You Know what really grinds my gears?

In our society certain things have value. I used to watch many episodes of "Pawn Stars" and "Antique's Roadshow" to  which things have value and which things don't. Things that have value include Art, limited edition luxury watches, famous movie props, certain autographs, key historical items (documents, weapons, Body parts[hair] etc. I noticed that people very rarely resell diamonds. Why? They are worthless.

I did a little research, the diamond industry is rarely discussed. The De Beers corporation has an international monopoly over the pressurized coal.  Diamonds are NOT rare.  There are no ancient civilizations that sought after diamond.  Gold and Silver were always valuable commodities since the dawn of time. In ancient China and the Americas, Jade and emerald were considered "fit for royalty". If diamonds were indeed rare, tools wouldn't use them. Ever drove by road work and see a guy cutting large pieces of concrete with something that looks like an edge trimmer? The blades are made of diamond to help cut something as dense as concrete. However De Beers created a marketing campaign thats so effective that it's a tradition today. 

(Jade Burial suit for rulers in China)

   

Before I go on I have a side rant. Countries that have valuable commodities ie. crude oil are some of the wealthiest in the world. If diamonds were valuable the countries producing them,  would be as rich if not richer than those producing oil. But the monopoly the De Beers corporation has on the industry ensures they are the only ones making the profits as well as the fact that the price is inflated. 

The engagement ring. The tradition of proposing to your spouse with a diamond ring. De Beers coined the term "Diamonds are forever". Yeah they are because if you try to resell them you'll realized how much you were ripped off. Due to De Beers having a monopoly, they artificially cut the supply of diamonds in order to jack up the price while using plenty of marketing ploys to increase demand, thus increasing the price of the diamonds.  People who "ice out" (putting excessive amounts of diamond) their jewelry and watches are wasting their money. The nice Rolex that was worth 10k would probably be worth half of that value.  Customizing a watch and then reselling significantly decreases the value as not many people would like to buy such a gaudy item. In 10 years, I predict the trend of putting diamonds on everything would likely disappear. Diamonds are the tool used to mainstream luxury much like designer brands of clothes (You don't see Bill Gates wearing an Hermes Belt).  

(Not valuable, but expensive)

(Valuable and expensive with long waitlists, value likely to increase)

If you think about it almost every family has a diamond ring so uh yeah not rare. People who often have a copious amount of diamond jewelry and designer clothes are those who try to look wealthy. Yeah you read that right, they are try-hards. But knowing what you know now, do you care that diamonds are practically worthless? No you don't. Will you probably get a ring of carbon to symbolize your love? Yeah. We are choked by a tradition that originated from a marketing ploy to buy something thats not worth it. And that really grinds my gears.

Below are some things that are actually valuable (Due to actual rarity and the hard work that goes in to processing this material)