this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
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[–] [email protected] 65 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Where do I find these dime sized rubies for 20 bucks?

[–] gravitas_deficiency 29 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Right? A dime is a touch over 18mm, and prices I’ve been able to nail down on a couple sites for artificial rubies of that size, while way less than terrestrial rubies, cannot be considered ”cheap” - we’re still talking thousands of dollars.

[–] JohnDClay 19 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Maybe they mean ruby infused grinding wheels?

https://www.travers.com/product/radiac-ruby-surface-grinding-wheels-71150

Or maybe they were exaggerating a little bit and thinking about ruby bearings.

https://www.renishaw.com/shop/Product.aspx?Product=A-5000-3611

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 years ago

This post is so old the price has gone up since.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Yeah, if anybody finds these cheap rubies do let me know, I'd love to buy them

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[–] Evilsmiley 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

https://cascadejewels.com/

I searched lab grown rubies and these guys seem to be pricing near to that cost. They seem legit from a cursory search but i haven't looked that deep.

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[–] [email protected] 62 points 2 years ago (2 children)

The minority of all people think like this. people love scarcity even if it's completely artificial. It's just so they can show off their "wealth".

The sneaker resale market is the dumbest shit I've ever heard of, yet it's a billions of dollars industry, just because people are dumb like that.

Same reason why De Beers or Luxottica make so much money for seemingly no reason, because people love it.

Moissanite and artifical gems will forever be a knockoff in the eyes if these people.

Diamonds are the NFTs of commodities.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 years ago

If the "peasants can afford it" it's not desirable.

[–] Corkyskog 27 points 2 years ago (2 children)

As I understand it the artificial diamond industry has gotten so good, they can now even create diamonds with imperfections that mimic natural diamonds. To the point where the only way they can tell the difference is to micro etch something on the natural diamonds.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

yeah it's ridiculous

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Lab grown diamonds/gems are also pure as fuck. Who wouldn’t want that?

No I want my impurities and child labor with my diamonds!

Also, diamonds are worth nothing in a pawn store. The only valuable part of your engagement ring is the gold, which is often not the highest quality anyway.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 years ago

That's why I got her a platinum ring with no stones. Much better pawn value.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

Yeah, I love how marketing guys have come up with "the faults prove that it's real leather! Not like that flawless fake stuff!"

[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 years ago (2 children)

20 USD for 15 dime-sized rubies? Motherfucker, tell me where!

[–] darcy 9 points 2 years ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That was a surprisingly good read

[–] darcy 4 points 2 years ago
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[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Did not know about moissanite, but that is super cool and I'm going to see if I can find some

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 years ago (2 children)

There are a couple of online retailers that specialize in it. That's what we ended up doing for my wife's engagement ring and wedding band. It noticeably sparkles in direct sun, she gets comments on it pretty often.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Geez the couple sites I found are still way more expensive that I expected! I'd love to see it in person, it looks way more sparkly

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago

Yeah, even with a cheap stone, rings are still expensive.

[–] spaysi 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I found my moissanite engagement ring on Etsy for a reasonable price, maybe check there? Lots of small time jewelers list their stuff on the site for really reasonable prices.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Oh wow, yeah those can be more in my range, I'll have to learn the grading scale though 😅 thanks a lot!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Moissanite can become cloudy if you don't clean it often. And the extra sparkle means people may judge you for having a "fake" ring. Like a polyester suit, people who know can tell by how bright it is.

Lab gems are relatively cheap and look exactly like the "real" ones. I mean exactly the same. People would only know it's a lab diamond if you had a ring the size of Elizabeth Taylor's at Applebee's.

Rarecarat and Ritani have some good prices.

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[–] jballs 5 points 2 years ago

My wife lost her engagement ring and wedding band recently. Might have to look into this as a replacement.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Well they’re not as valuable because they didn’t have to be dug out the ground. The amount of work that goes into something is what makes it valueable. That’s why I only buy the toughest to reach diamonds from the most brutal mines in Africa, now those are valuable!

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 years ago (2 children)

The amount of work that goes into something is what makes it valueable

Hello, I'm Tim Cook and let me tell about all the hard work that went into this monitor stand

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago

How many slave children were spent to make each stand?

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Just realized that was satire, but anyway I already started writing so I'm posting it lol.

Labor theory of value was outdated to centuries ago.

Labor sets a minimum value when stuff is in demand, but without demand the value can be zero despite how much effort was put into it.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

Two* and no, sorry. It’s not my fault you don’t understand what socially necessary labor time is, and hence don’t understand LTV and have mistaken your own ignorance for an argument. You’ll never be a big boss top dog businessman like me with such a feeble understanding.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

forgot the /s

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm trying to disabuse my husband of the notion that moissanite looks “fake” because of its refractory properties. I just like the sparkles, I'm not trying to pass it off as a diamond. It's an entirely different stone.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

I love the sparkle of my Moissanites so much better than my diamonds.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 years ago (5 children)

If you actually turned lead into gold it would still only be worth as much as lead. (Also the global gold market would collapse into dust, so that would have some consequences.)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago

Something like this actually happened. There was a super rare element that was shiny and light weight and incredibly rare. They made the crown jewels of France out of it so the King could show off the wealth of the country to everyone by having this unique and rare element in his crown.

Then they discovered a chemical process to extract this incredibly rare element from bauxite.

Now we make pop cans out of it. Yep, aluminum was at one time a precious metal.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

also the global gold market would collapse into dust

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago

Cheap and plentiful gold would be a boon for a lot of applications that require resistance to water corrosion, so even after the initial collapse, its price would slowly creep up again.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 years ago

I like last comment. And suddenly it doesn't counts.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 years ago (1 children)

How do I find these lab grown minerals? Where can I buy them? I'm in EU

[–] opensourcedeeznuts 7 points 2 years ago

A lot of jewelry boutiques sell both these days. When I bought an engagement ring, most places I looked have both lab grown and mined diamonds as options when you pick a diamond for the ring.

Most reputable dealers claim to have cruelty-free sources, but synthetic diamonds were about half the price, so I still think buying mined diamonds is a bit silly.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago

Naturally horen diamonds are almost always Inferior in quality but hey, we have a fake Industry responsible for child labour and suffering to hold up, so we made. Shit. Up. "Naturally formed diamonds are, eh, more beautiful! Yes, yes, that's why they are more expensive!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)
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