parcel of rough diamonds to a sightholder, who in turn sends the diamonds to cutting facilities and then to distributors.

There are rough diamonds sold outside the CSO. These diamonds come from small producers in Australia, Russia and some African countries. The cost of these diamonds is still largely influenced by the prices set by the CSO.

Diamonds are the most coveted of all precious gems, as is witnessed by the extremely high demand for them. While this has not always been the case, diamonds are nonetheless exquisite gems that go through a long, tedious refining process from the time they are pulled from the ground to when you see them in the jewelry store. And, while some of the mystique of diamonds may be gone -- they're just carbon, after all -- the diamond will likely continue to be a highly coveted jewel, because, well, "A Diamond is Forever."

 

I have the good fortune to be married to a woman who dislikes diamonds, a bias she has passed along to our daughter.

Her engagement and wedding rings and my wedding ring are almost identical: a white gold dove holding an olive branch with jade leaves. On hers, the olive branch is the engagement ring and the wedding ring with the dove has branches which hook into it.

We get more comments on our rings than I've ever heard for a diamond ring.

Just one more way we've been well and truly blessed.

 

Interesting reading, thanks for posting that.

For some time, I have been interested in the business practices and marketing campaigns of DeBeers and it's pretty amazing how much influence this campaign has had on women, in particular. It's a racket, frankly, and if more people knew about this, I think there would be less willingness to be so manipulated as people are today.

It's pretty amazing how deeply these attitudes are held by people. One of my best friends (a girl) is engaged (more or less) and all she can talk about is getting the diamond ring. I think the campaign by DeBeers has been quite a success with her...

Magician, does your wife have any sisters? I'm looking for a woman that places greater value on the commitment, not on a diamond...let me know!

 

I heard a jeweler talk once about old diamonds (antique) and new diamonds. I think the "age since cut" was the distinction. They were dissing the old diamonds, but I wonder if they really were pushing "new" ones because of the better markup. Also, as the original post says they want to eliminate the resale market.
Since diamonds are carbon based, isn't your great grandmothers 100 year old diamond as good as the one down at the mall? They are both millions of years old aren't they?

 

This is why I'm really rooting for the Russian scientists who have been working on producing such nice artificial diamonds. De Beers has started etching a microscopic logo on their diamonds to mark them as "real" because the artificial ones are so difficult to spot.

I hope that people wake up one day and make diamonds absolutely worthless, sending De Beers and everybody involved with it into poverty.

 

I've been down this path many a times. Fancy diamonds are so beautiful.

 

Paid $15K for a 2 carat diamond only.

Tan

 

That's a little harsh. I am in the jewelry business, and I am simply here to make an honest living. Why would you wish that upon me?

Morris,

Your jeweler was not lying to you. Yes, diamonds are by far the hardest substance known to man. So an old diamond doesn't show any signs of wear. What your jeweler was trying to tell you is that the way a diamond is cut (angles, proportions, number of facets, etc) has evolved. Modern "Brilliant Cut" diamonds, as they are called, will produce far superior sparkle and scintillation. Don't take my word for it...find an old diamond and compare it to a modern Premium or Ideal-Cut diamond. It's a drastic difference. It doesn't mean old diamonds are bad...they simply aren't designed to reflect the most possible light.

P.S. The days of high markup on diamonds are long gone. There are over 200 jewelers in my local area...all of them competing for your business. That makes for a lot of skinny margins. HTH

 

Not true...DeBeers is still forcing you to buy the diamonds from them at a ridiculously high price, which you in turn are forced to pass on to the consumer, regardless of the competition. There may be little to no "dealer markup" any more, but the "invoice price" is still vastly inflated.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by gregstevens
[B]Magician, does your wife have any sisters?