Thoughts about man-made diamonds? They are both cheaper and generally more "perfect" according to the 3 C's than natural diamonds, but I don't know anyone who has admitted to having one. Opinions?
Were my engagement ring (this is Mrs PoP) not a nearly 100-year-old piece from Mr PoP's family (consider this another vote for the beauty of vintage settings and how they can maximize the sparkle of small stones), we would have definitely considered the manufactured diamonds. Heck, even CZ. Mr PoP's mom had a beautiful CZ mounted in her engagement ring for about 30 years. No one ever questioned its authenticity as a "diamond", though it was replaced a couple of years ago with "the real thing". No one notices the difference, but the only downside is that his mom probably wears it less often because she's cognizant of how much the darned thing cost and is afraid of losing it.
Re appraisals: We had ours appraised to make sure we'd have records for insurance and the police on the off chance it's ever stolen. Definitely not about the money or resale value...
I'll have to chime in with a +1 for man-made diamonds. My wife's ring is actually an heirloom from my mother, and it has a very nice, vintage stone and cut, along with a nice band. It is a very nice ring, and it looks very unique from any of our friends/coworkers stones. They always compliment on her ring and all that.
Now, on to the man-made stuff. I really wanted to get her some nice earrings, with decent stones in them, yet I didn't want to pay a gadjillion dollars because that's silly. I stumbled on man made diamonds, and the prices for 1ct each earrings was so low that I thought for sure it was a scam, or I was going to prison, or something ($200 bucks, seriously). I took the leap anyway, and when they arrived, I set them down next to my wife's vintage engagement ring, and good lord, not only can no one tell the difference at all but the earrings have gotten nothing but compliments and jealous envy from everyone that sees them, and my wife wears them all the time because she doesn't have to worry about them as much since they weren't very expensive at all. They blow her excellent quality vintage diamond out of the water.
It's a win win in my book, and definitely something to look at as an alternative, if only even for the piece of mind in not having a giant expensive rock on your finger all the time that you are worrying about losing.
My bold above. How many times have you, dear reader, experienced this with the "good" jewelry, the "good" china, the "good" car, whatever. I absolutely hate this mindset. If the item in question actually evokes a negative emotion (worry) then to me it is something I would rather not have in my house in the first place. I have no problem with nice things, I have a real problem with nice things that are supposedly so nice that they should only be used on special occasions. In my book life is a special occasion.
A good point raised earlier about getting an expensive diamond appraised for insurance reasons (only). Other than that, most diamonds are worth
absolutely nothing whatsoever because the owner typically isn't going to part with it for money. I love the irony when some nerd buddy tells me his treasured comic book or board game or collectible is worth $500 or some such but said nerd is unwilling to part with it. Some of my nerd buddies have discovered that they can in fact turn a tidy profit on "collectibles", but they have to avoid all the emotional ties people place on objects (like pretty rocks) to pull it off.
