The thing that gets me about that article is that I know I read it a long time ago.. looking for a date I found "Issue 11.09 | September 2003" not sure if that was the date or not... anyhoo, in the article they say:



And I am all WTF where are all the diamonds??? It's been 4 years, there must be shitload made...

http://www.apollodiamond.com/ - you can buy from this website, though they say they will be opening "soon", and in one area say 2007. Guess they are running out of time meeting that deadline.

Here is gemesis the other company:

http://www.gemesis.com/buy.aspx

And of course, there's the perennial favorite;
http://www.lifegem.com/

It doesn't say love unless you killed someone and used their body to make it.

I poked around on some of the vendor sites for Gemesis and can't find pricing information, any idea what they sell for? They also seem to only offer fancy colors, has anyone seen mention of 'white' stones?

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Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

God speed tomorrow Carolsue.. God-speed.. hope you make it through the day!

I feel for all people tomorrow working at the large retailers, people will be rude and forget about kindness at the holidays, religious or not.

http://www.miadonna.com/

Here's one I found that had prices.

Ah the lovely Black Friday... where I am up at 1:30 in the morning to go to work at 2:30. Hopefully I people are calm like they were last year at my Best Buy. Only two years ago we had two gianormous ladies fight over 2.99 dvds stacked on a table, only to have one of them fall on the table and have them spill all over the floor.

As far as synthetic-type near flawlesss diamonds... http://www.moissanite.com/ is pretty nice. Almost as hard as a diamond and refracts light better.

People were lining up at the Best Buy near my house at 8pm last night :/

My wife went this morning at 3am... Craziness. I slept in til 10. <3 having time off from work.

My 18th straight Black Friday working in retail. I think I have started work between 4-5 am every year except for 2 years... this one no exception.

I will say, however, that the people this year seemed to be a LOT friendlier than in years past. Actually lemme rephrase... they were not mean or rude or inconsiderate as they have been in year's past. Not sure why that is, because we did run out of quite a few of the key low price items we had advertised. But overall, people just came into the store and bought stuff and left without any arguments or tense situations.

I did have one woman, probably late 50's/early 60's, who complained that our sale said until Saturday, but we were out of the item. She said something to the effect of "Well your sign says on sale until Saturday, and that is not fair that you don't have the product." (it was for a TV that was like almost half off). I just looked at her and said "Well yes, the item is on sale until Saturday. However, we had over 4000 people enter our store before you... including nearly 1000 people in the first 30 minutes of our opening, and we sold the item out in about 15 minutes. We could have had 1000 of those TV's in our store and we would not have had enough for the Phoenix metro area. It is a good deal, you came five hours after we opened, we are out of it. Sorry." I think she was just more frustrated with herself that she overslept and missed out on the deals

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What is your position after 18 years of working retail, I wonder? Do you manage a few stores in PHX or something?

I imagine it's the director of "none of your business," since I have a feeling you are looking for a way to belittle Cicely based on whatever answer is given.

Nope, just kinda curious. I live in PHX and I was just wondering what someone would be doing after 18yrs. I doubt he's a stocker in the back. =P

I believe he's stated more then a few times he's in a management position.

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Marauder Harabakc Goat

I wouldnt mine being a manager in a Best Buy.. Hell id probably be great at it. hah!

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"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

I work at target, in the logistics (i unload the truck, then stock shelfs/backstock).

I been at it 7 months, holy shit... talk about hard physical work for crap ass pay. I heard the pay is better once they know you are sticking around. 18 years... damn, thats impressive right there. In my store, even the store manager takes weekends where they have to run the trucks (those are my favorite weekends, they havent a clue). I give Cic a ton of credit- no matter where in the chain you are at, thats a ton of bullshit to deal with all the time.

I do agree about the pleasantness of people- very laid back and kind today.

Who cares what he does for a living?

Guitar Hero: Star Wars Edition

Get the bundle with an exclusive Dark Lord of the Sith Gibson Les Paul(tm)!

Not to be off topic what are those pictures called?

_________________
"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

My wife is a regional manager for a big fast food chain (works 5 stores.) out here so I can sympathize with people workin' in the trenches. Just cuz it's retail or food doesn't mean the upper level positions can't be very hard work. Shrug.

I give props to Cicely too, cuz you deal with the lowest common denominator of asshole people daily in retail... it must be maddening.

Motivationals, Cak.

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Marauder Harabakc Goat

I bought a lexmark x3430 at walmart for 25 bucks.. its a copier, printer, scanner. We were there grocery shopping tonight and seen them. I have been needing a new printer for awhile(and my wife has been riding my ass to buy a scanner), and couldn't beat the price.

The store was pretty crowded at 8pm... lots of people still out bargain hunting. We ended up not going out at all =).

anyhooo, i have never had a scanner before, so tonight I am putting my pictures on my computer. For your enjoyment, Draagun's very first christmas:

That guy in the background looks like the bad guy from Grease.

thats my dad.. and he wasthe bad guy in grease =/

I too had red overalls as a baby. But were yours OshKosh B'Gosh?!

You were super happy, where's that smile now!

What I bought on Black Friday

5 Express Dress shirts for 20$ a piece
1 320gig 3.0gb sata hard drive at best buy for 60$

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"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

I don't think anyone commented on this one yet. But the properties in question here, clarity, cut etc are in fact pretty damn close to identical. So for this argument you're wrong. Now if we were arguing the merits of using diamonds in drilling or something else you might have a point....

Don't get me wrong, I've bought diamonds before and would again. But never for myself, and the difference is I recognize the worthlessness of it.



Why would you? It plummeted in value the day you bought it. As soon as it leaves the store it's basically worthless.

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-Rileigh (aka Golliwog)

It's irrelevant that some properties are close ('cut' isn't a property either by the way) when other properties are again, markedly different; the argument you're supporting is no different than claiming glass and plastic are the exact same thing because they have some commonalities. And just so we're clear, my argument is that diamonds are different from cubic zirconia and plastic, period, no qualifiers.

I'm sorry to hear that happened to you, that said, I wouldn't be so quick as to assume I made the same mistakes.

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Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

Draguun, is that a sybian?

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"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken
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VEGETARIAN -Noun (vej-i-tair-ee-uhn): Ancient tribal slang for the village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

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Marauder Harabakc Goat

The post count knows all.

No, better. That my friend is a big ass dog shaped toy box. I had that toybox till I - well, stopped playing with toys. It was awesome - it also doubled as a plane, submarine, bed, house, wrestling partner, horse, motorcycle, imaginary pet - you name it =) Probably one of the best gifts ever.

You know how people always say "we should just get them a box, they like that more than the present" - well, get your kids a big ass dog shaped toy box - you can't go wrong.


as a side note... I noticed the ominous 666 too... I just think its funny how it stuck out. I mean, how often do you really notice somebodies post count?

The resale value of diamonds is next to nothing. The setting is more valuable than the diamond itself.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Which is what happens when you buy a garbage diamond that's only been 'appraised' rather than actually certified.

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Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

right. keep thinking that, chief.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

= me and Argrax

Great, yeah I don't think anyone here is arguing that diamonds are IDENTICAL in every way. They're (we're) saying that for the purpose that a piece of jewelry serves the properties, attributes, etc of synthetic/fake diamonds serve just as well.



The only diamond I ever bought came completely with certificate and all that other neat paperwork. It's still worthless (and not just because the relationship is worthless now as well! haha). I heard that you and Amanda got engaged, congratulations. Diamond is a necessary evil, but it doesn't change the fact that it's a stupid necessary evil. haha

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-Rileigh (aka Golliwog)

While I understand that many forum members are veritable diamond experts thanks to having read an article or two on the interweb, and though I appreciate their insight, I can assure you that after having done the volume of research that I did over the course of severeal months, I'm quite comfortable (and happy) with the end result.

Am I the normal, ordinary consumer? Absolutely not. Would I be able to sell my stone back for what I paid for it? No. If I were in some dire financial needand had to sell it off, would I have lost thousands of dollars? Hardly.

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Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

You just got engaged? No wonder you're throwing a fit. I knew you just bought a worthless piece of rock!

SUCKER!

That's just it, they were.


Who was it certified by? Did it come with a plot plan and/or laser inscription? What were the attributes?


Thanks.

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Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

things just started to make a whole lot more sense

Apparently you guys missed an earlier comment that I made...

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Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

I think the point is this.

If you walked into a jewelry store and purchased a diamond this instant, then walked through the revolving doors to sell it back to them in a time span of 10 seconds, the value of said diamond has already went down 90% or more.

I look at the certification being nothing more than a statement of what carrot, color and cut I purchased, and nothing to do with retaining value. I honestly could care less. The value to me was in the meaning in which it was given.

Yeah. Why not just give them a cubic zirconia and call it a day? Still has the same meaning. You just paid hundres (thousands) less. =)

I didn't really get that from reading the discussion, shrug.



No clue, Kat still has it along with the paper work. haha

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-Rileigh (aka Golliwog)

Because girls like to feel appreciated. Apparently that means spending 2-3months salary on an object as a pledge of your affection.

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-Rileigh (aka Golliwog)

no shit.. and if you have a dieing need to throw away that much money - buy a cubiczirconia or wtf ever and give the 10 grand to a charity or just fucking burn it in front of the chick to show your sacrifice.

I think I'm done smashing my head into the brickwall that is this thread. Diamonds are fucking stupid, you don't get it and probably never will - much like 90% of the general public. Enjoy your rock. I'm going to pass a kidney stone and make a ring out of that for my woman.... now that's fucking love.

Not quite true Givin, different labs have different standards. When you buy a stone certified by AGS or GIA you know you're getting exactly what's printed on the paper (plus or minus half a grade); not to mention a plot plan provides you with a 'fingerprint' for your stone which is some measure of protection for the consumer (as is laser insciption).

Whereas a stone certified by lesser labs, and even worse than that, simply appraised by the jewelery store leaves the consumer with a stone that's supposedly SI1 clarity and F color when in reality it's an I2 clarity and H-I color.

So not only are you paying the huge jewelery store markups but you're not even getting what you're paying for. Rightfully you should pay X for Y but end up paying 2x for 2/3y or three times as much as you should have, which unfortunately is commonplace.

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Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

Cut the bullshit and just admit that diamonds are arbitrarily valued and hyped. There is no demand for them except for the ones that the companies schlepping them create. I'm so tired of this thread.

This is my last post in it.

Fuck that form of appreciation, use it for something useful, like a down payment on a house or something that's actually going to maybe keep its value. Rather then just something to *look* for a little while that really doesn't have any other use.

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Marauder Harabakc Goat

Here's an article I came across that touches on the importance of a quality stone (and certificate) if you're interested in resale value; it also mentions the reduced influence DeBeers has on the market versus decades past. The article isn't exactly current but I thought it still had some value.

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Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

Heh, it's been pretty obvious to me from the vehemence of Agrax's denial that he either worked in the diamond industry or recently popped for one.

Argrax*

Just for the sake of contributing something halfway constructive to the thread:

People buy diamonds for the same reason they generally don't go to work in their bathrobes: social norms. It just so happens that this particular social norm has been cleverly constructed over the years by a few canny marketeers in order to line their bankbooks, which is why I take issue with it.

The last jewelry I gave a girl was a simple gold ring I made myself. It didn't cost much - just the price of the metal and the hours I invested in shaping, polishing, and engraving it. But like Givin said, the value of this stuff is largely symbolic - and as a symbol, I'm of the opinion that a handmade piece is more valuable than any diamond you could buy.

nice

I'm really late coming to this one, but since it's back up, I'll join in.

Diamonds are rare relative to other decorative stones. Rarity and availability are two different things, and diamonds are a highly available rare resource. The ability to go into a store and buy one 24/7 is a function of the availability, not the rarity. SuperBowl tickets would be the other extreme, of something that is not rare, but has very low availability. Both extremes affect price and value.

Diamond prices are inflated and worth much less the minute you walk out the door with it. That is true of all jewelry though, and is simple to explain. You are paying for the store, the people working there, the people who made the setting, etc. All of these people are there for a reason, and that reason is not for a fun hobby. This dynamic is true in all retail settings, including your TV, computer, cars....well, everything. The amount your purchase loses in value is directly proportional to the volume of sales that industry makes. If the overhead costs are spread out over a large number of sales, the reduced product value will be much less than an industry that has a relatively low volume. This is why all jewelry is marked up so high over cost (a low volume industry), otherwise the store wouldn't make a reasonable profit and would just sell iPods instead. With all that said, it doesn't mean diamonds are a fools purchase anymore than any other "eye candy" item would be, since that price if figured in when you buy it. At a movie theater the value of your ticket goes from $6 to $0 in just 2 hours. Even with that %100 consumer net value loss, the industry survives.

Keeping the supply in check is also a common dynamic in every natural resource industry, not just diamonds. The existance of OPEC does not make oil worthless. Of course oil is a functional resource as opposed to a decorative one, but the relation still holds true for the example. At one point the US government regulated the volume of gold in the world (back when our money was actually backed by the gold standard). Limiting supply is not inherently an evil scheme, but simply a business decision to help maintain a consistent demand at a certain price. For a retail example, card games like Pokemon have used this tactic recently to drive the value up of their own product. Some cards are printed less often than others making these more valueable to the kids that want them. The cards do not cost any more to produce, nor do they serve any primary life function (food, shelter, clothing), and yet there is definately a difference in value among the cards produced. That is also an example of something that would hold value for some, and no value for others, such as those who don't play the game.