In the last year, one of the biggest sources for retail jewelry (this entity owns the majority of mall stores) has coupled up with DeBeers (the original gatekeeper of mined diamond pricing and availability) to push the value and rarity of mined diamonds.
It is certainly true that to find a mined diamond of top quality is rare indeed, however the majority of stones in the mined retail world seem to be of the slightly included, mid grade color range. Nothing rare about these stones.
Enter the opportunity, in lab diamonds, to elevate the quality of the diamond to levels unheard of for most of us- we can now achieve the highest quality diamond (yes, it is "real") for a fraction of the cost that a comparable mined diamond will run.
The issue seems to be that the former gatekeeper DeBeers (while providing to the public its own company called Lightbox offering lab diamonds) has figured out a bit late that people are very interested in lab diamonds, for very good reasons. This enthusiasm has hampered sales of mined stones, wreaking a bit of havoc in the industry.
In a turn around, this pairing of a huge retail entity with the gatekeeper of mined diamonds appears to be seeking to un-do the validity of lab grown diamonds in jewelry, and push mined diamonds in order to regain control and profits offered by the mined product.
The lab grown diamond industry is fiercely competitive, and a quick check of pricing demonstrates that hugely popular lab diamonds are priced significantly higher in chain jewelry stores than are offered online- sometimes double the pricing.
Only time will tell if this transparent effort to disparage the "value", beauty and significance of lab grown diamonds, with the same optical and chemical features as mined, will succeed...
Jewelry is typically not investment (gold holds it's own; diamonds, whether mined or lab grown, are not unlike driving a car off of the lot and seeing depreciation).
The lesson? If you choose to spend 9k on a nice quality 1 carat mined diamond ring, it's likely going to lose 40% of its monetary "value"; with lab grown costing under 2k for the same quality...if you lose full "value" of 2k for a lab grown, you are way ahead.
Bottom line: value in diamonds is subjective. As a gift, there is much more attachment to the event itself vs the material object for most people. Do what makes you happy, with full factual knowledge.
