Rock God X wrote:What's minimum wage these days? About a grand a month? I spent around half that on my wife's engagement ring and it hasn't gone green yet!
It can be difficult though if you are buying a ring for the first time and to look at it can be tricky to spot the difference in quality between different rings - many of which will look pretty similar.
May be useful to take a female relative with you when you pick one for a second opinion.
Joined: Apr 06 2004 Posts: 4420 Location: The Pavilion, Hilton St
Ferocious Aardvark wrote:You can do far better going for a second hand (literally) ring. If the objection is that that's cheapskate, then I'd ask what message am I supposed to get by an insistence that I must get ripped off in buying inferior overpriced goods instead of getting something probably much nicer at half the price.
I told my mate that he could save money and probably get better quality if he bought second hand (he was short of money at the time too). He said "I don't want to get her something used". He ended up buying her ring from Argos
Joined: Nov 23 2009 Posts: 12791 Location: The Hamptons of East Yorkshire
Do people still get engaged? Ahhh, bless! Little bit of planning. Little bit of bendy on one knee-ey. Little bit of advert in local rag with declaration of profound proudness of engaged couples parents...Little bit of selecting the big day and working oneselves up into a creamy lather about it all! Tisn't it all luvvverly?
Ferocious Aardvark wrote:Also remember that diamonds are a complete and utter fraud, via a worldwide marketing deception that has been beautifully crafted and perpetuated.
Try selling a diamond and see what it's really worth.
Exactly. The average joe can't tell the difference between a diamond worth hundreds of thousands or a worthless replica, they will say they want the diamond for its 'beauty' but would end up thinking the replica was beautiful as well.
The only authentic market for diamonds is for industrial grade diamonds where the hardness of the diamond serves a purpose. The market for diamonds in jewellery etc is dependent on a dual strategy of both marketing and creating the image of a diamond as being alluring and mystical, and also on a small number of sellers exerting market power by restricting the supply.
These organised criminals that look to trade in diamonds are making the market more competitive by increasing the number of sellers and bringing the market price of diamonds closer to the cost of extraction and reducing the monopolists' rent, hence the huge amounts of campaigning against the rogue diamond trade. These groups are also involved in slavery, torture, murder etc so I am not saying they are good, but the high profile 'blood diamond' campaigning is not motivated just by concerns of human rights but by monopolists concerned about losing their market power.
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