I think it reached a tipping point. It used to be that there wasn't much of a cost advantage, so people assumed you bought the real thing. Now that the lab-made diamonds are super cheap, many people will assume you bought one of those. When that's the case, people feel like they might as well buy the cheaper ones. It's like people buying natural mined diamonds are chumps. No one will know you spent more unless you talk about how it's natural (and that makes you annoying).

Strange, having been in the market for a diamond 10 y ago, I distinctly remember man made diamonds were noticeably cheaper.

I wonder if my spreadsheet still exists.

Also recent synthetic diamonds adding some kind of a marker to the synthetic diamond.

Today it makes one think there’s likely synthetic diamonds mixed in with real ones somewhere.

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