GemThoughts

In the last week we have been reading about hundreds of man-made diamonds (MMD's) that were submitted to IGI for grading without disclosure.  Various observers tried to delve into the sourcing of the stones.  Rob Bates at JCK considered this a serious problem, as it could affect consumer confidence (rightly so), and expressed the hope that there will be some kind of "black box" solution.  Chaim Even-Zohar went into a full story about the history of Gemesis, which is being mentioned as a possible source of the stones, though they totally deny that presumption. I suggest that the starting point should be a realistic assessment of what has occurred and has been occurring for some time.  And what we need to consider for the future. MMD's (produced by HPHT and CVD processes) and HPHT treated diamonds have been in the market now for years.  In both cases, the essential fact is that the temptation not to disclose is powerful.  The added profits can be huge. ...

I recently appeared at the first conclave for FJATA (Fashion Jewelry and Accessory Trade Association), which was held at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut.  My presentation was on the blurring lines between fine jewelry and costume jewelry, and maybe that is a subject for another post.  But more important is what I heard as I sat in on the morning's session. The attendees, or most of them, are producers of the kind of products I only see when walking into a toy store or gift shop in a resort.  Cheap, and lacking any intrinsic value.  The presenters and listeners were all on the tech side, with a few principals sitting in.  The organization is only a few years old and its mission is to deal with the flood of governmental regulations confronting all manufacturers. From the jewelry point of view, the outlook is very tough, and I am guessing that we on the "fine jewelry" side have only a faint idea of what is going on - and what we are going to have to deal with. All...

We are coming up to the mid-year jewelry shows, and we will be using those events to measure the state of the industry.  At this point, there are enough signs to make us a bit ambivalent on how the rest of the year will go. One one side, the top end seems to be holding up well.  It appears that the affluent (and even the super-affluent) are continuing to buy, though at lower average price points.  Some reports from guild stores say that sales are good, though dollars are down.  That sense of caution seems to be supported by the stock markets, which continue to have declining numbers of trades, leading us to believe that people are sitting on the sidelines and holding on to cash.  Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's partner at Berkshire Hathaway, says that is a bad idea.  The value of cash, he says, is being steadily eroded by inflation, and that will only get worse. That may be easy for him to say, as he hold billions in assets, but squirreling away cash o...