A jeweler will naturally stand by natural diamonds and the supposed quality and clarity and all other specs that come with it. But lets be a bit real. We are talking about sparkly stones that people buy because it is pretty. It has no other use except for aesthetics. And it should be common knowledge that diamonds are an expense and not an investment. Sure there are some stones that appreciate in value over time and there are those that have uncommon shape, size, color or other internal features that make it more expensive over time, and there are those that are bought and sold in auctions that become more expensive over time, but the diamonds that we buy as a lay man are neither the size nor the quality that are sold in such auctions. You don’t have to believe everything someone writes on the internet. All you need to do is take your diamond set to a jeweler and ask them to buy it back for a price that is higher than what you paid. If you manage to do that, then I am wrong and the whole article is a lie. In this regard I speak only in terms of stones as I am fully aware as to how high the gold prices are.

While some still sell the idea of buying natural diamonds as an investment, I genuinely feel that investing in diamonds is akin to investing in art. Sure, Monet, MF Hussain, Van Gogh are all good investments but none of us who are reading this article have the monetary bandwidth to ‘invest’ in such artwork. The art we can afford can neither be auctioned nor sold again for a higher price. Same with the diamonds.

Going by the above logic, it definitely makes a lot more sense to buy a lab grown diamond over the real one. Heck, no one will even know the difference. Even the people who buy diamonds do not buy them with the intention of selling them at a higher price later on. Since diamonds have no utilitarian value and it is strictly aesthetic, might as well buy a sparkly lab grown stone. On the contrary, diamonds have the aspirational value, and like all luxury goods, have no utilitarian value. But the only counter argument to that is, that the marketing around diamonds and other luxury goods is so extraordinarily good that people believe that they are aspirational.

Factually speaking, around 30,000 tons of diamonds are mined annually and although majority of them are for industrial uses, thousands of tons of jewelry grade natural diamonds are still harvested annually and it really is not that rare. The diamond industry is a monopoly / oligopoly at best and only a handful of stones are auctioned in the market each year, to keep their value abnormally high. If the marketing teams of diamond companies are convincing us to attach so much emotion to these sparkly stones, then they are truly the masters of their craft and we are nothing but sheep.

So, is it time to buy another sparkly stone to make yourself feel more valued and special? to signal to others that you are successful? After all, what good is success if no one knows you’ve achieved it right? or you could stop falling for the spectacularly good marketing. Buy what you love, and what looks good on you. Just because something was mined by underage and underpaid bonded laborers, doesn’t make it special. Remember, it is YOU, who makes the jewelry look good. Not the other way round.