As we predicted two years ago, the wholesale price of lab-grown diamonds has bottomed out, sooner than expected.
When lab-grown diamonds hit the market in 2015, their selling price was about 30% below that of a similar certified natural diamond.
In our newsletter of January 2020, I predicted: Lab-grown diamonds can be produced at will, have no scarcity value, and the ridiculous prices they are currently selling for is a travesty, and cannot last. In future, they will be worthless.” Which is one of the reasons why Prins & Prins have decided not stock lab-grown diamonds. Since then, proponents of lab-grown diamonds publicly declared:
October 2020: I see prices of lab-grown likely going up for the next six to 12 months.
Sue Rechner, then CEO of WD Lab Grown Diamonds, to JCK October 2021.
“The market price of lab diamonds has fluctuated a lot over the years, but it has
been stabilizing lately” —The Lab Mine June 2023. I feel the [lab-grown] prices can not fall a lot lower now because we have reached a stage where growers are not able to produce at the cost their stones are selling at in today’s
market”. —Miraj Patel, Greenlab, in Rapaport August 2023 “The price of lab-grown diamonds has rock-bottomed and has now stabilized.”
—Pooja Seth Madhavan, founder and CEO of Limelight Lab-Grown Diamonds, to India.
Economic Times August 28, 2023: It’s certainly possible that with lab-grown diamonds now selling for a reported 99% off the Rapaport list, prices might bottom out.
There’s not much further they can sink other than free. (Some are testing that, though.) Still, when you talk to people who sell lab- growns—in private rather than public—they are mostly resigned to further drops.
With millions more carats produced and possibly coming on the market, I think we will
see a lot more “stabilizing” for lab-grown prices, but I’ll hold off on making predictions.” – Rob Bates | The
Long History of Stabilizing Lab-Grown Diamond Prices JSK Magazine August 28, 2023.
September 2023: At the Jewellex trade fair in JHB, wholesalers offered 1 carat lab-growns at 100% off the Rapaport price, which means giving a lab-grown diamond for free, just to sell the ring in which it is set. That’s the real bottom.
I feel sorry for men who bought a lab-grown diamond at a ridiculous price, but even sadder for their wives who now have a worthless diamond on their fingers – the sparkler that was supposed to symbolize their commitment.
None of their friends may suspect the whopper she wears is worthless. Instead, she will cringe and may lie when her girlfriends say, “That must be worth a fortune!”
She now knows that a worthless stone has sealed their unique relationship. The security of owning something valuable is shattered, and she may think: Is this how much he valued our relationship?