Last year, at the beginning of the year, a younger brother asked me which brand of diamond ring to buy for his wedding.

I told him not to buy diamonds, it's just an IQ tax, and suggested he buy gold,
which preserves value and has room for appreciation.
He replied that gold was too expensive now,
it was around 2000 or so back then.
In the end, I cursed him out, calling him an idiot.
I said, then take 80% of the money you would spend on gold,
and use 20% to buy a moissanite or a regular diamond on Taobao—there's no difference at all.

It's a joke, but he still didn't listen,
and spent 100,000 yuan on a diamond ring.
This year, with some economic issues, he wanted to sell the diamond ring,
but... seeing that gold has doubled in value,
he said yesterday that he regrets not listening to me.

Diamond production is already abundant,
not driven by natural scarcity or real market value,
but by artificially created myths of high prices through monopolies,
marketing tied to love,
second-hand market is illiquid—this has been the biggest business scam in a century.

"Diamonds are forever, and a diamond will last forever,"
can be said to be
the most impressive marketing slogan in a century of advertising.
Deeply tying diamonds to marriage, embedding the idea,
"no diamond, no marriage," and then deliberately weakening the market,
implying that getting married makes resale unlucky,
turning it into a consumer product where buying means ending up with worthless stones.

Second-hand diamond resale prices are only about 30% of retail,
possibly even less.
Diamond production is already abundant,
not driven by natural scarcity or real market value,
but by artificially created myths of high prices through monopolies,
marketing tied to love,
second-hand market is illiquid—
this has been the biggest business scam in a century.