A) Diamonds chip
B) They have to find a buyer who has the same taste (not as bad as ‘A’).
C) They know what it’s worth and can afford to make a low ball bid knowing that you’ll likely not realize that you could have had a higher offer.
D) They know that YOU don’t know. (Even worse than A/B/C combined)
E) You need the money fast, so you’ll take the first offer that is decent.

Next time, if you want something else to resell, just get certified precious metals. Or you can go with coins and jewelry whose main value is the metal content. And if that’s not to your taste, use the old standby of decorative guns ‘n ammo. (not joking at all!)

Their history is decidedly chequered, though I would need to see proof of claims like ‘owned 40% of the South African stockmarket’. Lots of older companies have some dodgy stuff in their pasts. deBeers tends to get put under the spotlight by readers of the Protocols of Zion.

Minor disclosure: I’ve done contract work for deBeers in the past. They’ve been excellent to work with, once you get over the security mindset they have.

        RowanVT said:

Bitter much? You certainly sound like it. As a woman, I would much rather have something like a lunar meteorite or birthstone ring than a diamond. In fact, I personally find diamonds to be the most boring rock on the planet. “Oh look. It’s clear. … woo.”

Heck, some birthstones are still worth more than diamonds. Even today, despite what DeBeers tells the world, diamonds are not the most valuable stones per weight. I’m not sure what is, but probably good quality rubies. Pink rubies are common. The really deep red ones are not, and clarity is rare in a ruby, so is highly prized. Also, rubies (being corundum) come in star forms, as do sapphires. (A star gem is one which, when polished, shows a shimmering star shape inside.) Diamonds never do; they have the wrong crystal lattice to support the star. And there are even synthetic star gems now; I used to have a synthetic star sapphire set on a white gold ring. Very nice.

But a lunar meteorite . . . dude. If my man got me one of those, I would be . . . well, I’d be over the moon. I’m not seriously into expensive jewelry (I mostly just like to admire it), but I *am* into space. A lunar meteorite, even a tiny one, set into jewelry would show that a) he really knows me and b) he’s willing to spend a huge chunk of money. I’d rather he paid off the mortgage if he has that kind of money, though. Meteorites are very very expensive. Not as expensive (per weight) as a high-end diamond, but a small piece set into jewelry will set you back a few hundred bucks at least, so they’re certainly not junk. Lunar ones will set you back considerably further, to the point where I suspect determining the actual price will involve haggling.

Synthetics are almost as bad an investment and will lose value as well. They are expensive, less so than natural, but still hundreds or thousands of dollars. However this is just because they’re new and not many produce them (yet). They’re actually cheap to make. Give it a couple of years and the price will fall on those, even as they become harder to detect.

If you’re going to buy a diamond expect to lose all the value of it. Buy synthetic becasue at least then you don’t lose as much. Don’t search “synthetic” though. Search for “cultured diamond” or “lab grown” or “lab cultured” because synthetic gets you stuck with the CZ and Moisonite sites.

The DeBeers, AngloAmerican Mining, Consolidated Diamond Syndicate was responsible for extending WW2 by TWO years.

During summer of 1940 there was a fear that the worlds supplies of diamonds would fall into German hands during the invasion. In as much as diamonds were required for any significant industrial process, this would amount to a total victory.

The Syndicate did not want to ship its stockpile across the Atlantic for fear that after the war the US would seize everything as part of an antiTrust action.

So things sat in British drawing rooms, and nothing was done. After The Battle of Britain was over the Syndicate retaliated. It cut the quality of the industrial diamonds while keeping the quantity and price the same. The net effects was as if they had halved the supply of industrial diamonds. So it took twice as long to build the stockpile of tanks and planes needed for the invasion of Europe.

In addition, the Oppenheimer controled AngloAmerican Mining was given control of the Congo fields which were mostly industrial diamonds. By some strange coincidence the stones from these mines ended up going to Germany via the diamond merchants of Tangiers and Cairo. For a price of 30 times the regular market.
In 1941 Germany predicted that its store of industrial diamonds would be gone by Sept 1943. As it was they found a source of smuggled diamonds and 1944 was the year of their greated war material production.

All this was in a wartime OSS study that is quoted in the in house history of the Syndicate.
( http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/diamond/chap9.htm)

So every death in WW2 after 1943 is directly attributable to the greed of the diamond merchants.

The irony is that the greed of the Jewish merchants of England was to cause the deaths of the Jews of Poland etc.