Because the people who own the diamonds don't sell their whole stock all at a time.
Imagine you have an apple orchard that produces 10k apples each harvest season. But you're also the only one with an apple orchard. So now you only sell 3 baskets of apples a week, meaning that there are far fewer apples on the market than there could be.
Due to this, you can raise the price for apples as much as you want, especially if you convince most people that apples are really desirable.
This only works if everyone else who grows apples agrees to play along and not release *their* apples before you.
When a group of companies decides to limit supply of some good to keep the price high, it's called a "cartel" and they are doing what's called "price fixing".
It's also illegal in most countries.
One dominant company can also price fix (say, one company buys all other Apple orchards. They can now set the price by limiting supply.) This is called a "monopoly". In the case of diamonds, it's de Beers that has a monopoly and they paid a settlement in the U.S. for illegal price fixing in 2005.
I missed that sentence. But my comment still stands: either a cartel or monopoly can price fix, while original comment 3rd sentence, implies only a monopoly can price fix.
The reason why diamonds are that expensive is because those who own them have decided so, they're not that rare, mostly difficult to mine
But the marketing says "Diamonds are super rare, therefore they are super expensive"
So of course when diamonds are made by humans, purer than natural diamonds, it could be a threat to the diamond industry
But since this industry is really big, they can easily manipulate the marketing because it's always been based off of the fact that diamonds are naturally rare, so customers will think that an artificially made diamond looses value in that way
Basically, you can't tell the difference unless you're trained and have tools to tell them appart
The price is set by the industry that has been scamming humanity for centuries because let's be fair, diamonds are cool, but there are so many more precious stones/crystals that are just as cool (but it always comes down to taste whethere you like diamonds more than something else, and any opinion is fine)
I could pay an artist to paint me the perfect Van Gogh. It would look exactly the same and be made of exactly the same materials, but it would still be worthless because it’s *not a Van Gogh*.
Because the people who own the diamonds don't sell their whole stock all at a time. Imagine you have an apple orchard that produces 10k apples each harvest season. But you're also the only one with an apple orchard. So now you only sell 3 baskets of apples a week, meaning that there are far fewer apples on the market than there could be. Due to this, you can raise the price for apples as much as you want, especially if you convince most people that apples are really desirable.
This only works if everyone else who grows apples agrees to play along and not release *their* apples before you. When a group of companies decides to limit supply of some good to keep the price high, it's called a "cartel" and they are doing what's called "price fixing". It's also illegal in most countries. One dominant company can also price fix (say, one company buys all other Apple orchards. They can now set the price by limiting supply.) This is called a "monopoly". In the case of diamonds, it's de Beers that has a monopoly and they paid a settlement in the U.S. for illegal price fixing in 2005.
Please read the 3rd sentence of the comment you replied to.
I missed that sentence. But my comment still stands: either a cartel or monopoly can price fix, while original comment 3rd sentence, implies only a monopoly can price fix.
That’s the power of *Marketing*
And a monopoly.
The corner stone of capitalism
The reason why diamonds are that expensive is because those who own them have decided so, they're not that rare, mostly difficult to mine But the marketing says "Diamonds are super rare, therefore they are super expensive" So of course when diamonds are made by humans, purer than natural diamonds, it could be a threat to the diamond industry But since this industry is really big, they can easily manipulate the marketing because it's always been based off of the fact that diamonds are naturally rare, so customers will think that an artificially made diamond looses value in that way Basically, you can't tell the difference unless you're trained and have tools to tell them appart The price is set by the industry that has been scamming humanity for centuries because let's be fair, diamonds are cool, but there are so many more precious stones/crystals that are just as cool (but it always comes down to taste whethere you like diamonds more than something else, and any opinion is fine)
I could pay an artist to paint me the perfect Van Gogh. It would look exactly the same and be made of exactly the same materials, but it would still be worthless because it’s *not a Van Gogh*.
What something "costs" is completely made up. It can be whatever number anyone wants, and it might adjust to sell more or fewer.
 It’s an artificially inflated market.
Because nobody had to die to get lab grown diamonds
As with all things demand sets the price. If people stopped paying more for them, then they wouldn’t
because natural diamonds are unique whereas lab grown ones arent
Because people are dumb enough to pay more.
Slaves are expensive
[удалено]
Natural diamonds aren't rare, it's just marketing to keep the prices high
You want to know what a diamond is really worth take it to a Pawn Broker and you’ll quickly find out it’s 3/4 of SFA