<story><title>Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined</title><url>https://worksinprogress.co/issue/lab-grown-diamonds/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>A_D_E_P_T</author><text>Over the past 10 years, there has been an explosion in cheap lab diamond and moissanite producers in China and India.  10 years ago, it was hard to find quality lab diamonds at a reasonable price, and moissanite was still reasonably expensive at $400-600&amp;#x2F;ct.&lt;p&gt;Today, given cutthroat competition and &amp;quot;race to the bottom&amp;quot; pricing strategies, lab diamonds are ubiquitous, extremely high quality, and cheap.  Less than $200&amp;#x2F;ct and sometimes much less:  &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;detail.1688.com&amp;#x2F;offer&amp;#x2F;751071300271.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;detail.1688.com&amp;#x2F;offer&amp;#x2F;751071300271.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Moissanites are now less than $5&amp;#x2F;carat at retail:  &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;detail.1688.com&amp;#x2F;offer&amp;#x2F;586468555080.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;detail.1688.com&amp;#x2F;offer&amp;#x2F;586468555080.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;These are legit.  I&amp;#x27;ve bought some.&lt;p&gt;Within 10 years of today, I expect diamonds to lose almost all of their value. Moissanites have already become as near-worthless as synthetic rubies.  This is going to open up new industrial uses for those gemstones.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>godelski</author><text>Diamonds have lots of uses beyond being pretty.&lt;p&gt;I have to bring this up because a lot of people are talking as if this is the entirety of the reason for their decrease. But there&amp;#x27;s diamond files, diamond cutting blades&amp;#x2F;wheels&amp;#x2F;drills, you can make glass from it (really only used in labs that absolutely need them because the price), and many more uses. Many of these don&amp;#x27;t care about size, quality, or clarity. So instead of pulling from scrap material from jewelry making or rejected diamonds you could just make your own and ensure your own supply.&lt;p&gt;One of the things I&amp;#x27;ve loved about synthetic diamond prices coming down is just how cheap and available diamond cutting wheels and filing tools have become. You can now get a set of diamond files on Amazon for under $10. That&amp;#x27;s crazy</text></comment>
<story><title>Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined</title><url>https://worksinprogress.co/issue/lab-grown-diamonds/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>A_D_E_P_T</author><text>Over the past 10 years, there has been an explosion in cheap lab diamond and moissanite producers in China and India.  10 years ago, it was hard to find quality lab diamonds at a reasonable price, and moissanite was still reasonably expensive at $400-600&amp;#x2F;ct.&lt;p&gt;Today, given cutthroat competition and &amp;quot;race to the bottom&amp;quot; pricing strategies, lab diamonds are ubiquitous, extremely high quality, and cheap.  Less than $200&amp;#x2F;ct and sometimes much less:  &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;detail.1688.com&amp;#x2F;offer&amp;#x2F;751071300271.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;detail.1688.com&amp;#x2F;offer&amp;#x2F;751071300271.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Moissanites are now less than $5&amp;#x2F;carat at retail:  &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;detail.1688.com&amp;#x2F;offer&amp;#x2F;586468555080.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;detail.1688.com&amp;#x2F;offer&amp;#x2F;586468555080.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;These are legit.  I&amp;#x27;ve bought some.&lt;p&gt;Within 10 years of today, I expect diamonds to lose almost all of their value. Moissanites have already become as near-worthless as synthetic rubies.  This is going to open up new industrial uses for those gemstones.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jajko</author><text>They never had any value, apart from specialized ie glass cutting tool. Only when DeBeers realized they could push some fictious heavy marketing &amp;#x27;to prove your worth to woman you are asking to marry&amp;#x27; for those shiny stones nobody wanted to buy, people who didn&amp;#x27;t know better got manipulated into buying them. They are supposedly very common in universe, and probably in deeper Earth too.&lt;p&gt;Correction is healthy and benefits mankind long term, there was nothing good coming from ie impact on Africa. Nobody cared about that, so things are fixed from another direction.</text></comment>