Best Friend?
May. 3rd, 2003 05:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mbarrick
Remember this? It's gone now. I sold it today along with my old wedding ring. The tangible remains of those two mistakes have been removed from the house. And I learned something: the hype they sell you in jewelry stores about the value of diamonds is complete crap. Their resale value is crap because the retail markup is absurd. I did some research on the what I could expect to get for the diamond before selling it and discovered that if you can get 10% of the current retail price you're doing well, and with smaller rocks that goes down. I got 6% of the price I paid Ivana's engagement ring. As it turns out the gold wedding band had a better resale value in terms of percentage of retail. I've mentioned before that women with the used-car-salemen gene work in jewlery stores, this only goes to confirm that. The whole "a diamond is forever" crap is marketing blather made up by de Beers to get people to buy diamonds instead of prettier coloured stones. Diamonds are not forever, they are not a girl's (or any one else's) best friend, as an "investment" the suck shit. They are most useful ground up and used to make sandpaper.
What I got for the thing was about the same as the last Canadian Springs bill I was stuck with. And that's it.
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no subject
Date: 2003-05-03 06:11 pm (UTC){{{hugs}}} i know i've said it before, but it makes me really happy to see how well life is treating you in most things... you've come a long way my dear and i respect you for it.
Thank you
Date: 2003-05-03 09:54 pm (UTC)Have I ever mentioned I have hairy feet?
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Hmmmmm..thin...obsessive....neurotic.....
Now what will she do now that you destroyed her precccisoussssssss...
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Date: 2003-05-03 07:06 pm (UTC)I know someone who Thursday bought a retail value diamond worth $14K (1.4C in S1, F colour brillient cut) for $4k cash which the jeweler was selling for an estate.
no subject
Date: 2003-05-03 09:49 pm (UTC)From the consumer point of view, it bites. The flip side, of course, it is obscenely profitable for the merchant.
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Date: 2003-05-03 10:32 pm (UTC)But you are right, it is only important to the person who is given it and to the insurence.
I do think though that my youth allows me to romantasize the symbolism of diamonds, I do lack the life experiences which you have had...
no subject
Date: 2003-05-03 11:27 pm (UTC)Which is really what my point comes down to. That symbolism is hollow. There is now real tradition behind it, just marketing that oringinally came from de Beers and later co-opted by the entire industry. Previous to all this a simple gold wedding band was traditional, rooted in a tradition thousands of years old. Those that could afford it had stones set for purely decorative reasons, it was the band itself that mattered symbolically, and usually those stones were of more decorative varieties, like sapphires and rubies. It's only in the 20th century that the stone in the setting became important and that stone *had* to be a diamond. It's really not romantic in the least, it is a soulless tradition based in the greed of the diamond miners and merchants, not love.
no subject
Date: 2003-05-04 11:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-05-04 01:27 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2003-05-04 03:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-05-05 09:43 am (UTC)countries.
How many East Indian men spent three months Salary ...on a Dot
for their wives forhead?
How many wiccians dropped $2K on a handfasting rope?
Wedding Rings and Diamonds ... blah ....
Date: 2003-05-03 10:50 pm (UTC)2nd marriage - we paid less than $300 for hers, and $150 for mine. (1996 in Tallahassee, Florida) After divorce: Hers ... I assume she sold it since on her web site, she let it go defunct, and the only remaining picture on the site was one of her engagement/wedding ring set. Mine - I planted in a 7-story tall bonfire at Starwood before it was set on fire. Good riddance. However, her promise ring and my engagement ring still sit buried underneath an ancient altar in Tulum. Someday I'll go back and dig them up and toss them in the ocean. Blah.
If I get married again, it'll probably be simplified clannaugh rings.
In goes the Ring ....
and BLAST AWAY!!!!!!
= YAYYYY!!!!! FREEDOM!!!!
Re: Wedding Rings and Diamonds ... blah ....
Date: 2003-05-03 11:31 pm (UTC)Tangentally
Date: 2003-05-03 11:33 pm (UTC)Bonfire Rituals
Date: 2003-05-04 04:42 pm (UTC)Though, if you've got on hand a copy of Sir James Frazier's classic "The Golden Bough" - pages 705 through 743: The Fire-Festivals of Europe, or 743-753: "The Interpretation of the Fire-Festivals", including sections on the Solar Theory of the Fire-Festivals, The Purification of the Fire-Festivals, might give some ideas of where to start. 754-763: The Burning of Human Beings, Animals, and Effigies in the Fires ... are also a good read. Especially if you like Frazier.
Hope that helps ...
Thanks
Date: 2003-05-05 10:01 am (UTC)Re: Thanks
Date: 2003-05-05 09:21 pm (UTC)You're not going to set me on fire, are you?
Heh.
no subject
Or rent a ring.
Or get one from one of those vending machines for about 25 cents. (hey, if you're lucky you might get one of those spider-rings!) ^_~
LOL
Date: 2003-05-04 11:01 am (UTC)"Rent a ring" - LOL! There could be a business there! Rent-to-own or lease-purchase plan wedding rings. If the marriage fails just return the ring, no obligation, no payments until 2005 (OAC)... ROFL!
Or I could do like Homer Simpson, an onion ring.
Re: LOL
Date: 2003-05-04 01:29 pm (UTC)Re: LOL
Date: 2003-05-04 01:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Remember
Date: 2003-05-04 10:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-05-04 02:33 pm (UTC)No kidding - and it was also probably one of the worst James Bond movies to boot...