De Beers undercuts the man made diamond price

[Texas Leaguer]

kinda controversial, but do you guys think the price of mined diamonds will start going down? in my mind it shouldn’t because there is only a finite number of mined stones able to be produced, but being able to grow >1c stones that are almost indistinguishable from a mined stone makes me wonder what people will do

i have nothing against lab grown diamonds, i just preferred to get a mined stone for her. she didn’t care the source but it was more for myself.

It did not happen to the price natural rubies and sapphires when synthetic corundum was invented in the early twentieth century. That's about as close a historical parallel as you can find.

Other factors are much more important than competition from synthetics in terms of moving the price of mined diamonds.

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

No, I really don't think so. Not any time soon, at least. It's true that natural pearls lost their value once cultured pearls took over (and pearls lost their cache) but that took an entire lifetime. I wouldn't make a decision today about a mined diamond based on fears of the value falling. Too much is unknown.

Actually cultured pearls greatly increased the market for pearls by making it possible for ordinary folk to have something special. Thru the 50's to 80's it was the 21st birthday gift from grandparents.
And if you look in mass market stores they sell loads of man made synthetic coloured gems NOT TO MENTION CZ and they have not had an impact on natural.
I think in fact getting the taste for entry buyers can lead some to aspire to real.

 

[vintageloves]

I think in fact getting the taste for entry buyers can lead some to aspire to real.

When was the last time you came across someone who only wanted "real" pearls, not cultured? This is my point. It's true that pearls became even more popular, but they were all cultured and no one has given a single thought to whether a pearl is naturally occurring for about 100 years. It's a well known fact that cultured pearls caused the value of natural ones to plummet, and we need no further example than the strand that bought the Cartier building that dropped in value from $1M in 1909 to $150K in 1956.

Basically, if you hold a gemstone to be THE status symbol of generations (like natural pearls previously and mined diamonds now) and then flood the market with a man-made product the public accepts as being the same, the value of the real thing vanishes. I know I'm never going to convince the industry of this, but your gooses are cooked. Not for a while, though.

 

[Texas Leaguer]

When was the last time you came across someone who only wanted "real" pearls, not cultured? This is my point. It's true that pearls became even more popular, but they were all cultured and no one has given a single thought to whether a pearl is naturally occurring for about 100 years. It's a well known fact that cultured pearls caused the value of natural ones to plummet, and we need no further example than the strand that bought the Cartier building that dropped in value from $1M in 1909 to $150K in 1956.

Basically, if you hold a gemstone to be THE status symbol of generations (like natural pearls previously and mined diamonds now) and then flood the market with a man-made product the public accepts as being the same, the value of the real thing vanishes. I know I'm never going to convince the industry of this, but your gooses are cooked. Not for a while, though.

One important difference in the analogy of natural pearls is that they were so scarce to begin with that only the very wealthy could afford them. And as overfishing and environmental degradation ensued, they became effectively extinct as there was no longer much investment in harvesting and promoting them.
Natural diamond is plentiful enough that there is a thriving middle market. There is abundant vested interest in continuing to promote the product. And, as in the example I cited earlier of rubies and sapphires, the market will continue to prefer natural to the extent that it remains available. And especially if synthetic diamond gets very cheap (probable), it will be viewed by the market as a separate product rather than competitive one to natural, as we see in the synthetic corundum market.

 

[Karl_K]

It is too early to say for sure which way the market and prices are going to go.
My prediction is that man made is going to be well over 1/2 the market in 20-25 years and the majority market in 50-100 years.
The simple fact that mining is declining for environmental, resource. political reasons will make it happen.
In a significant and growing part of the world even if they found a large diamond pipe the permission to open it will not be granted any time soon.

 

[kmoro]

When was the last time you came across someone who only wanted "real" pearls, not cultured? This is my point. It's true that pearls became even more popular, but they were all cultured and no one has given a single thought to whether a pearl is naturally occurring for about 100 years. It's a well known fact that cultured pearls caused the value of natural ones to plummet, and we need no further example than the strand that bought the Cartier building that dropped in value from $1M in 1909 to $150K in 1956.

Basically, if you hold a gemstone to be THE status symbol of generations (like natural pearls previously and mined diamonds now) and then flood the market with a man-made product the public accepts as being the same, the value of the real thing vanishes. I know I'm never going to convince the industry of this, but your gooses are cooked. Not for a while, though.

Actually, I don’t think your analogy is correct .. natural pearls are extremely expensive compared to cultured pearls because they are so rare.