5 Comments
Feb 13, 2022·edited Feb 13, 2022Liked by Sahil Bloom

Interesting read! I did a bit of extra reading and was surprised to learn they have been working on lab grown diamonds too since 2018.

CNN Business (https://money.cnn.com/2018/05/29/news/companies/de-beers-man-made-diamonds/index.html) -De Beers had been an outspoken critic of synthetic diamonds. Company executives vowed never to sell artificial stones, and it participated in the diamond industry's "real is rare" campaign. It even developed a machine that spots lab-grown stones.

"De Beers' focus is on natural diamonds," Simon Lawson, the current head of research and development at De Beers, told Bloomberg in 2015. "We would not do anything that would cannibalize that industry."

Also there are more similar cases of successful marketing described in James B. Twitchell's book - Twenty Ads That Shook the World.

Expand full comment
author

ah this is really interesting!

Expand full comment
Feb 4, 2022Liked by Sahil Bloom

Great read, thanks. Some time ago their was a documentary on purchasing a diamond then immediately trying to resell it to another merchant. The depreciation was phenomenal. Clearly not a way to store value. Consumer scam.

Expand full comment
author

I'll have to check that out!

Expand full comment

Maybe do a check with gemologists who do valuations?

Expand full comment