De Beers shuts down LightBox

[Karl_K]

De Beers shuts down LightBox to concentrate on industrial, tech, and scientific markets.

 

[Ibrakeforpossums]

Who's Ronnie and why are you getting his mail?
They could have done a bang-up job with LGDs but they chose not to. I ordered one for a friend and it was pretty sad.

 

[Karl_K]

lol @Ibrakeforpossums it was sent to me to post by a trusted person so I have no idea.

My take on it is that the power costs rose probably because of data centers and they were not competitive at those rates.
They also started out as being nice quality but went downhill and as you noted got pretty bad while everyone else was getting better.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Who's Ronnie and why are you getting his mail?
They could have done a bang-up job with LGDs but they chose not to. I ordered one for a friend and it was pretty sad.

This is a letter to a De Beers client. No idea who.
As Karl mentioned even with all the hydro in Oregon there is still a lot of energy used and sadly the subsidized Indian +60% fossil fuels make a difference.
But more than that the ingenuity of the Indian diamond industry is the same as why 90% of the worlds diamonds are polished in Surat India.
Not in Antwerp, NYC or Tel Aviv.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/de-beers-shut-down-its-lab-grown-diamond-jewellery-brand-lightbox-2025-05-08/#:~:text=De%20Beers%20began%20selling%20synthetic,which%20fetch%20much%20higher%20prices

 

[DejaWiz]

My opinion: no loss to the world.
Lightbox was running on the mindset of "slop in, slop out" from what I gathered.

 

[Ibrakeforpossums]

Hoisted by his own petard. I've waited years to use that.

 

[RMOO]

Hoisted by his own petard. I've waited years to use that.

I had to look up this term's meaning. I had never heard it before, but it is now in my reserve cache. A much more dignified why of saying karmas a bitch.

 

[jeaniefish]

Hoisted by his own petard. I've waited years to use that.

The first time I heard that phrase was on the Phil Donahue show, way back in olden times. Phil asked a question of an audience member.The purpose of his clever question was to show her that something she had said was wrong or foolish. Instead of “falling for it” the clever lady replied … “ You’ll not hoist me on my own petard!” IDK what it meant then and had to look it up at the library. It sounded really painful!
Anyway, I really miss Phil Donahue. They broke the mold when he passed away.

 

[Texas Leaguer]

It was never really DeBeers' intention to make a lot of money in jewelry grade LGD. It was to hasten the predictable evolution of LGD in the jewelery market. As stated in the letter, it was their strategy to underscore the reality that LGD and natural diamonds were seperate products, and to preempt those early sellers who were marketing agressively against natural by establishing a much lower baseline price that they were aiming for.

They seem to have accomplished their mission, though it would have probably happened anyway.

 

[sledge]

Hoisted by his own petard. I've waited years to use that.

Such high society. I worked with an older gentlemen that has left me in stitches over the years with some of his phrases. Most that I can’t share here w/o concern of getting the axe.

Perhaps my favorite — “that’s just finer than the hair on a frog’s ass”.

I have to admit that prior to that I had never considered if a frog had hair but concluded quickly that if it did then certainly it would be very fine.

Maybe DeBeers could have used it here to illustrate how thin the profit margins were on their LGD’s.