"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
news:ra6ai3dr4c4vn4u5uinuebg8n1j1c1firr@4ax.com...
> William Black writes:
>
>> 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.
>
> The money involved is sufficient that some people might be tempted to
> resort
> to violence.
Ho ho ho...
And you know because...?
>> They've been promising the trade low cost synthetic diamonds in largish
>> quantities since about 2002.
>
> They've discovered that it makes a lot more sense to sell at high prices
> rather than low, when the only competition is also marking up the
> merchandise
> to very high prices.
Bollocks.
Selling a few dozen, or even a few hundred at $1000 a pop isn't big money
when you can sell millions at $10 each.
What's more everyone knows it.
If you could produce something that will pass as a diamond at sapphire
prices you'd sell millions and make a huge fortune.
>
>> 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.
>
> They've already produced synthetic diamonds that are superior to natural
> diamonds.
Try and buy one.
You can't.
>
>> The fact is that what you've got is some old Russian synthetic diamond
>> making machines of unproven ability that can make diamonds ...
>
> The Russian process is different. You're thinking about the wrong people.
>
> There are at least three different crystal growth processes in use, and
> possibly as many as half a dozen.
The fact is that the whole thing started off as a Russian cold war process
for making semiconductors that were EMP proof. Everyone starts from there,
and, for reasons unknown, goes nowhere.
>
>> 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.
>
> Where do diamonds come from in the U.S.?
>
> Why does De Beers have shops and corporate offices in the U.S., if it is
> "not
> allowed to operate in the USA on any level"?
De Beers don't sell retail to anyone.
If there are shops with their name on they aren't operated by them but are
some sort of franchise. The diamond cartel famously does not operate in the
USA.
>
>> If they had something worth selling they'd be selling it by now.
>
> They do, and they are.
No they're not.
You can't buy the stuff in any quantity.
What you can buy is rubbish that won't even get past a thermal tester.
Yes, people can make diamond.
No, nobody is making them in commercial quantities.
This has been the situation for the past five years.
A period when the value of diamonds as investments has crashed.
You see, that's the whole point, in recent years the value of flawless
blue-white investment diamonds has crashed by 90%, but the value of VS-1
and better (the stuff that is used to make 'street quality' jewellery)
hasn't changed.
As soon as one of your precious diamond manufacturers starts banging them
out by the million then real diamonds will be worth bugger all. And they
can't sit on the patents forever. If they don't do something with them then
they lapse.
I'd love to be able to buy synthetic diamond at $5 a carat, or even $25 a
carat, but nobody will sell me any.
--
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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