Financial & Travel Musings

The problem with the diamond market is that it’s not quite like that for any other highly priced item.

Whereas with the likes of gold, there’s quite an open market for it around the world, in the case of diamonds it’s still largely controlled by De Beers. Essentially they can yank the chain of any diamond buyer through their control of “sights” of loose diamonds which is the means through which the diamonds eventually end up in jewellry (after passing through the hands of many middle-men).

That vice-like grip on the market means that although it’s not a proper open market, it tends to be one that survives all the twists and turns that you would see on other markets for similar precious raw materials. Thus, in theory, no dramatic drops in price which is useful if you think of diamonds holding value.

Popularity: 1% [?]

The problem is that there really isn’t an answer to that as yet.

The best eye cream isn’t necessarily the most expensive, although the cosmetic industry would have you believe something like that. In practice, most of the time the higher price of the more expensive creams is down to more expensive packaging rather than better ingredients per se.

That’s not to say that you would want to buy the very cheapest cream though. At the bottom end of the market the packaging is cheap but the ingredients tend to be too.

The best combination is usually to aim for a mid-range brand. That’ll avoid the cheapo ingredients but will avoid the excessive charges for the fancy packaging that you get at the upper end of the ranges.

Popularity: 1% [?]