Diamonds
 

...supposedly a girl's best friend. Any of you in the diamond biz? I'm officially covertly shopping... have a local jewelery artist who is going to do the setting, but need a stone.

Ran across Apollo diamonds in my research- could be problems for deBeers if they get their sizes up. Amazing local Boston company!

From USA today:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techinnovations/2005-10-06-man-made-diamonds_x.htm

Have you looked into blood diamonds?

Yes, hence my interest in Apollo diamonds. Funny, thought there would be more input here...

Blue Nile.com The interface is really nice so you know what you're looking at and it shows you what you can get depending on your budget.

That looks like a good company to invest in.

Yes, I'm surprised that Mistress hasn't chimed in here yet. This forum is made up mostly of men, though. That probably has something to do with the lack of responses.

Women love stuff like that.

Canary diamonds are my favorite and the Asscher cut is my favorite cut BUT white diamonds are best for the Asscher cut. That's my story and I'm stickin to it!

I have a 25th wedding anniversary coming up and I, too, am in the diamond shopping mode. My wife fell in love with a picture of a Crisscut diamond ring years ago and I saved the picture with intentions of buying her one someday. Well someday is coming up fast.

Anyone know anything about Crisscut diamonds? Is it some cheesy trendy designer style that we'll regret we purchased some time in the future?

BTW, I called the store that put out the catalog with the picture soon after my wife expressed interest in it years ago. I wanted a ballpark price. Of course it depends on the size and quality of the stones, but they told me they had a ring in stock with a 7 carat center stone and 3 carats on each side for the mere sum of $675,000.

See, if you had put that thing on layaway back then, you'd have it paid for by now.:D

Are you sure thay didn't misunderstand what you were asking? Maybe they thought you were pricing out ballparks . . .

Here is a pic of a Crisscut ring the wife likes:
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...edog/ring2.jpg

I saw the thread, and decided not to answer yesterday, for personal reasons. Namely, that it is my belief that the prices for diamonds are artificial - mostly due to the fact that DeBeers owns most of the diamonds out there, and that they (DeBeers) are very well aquainted with the law of supply and demand.

In other words: I'd rather have $5k worth of Gold, than a $5k diamond. (not to mention that after years of wearing, a diamond will have cracks and things - gold you can melt and re-cast.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

Yep, talk about racket -- no value. We've bought them (engagement ring, whatever...) After reading up on the diamond "market" I'd be hard pressed to buy my wife diamond anything as a gift. BUT, if that's what makes you happy, go for it. :)

My wife loves her engagement and wedding band.

Me, well, I tried to be real sympathetic when she lost it. Someone at work turned it in though.

I think back and boy were we crazy. That engagement ring cost me $2.5k when I was making about $18k/year. Add another $1k to that for the wedding band.

So $3.5k, <sigh> in a Dow index fund since 1992 when it was at 3100...