De Beers CEO talks diamonds, millennials

Ever try to sell a diamond? You can't get anywhere close to 50% what you paid. That's because the market is monopolized. I bought my wife a high quality 2+Ct center stone with total ct wght over 3 for about US$1k used. Had it appraised and polished and saved about $5k. Don't ever buy from a jewelry store! Estate sales are the best!

To the posters above ... the "value" of the item, not just diamonds but for anything, is determined by what people are willing to pay for it. Just because something doesn't have "intrinsic" value (which I presume means practical usefulness), doesn't mean it doesn't have value.

Diamonds are currently overrated. If Russia and south Africa released their diamond reserves then diamonds would sell at near the price of glass

Another gimmick coming to an end. Like car dealerships. Or buying a house. Good. Maybe if there were more full time jobs instead of part-time all the facades wouldn't be crashing down. Interesting side problem is that not enough millennials are driving and dying, causing a reduction in organ transplants

Just say no to things which are super expensive to buy but have next to zero real value. Was going to get some rings remodeled buy the jewelers said they just smash all the diamonds to get them out of the valuable metals. Diamonds are a jewlers best friend, they sell worthless objects for outragous prices

When we got engaged I bought my wife a nice diamond from a wholesaler in Okachimachi, but since then I've discovered that diamond's really aren't that rare and that the price is vastly inflated by company's like De Beers (not to mention the slave labour issues etc.). I strongly doubt that I'll be buying many more diamonds.

So millennials are simultaneously too poor with their student loans to buy diamonds but also willing to buy them for themselves, untraditional but totally influenced by what celebrities wear to the Oscars and the Golden Globes?

Looks more like De Beers is tired of being seen as an unethical company and decided to buy some advertising disguised as news to say, "Hey kids, we're completely legit! We're down to the low and hip to the groove. NOW PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF MAMMON BUY OUR STUFF!"

The perfect diamonds are made by pressing a lump of coal in a pressure machine. Mimicking the earth process. And they are flawless... no slave labor involved.

It's just a stone. I gave my wife a shell, stolen from the sea. It cost me nothing.

just say "NO" to the blood diamonds.

I want one of those perfect diamonds. Just to have.....