Many people have probably pondered this question about lab-created diamonds. They wonder if man-made diamonds are valuable because part of what makes a gem valuable is its scarcity.
However, all that goes out the window because you can now make them in a lab. The following will help you understand all this a little more.
Are Lab-Grown Diamonds a Good Investment?
As the name suggests, lab-created diamonds can be made in a lab, which is wild to imagine, but it’s recently gained popularity.
Since this is something that’s created and isn’t scarce, it makes you wonder whether or not that ease of availability will hurt their value. Will they come out of an assembly line one day if they can be made so easily?
Wouldn’t that make them less valuable? A person looking at lab-created diamonds as an investment probably worries about this.
The reality is that no diamond, even these, is a great investment opportunity.
Diamonds usually sell at a loss, maybe not a total loss but still a loss, which means these aren’t great for investment purposes. While many traditional jewelers will tell you that these diamonds have no value, that’s not the case.
These will have a similar value to diamonds mined from the Earth. Diamonds aren’t a good investment because jewelers can buy these stones wholesale, and your diamond will always be priced higher than that.
A diamond might be worth more if it is extremely rare or is set in an exceptionally designed jewelry piece. You can find this out by visiting a jewelry appraiser.
Are Lab-Grown Diamonds Valuable?
Man-made diamonds have value, and this is because making these diamonds isn’t easy.
You need scientists, laboratories, engineers, equipment, plenty of time, effort, and a lot of expertise.
All this costs money and produces a stone with an inherent value no one can remove. Although lab-grown diamonds are valuable, the cost isn’t always on the expensive side.
Lab-created diamonds are up to 50% cheaper than regular diamonds because the supply chain is shorter.
Lab-created diamonds aren’t low quality. They can be consistently higher quality than the earth-mined diamonds folks trust more.
Besides all that, no matter what kind of diamond you have, the value is set by the international pricing system called the Rapaport Pricing Method.
The Misconception of Lab-Grown Diamond Engagement Rings
Some of the misconceptions about these diamonds come from people who think that making them in a lab takes away the diamond’s uniqueness.
That isn’t the case, but you don’t know that these misconceptions aren’t only linked to regular folks. The truth is that some of these misconceptions are perpetuated by traditional jewelers themselves.
These jewelers seem to only deal with earth-mined diamonds. They tell customers that lab-created diamonds and lab diamond engagement rings are worthless.
Some jewelers mislead customers, telling them that their earth-mined diamonds can be resold at an equal amount or even higher.
As you already know, this isn’t true, and customers will find that out if they ever have to sell their diamonds. When a diamond leaves the jewelry store, it drops in value.
Another thing these jewelers don’t tell you is that lab-created diamonds may end up being worth a little more since younger consumers want to buy products that match their values.
Lab-created diamonds fight blood diamond practices, which is a big deal.
Buying a Lab-Grown Diamond Engagement Ring
This is a big reason people consider lab-grown diamonds.
People may never think about diamonds until they find that special someone, and many people want diamond wedding rings. If that happens to be you, welcome to the club.
When you buy an engagement ring with lab-grown diamonds, you have to treat this purchase the way you would treat an earth-mined diamond engagement ring. You have to worry about clarity, making sure your diamond is clear to the eye.
Color is a big deal, but lab diamonds can be made with any tint you want. Still, if you want something traditional, that’ll look good on silver, then look for colorless diamonds.
The next thing you’ll need to pay attention to is the cut. The right cut will help your diamond engagement ring sparkle the way it’s supposed to.
One limitation linked to lab diamonds is that their carat size is quite small. You won’t find anything above four carats. These are hard to grow in the lab, but someday, they’ll be as big as earth-mined diamonds that can reach up to 20 carats.
Are Lab Diamonds Worth Anything?
Again, no diamond is a good investment, even earth-mined ones, but the truth is that lab diamonds lose similar value to earth-mined diamonds, at least for now.
There’s no telling if that will change later as younger folks begin to favor lab-created diamonds over traditional ones.
Regrettably, man-made diamonds are harder to sell. Jewelers, especially the ones that have already made deals with wholesalers, don’t want to buy these diamonds.
Even if you can sell it, folks know that you bought the lab-grown diamond at a lower price. They are expecting to buy it from you at an even lower price.
If you spend $3,000 on a lab diamond, you’ll have to sell it for $1.500 or so. An earth-mined diamond jewelry piece could cost you $5,000, but you can sell that for $2,000.
Of course, the benefit of buying a lab-created diamond is that you still bought it for less.
There are some stores, usually online, that are willing to buy and sell lab-created diamonds, but it’s going to take some time to find.
Hopefully, lab diamonds will begin to be more accepted in the future, and hopefully, this will happen quickly.
These sorts of rings are worth buying but not for their resale value. They are worth it because they save you money. They fight unfair labor practices in the diamond industry and show someone you love them.