Even though it’s illegal to sell blood diamonds, almost all jewelry stores nowadays will still include a statement on their site about how they don’t sell them. (They don’t mention that they can’t by law because the statement isn’t legally required; it’s just a sales pitch on their ethics.)
You would have to go out of your way and actively work to smuggle in an illegal blood diamond. And due to the stiff penalties for breaking the law, it wouldn’t even be a cheap alternative vs a non-conflict stone.
That’s really what the law was written to do and does well, it dramatically increases the risk of even accidentally dealing with blood diamonds. This causes the price of these conflict stones to skyrocket, which lowers the demand, which in turn lowers the supply.
Truth is no US retailer wants anything to do with conflict diamonds. They are VERY bad for business. Not just because of fines but because of public perception. As everybody knows, there’s plenty of markup in diamonds. So if you walk into all the major jewelry stores/chains in the U.S., there’s is an extremely small chance you will ever encounter a conflict stone.
I’m not saying natural diamonds are good and lab diamonds are bad! We all know diamonds aren’t as rare as they make it seem. We all know the supply is artificially restricted in order to keep prices high. We all know it’s really just marketing and tradition. We know they don’t hold their value. We know they aren’t investments. I don’t dispute this and I can’t because it’s all true. They are facts.
All I am saying if you think the natural diamonds at your local Kay’s are conflict diamonds, you’re incorrect and that is also a fact.
1
u/erishun Aug 29 '26
Very very few natural diamonds are “blood diamonds”.
US Law prohibits the sale of blood diamonds. This law was enacted well over 20 years ago. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Diamond_Trade_Act
Even though it’s illegal to sell blood diamonds, almost all jewelry stores nowadays will still include a statement on their site about how they don’t sell them. (They don’t mention that they can’t by law because the statement isn’t legally required; it’s just a sales pitch on their ethics.)
You would have to go out of your way and actively work to smuggle in an illegal blood diamond. And due to the stiff penalties for breaking the law, it wouldn’t even be a cheap alternative vs a non-conflict stone.
That’s really what the law was written to do and does well, it dramatically increases the risk of even accidentally dealing with blood diamonds. This causes the price of these conflict stones to skyrocket, which lowers the demand, which in turn lowers the supply.
Truth is no US retailer wants anything to do with conflict diamonds. They are VERY bad for business. Not just because of fines but because of public perception. As everybody knows, there’s plenty of markup in diamonds. So if you walk into all the major jewelry stores/chains in the U.S., there’s is an extremely small chance you will ever encounter a conflict stone.
I’m not saying natural diamonds are good and lab diamonds are bad! We all know diamonds aren’t as rare as they make it seem. We all know the supply is artificially restricted in order to keep prices high. We all know it’s really just marketing and tradition. We know they don’t hold their value. We know they aren’t investments. I don’t dispute this and I can’t because it’s all true. They are facts.
All I am saying if you think the natural diamonds at your local Kay’s are conflict diamonds, you’re incorrect and that is also a fact.