Moissanite shines better than diamonds. Also slave labor blood sweat and tears kept to a minimum.

Update. He told me yesterday he was buying a lab grown diamond for around $4K. Said a "natural" w/ same characteristics would cost $11K. Thanks for all the advice

JamesPShelley said:

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$3K to $5K?

Send him to a pawnshop and get a $10K ring... for that $3K to $5K.

Retail diamonds? Ridiculous. DeBeers? Marketing geniuses.

Even I turned from the retail Rolex "line", and bought second hand. Watch now is worth 4X what I paid 20 years ago.

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I agree; diamonds are millions of years old so only lab grown is "new". Seems most quality diamonds have certifications now so you can read actual quality rather than take a jewelers word for it. An "estate" diamond may be 1/3 the cost of retail.

Checkout Heritage Auctions and compare to retail. That would be a little less distasteful than a pawn shop.

Howdy Dammit said:

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I bought my wife's online from a place called Brilliant Earth. They had really nice style rings compared to other places. Wanted to go with lab grown. But couldn't shake my old fashion self and not go with something from the ground.

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I loooove a lot of their styles!

I would caution against doing Moissanite unless she has said she'd be okay with that, Wouldn't be a great look if she was under the impression it was a diamond and then went to get it appraised for insurance and found out it was something else.


Personally, I was okay with a smaller gem to have something real. I love my ring and to my knowledge, it wasn't very expensive.