The lab-created diamond market is crashing. If you bought one a year ago, you’d see it for sale for a fraction of the price today. You’re better off getting real value in the form of a real diamond.
What are Lab Created Diamonds?
Lab created diamonds (also known as lab grown diamonds, artificial diamonds, synthetic diamonds, cultivated diamonds or cultured diamonds) are man-made diamonds that mirror natural diamonds. They can be formed from carbon structures which means they will show the same chemical and physical properties as the real thing.
A Word on Lab Created Diamonds
We think diamonds are beautiful and are a great choice if you are looking to make a high-end jewelry purchase. But we don’t believe that you HAVE to buy a diamond when you get engaged. It is simply a marketing ploy. We don’t want to persuade you to buy a diamond. If you don’t want a diamond, you don’t want a diamond. We are here to help you get the best value if you do want a diamond.
Lab created diamonds look exactly like the real things. This article will discuss the value of buying a synthetic diamond, not the morality of buying a real diamond or the choice of buying a synthetic diamond in the first place.
Do Lab Created Diamonds Offer Better Value?
This is the question you want the answer for. But it isn’t an easy one to answer. They may be cheaper, but they are probably worse value for money. Of course, that’s not to say that you should view your diamond as an investment.
But that doesn’t mean you should completely ignore value. If you were to other sell your diamond, you should be able to regain a significant percentage of its original value. Diamond prices then to rise historically, after all.
But lab created diamonds don’t have a resale value. Jewelers don’t want them and selling them online will mean settling for a fraction of the original price. That means you would have to buy your lab created diamond for a huge discount to get real value from it.
The Falling Value of Lab Created Diamonds
In the last year alone, the price of lab created diamonds has plummeted. In 2016, the average price of a lab created diamond was about 25% more than a comparable natural diamond. Come the end of 2017, and the prices have changed drastically. In a year, the price of lab created diamonds dropped by around 30%. The worst thing? There’s nothing stopping the prices dropping even further. After all, having seen this happen, why would you want to spend thousands on something that might be on sale for a fraction of that price in a year’s time.
The Same Thing Happened to Emeralds
The performance of lab created diamonds is weirdly similar to that of lab created emeralds which first appeared in the 1990s. They were (and still are) one of the rarest and most precious gemstones. But innovations in technology made it possible for manufacturers to create realistic virtual copies. People got excited and lab created emeralds started appearing everywhere. As demand increased, competition flooded into the market. That meant supply increased above demand and soon the prices started plummeting.
Is This a Fair Comparison?
But is it fair to make this comparison between lab created diamonds and lab created emeralds. Well yes and no. From the technology side, the same thing can and will happen. There’s nothing stopping the price plummeting further as supply rises.
But will they fade away in popularity as emeralds did? Emeralds were popular, but they don’t have the everlasting popularity of diamonds. We think that the most likely outcome therefore is that lab created diamonds will be popular at the lower end of the range. But at the higher end, real diamonds will always be the first choice.
Today’s Market
What do you to today? You could buy a larger and nicer looking lab created diamond for cheaper than the real thing. But you are probably throwing money away since it might be available a year later for even less. You probably won’t feel good about the purchase.
The Bottom Line
You probably won’t regret buying a real diamond (that should increase in value). But you might regret buying a lab created diamond that will drop in value. If I were you, I’d be choosing a real diamond every time.
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