"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
news:66i9i3p4g3gm5dl8iirhb52h9rmeij7esh@4ax.com...
> William Black writes:
>
>> Like I said before, in the end you always end up with someone selling
>> finished jewellery or someone with a bag of cubic zircona.
>>
>> Apollo Diamonds won't sell loose stones to jewellers.
>
> Probably Apollo doesn't want anyone to be assassinated.
Don't be silly.
The world is awash with 'blood diamonds'.
Nobody outside Africa gets knocked off because they're dealing in them. The
odd person gets fined.
>> Nor will any of the other big US diamond simulant manufacturers...
>
> They are not manufacturing simulants, they are manufacturing real
> diamonds.
>
>> Neither do they seem to sell their stuff in any quantity into the trade
>> but
>> are quite happy to sell miniscule amounts of the stuff to the public via
>> badly designed web sites.
>>
>> I wonder why...
>
> Probably because De Beers has spent half a century building up 95%
> mark-ups on
> diamonds that are hardly worth anything, and they want to cash in on the
> same
> greed with similar margins. Why strangle the golden goose? But you can
> be
> sure that their costs are very low. And who knows what negotiations are
> going
> on behind the scenes?
Bollocks.
They've been promising the trade low cost synthetic diamonds in largish
quantities since about 2002.
The only stuff there is available is some rubbish that won't pass a simple
thermal test, being sold at about 10% of the price of real VS1 grade
diamonds, and about ten times the price of cubic zircona, and worth
precisely bugger all.
The fact is that what you've got is some old Russian synthetic diamond
making machines of unproven ability that can make diamonds, but in unknown
quantities and of essentially unknown quality (nobody will tell you how many
duds they make for every good one) that were bought up by retired US
military men in the hope of making them a fortune.
De Beers and the diamond cartel aren't allowed to operate in the USA on any
level because of anti-trust laws there it is doubtful if they're in a
position to knock anyone off.
If they had something worth selling they'd be selling it by now. The
synthetic gem trade wiped out the people digging sapphires and suchlike out
of the ground years ago.
Diamonds are essentially a single source gem, everybody in the business
hates De Beers, nobody would shed any tears if they went 'tits up' and
everyone in the trade also knows that diamonds have less intrinsic value
than opals or rubies.
--
William Black
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Barbeques on fire by the chalets past the castle headland
I watched the gift shops glitter in the darkness off the Newborough gate
All these moments will be lost in time, like icecream on the beach
Time for tea.
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