Wander into any fine jewelry store and you are likely to see eye-popping prices. This begs an important question: how could things so small be worth so much? While that is a complicated question to answer, it can be reduced down to a few main points.

Beauty: How pleasing the item is to the eye. This involves things like sparkle, shine, luster, color, balance, symmetry, novelty, and so forth. But beauty is often in the eye of the beholder and will vary from person to person. That being said, things generally go in and out of fashion over time. Current trends, or what most people find beautiful at a given point in time, will make in vogue more expensive.

Durability: Resistance to breaking, scratching, and tarnish means that the beauty of the piece will endure. Folks won’t pay much for something that will easily break. In conjunction with beauty, durable pieces have heirloom potential. They can be passed on for generations. Durability also represents the strength and power of love.

Rarity: How scarce the materials are out of which the jewelry is made is a primary driver of price. Plastic jewelry is super cheap because plastic is very plentiful. It is easy to produce and supply is always readily available. Rubies and gold, on the other hand, are scarce. There is a limited supply, and it takes work and resources to get what supply there is out of the ground and then refined until it is usable as jewelry. Limited supply, when met with consistent demand, will push prices up.

Origin: This value driver could go either way, increasing or decreasing the perceived value of the item based on whose opinion is being given. Most often, a premium is placed on natural gemstones. There is something elegant about the idea of the earth giving birth, as it were, to something so beautiful, formed over hundreds of years as a result of a lucky combination of particular elements coming together at the right place and time, subject to the right amount of heat and pressure. Lab created stones seem cheap to many people, even inauthentic. Some would go as far as to say fake. However, others have concerns about the impact mining activities have on the environment and will thus prefer lab-created stones. In terms of their elemental composition, durability, and optical properties, natural and lab created stones are identical. The difference is the location where and the time period over which they are formed. As a general rule in the marketplace for gems and jewelry, natural stones will always command much higher prices.

There are other things that make jewelry valuable such as who may have owned it in the past (family heirlooms, celebrities, etc.), its place in history, or sentimental value (an engagement or anniversary gift). However, these value drivers come after the fact.

The final category to talk about is a bit enigmatic, that of advertising and marketing. While I will save the details of the discussion for a separate article, a big reason gems and jewelry cost so much is because clever marketing campaigns, staged over decades, have made it the norm to pay thousands for things that weigh scarcely more than a few grams. We have even been conditioned to believe that if it doesn’t cost a lot, it’s probably an inferior product. We pay more because we have been told to pay more.

At The Diamond Alternative, we strive to price things in a way that reflects honest value. In our opinion, that means basing price on beauty and durability. If the beauty of a piece brings you joy every time you see it, makes you feel great when you wear it, and has the durability to do both those things for as long as you have it, then attaching a reasonable dollar amount to it makes sense. It is on those premises that we focus.

Rarity matters also, as things that are scarce will almost always cost more than things that are plentiful. That is an economic truth, and affects what we have to pay to source the inventory that we bring to you, and naturally will therefore affect how much we charge. The rarity issue comes into play, for example, with the precious metals used in our jewelry. Gold items will cost more than silver because silver is estimated to be about 19X more abundant on earth than gold.

We focus much less on origin. Naturally occurring moissanite is exceptionally rare and most pieces are far too small to be faceted for jewelry. That is why all our moissanite, and in fact all moissanite used in jewelry everywhere, is grown in a lab. Larimar is exceptionally rare. It can be found only in one place, in part of a mountain range in the Dominican Republic. These things influence our prices only to the extent that it influences what we must pay.

All told, know that the prices we charge are based on the value you will get out of the piece. For us, it isn’t about making tons of money. It certainly isn’t about aggressive or manipulative marketing. It’s about our customers being thrilled without having to break the bank. Explore our inventory to see for yourself. If you don’t find something you love, send us a message. We will find or have made the perfect piece for you.

Re-defining Affordable

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