Diamonds

Look in any jewelry store window and you’ll see diamond rings priced at thousands of dollars.
Even at Costco you can easily pay $10,000.00 or more for a diamond ring. I mean, come on, who can really tell the difference between a real diamond and a fake one? If you need a professional jeweler with a magnifying glass to tell if a pretty rock is supposedly worth thousands of dollars or only worth 50 bucks, that’s crazy, isn’t it?
I happened to be in Jerusalem in 1978 and I wanted to bring home some souvenirs for family and friends. I bought some very beautiful hand crafted silver dangling earrings with pretty olive wood balls for my mom and my sister in laws.
I liked the pair I gave to one of my sister in laws so much that I hated to part with it but I gave it to her anyway. I could tell by the look she gave my brother that she thought it was something she didn’t want and I never saw her wear them.
I guess if I paid a lot of money for them my sister-in-law would have appreciated them.
I know a lady who inherited her mother’s wedding ring who’s father paid $10,000.00 for it years ago. Do you think it went up in value? No. The lady recently needed money so she went to a jewelry store to see if they would buy it. The guy at the jewelry store offered her $500.00 for it. She was shocked but she was finally able to sell it to someone else for $750.00.
Men are expected to spend most of their savings on a shiny piece of rock. I mean if they don’t spend at least a couple thousand bucks to demonstrate their love for their fiancé, they’re considered cheap. But wouldn’t it be better to invest that money in something that has real value, like maybe toward a down payment on a house?
But, no, men are snookered into trading a big chuck of cash for a little diamond ring that really isn’t much of an asset at all. It’s worse than buying a new car where as soon as you drive it off the car lot, it’s value is worth thousands of dollars less than you’re paying for it. But at least you can drive a car.
A diamond ring immediately loses more than 50% of it’s value once you walk out the door of the jewelry store.
Here’s the lowdown on diamonds: in 1938 DeBeers thought up a very successful marketing campaign telling people that diamonds are rare — but diamonds are not rare — DeBeers has been carefully restricting the supply of diamonds for years to keep the price of diamonds expensive.
Meanwhile every year thousand of American men feel the societal obligation to furnish a diamond engagement ring that is both stressful and expensive — especially when they’re usually young and their income isn’t all that high.
But here’s the thing – this obligation only exists because the company that stands to profit from it willed it into existence and we have fallen for it.
Maybe it’s time for us to will away the crazy idea that diamonds are rare and worth the hundreds of millions of dollars people are paying for them every year and go back to giving other, much more affordable jewelry to loved ones — like the ones I gave to my sister-in-law — or better yet — invest the money into something that is actually going to gain value and not just an inflated pretty rock.