It’s surprising that diamonds are more popular even though moissanite has a lot of advantages. Here are just some of the benefits of moissanite.
Less expensive
Moissanite’s value is not over inflated by some monopolistic cartel (ahem, DeBeers). Instead you get what you pay for. Check out this chart showing difference prices of moissanite versus diamonds at different carats. It’s easy to see that you get more bang for your buck. Do you think your fiance would want a 1.25 carat stone or a 0.25 carat stone, given that you can’t tell the difference.
| Diamond | Moissanite | |
| 0.25 carat | $390 | $60 |
| 0.50 carat | $1,200 | $95 |
| 0.75 carat | $2,900 | $200 |
| 1.00 carat | $4,800 | $275 |
| 1.25 carat | $7,900 | $350 |
| 1.50 carat | $11,100 | $460 |
| 1.75 carat | $18,900 | $535 |
| 2.00 carat | $21,000 | $610 |
Note: These prices are based on a diamond of color H and clarity SI1, which is worse than the flawless look of a moissanite.
Keep in mind that engagement rings are supposed to have sentimental value, not money value. It’s the first action of your marriage. And with so many marriages ending in divorce due to money problems, it doesn’t make sense to start our your married life in debt on an engagement ring. Besides, with the money you save you can afford to get a better setting, which does have precious metal value that will hold up over time.
More sparkle
We’ve talked about how moissanite has better fire and brilliance than a diamond. Most people can’t comprehend what this means until you look at one in person. Check out this video of someone showing the refractions in her moissanite engagement ring (try to ignore the gaudy nail polish).
With more sparkle catching people’s eyes, your bride will get the ravishing attention she deserves.
Clear conscience
Don’t forget that a moissanite gem is created in a laboratory, and rarely found in nature. This means you can rest assured knowing that the money you spent on it is not going to fund a war, or support slave labor. Who wants their fiance to always wear a ring that could symbolize oppression in third world countries?
Additionally you don’t have to feel like you’ve been had by the diamond cartel. Knowing that you paid for something just because a company flooded the world with unrelenting advertising makes you feel like you’ve been had. It’s like paying $12.50 for popcorn at the movie theater, knowing you can get it from the supermarket for a quarter, except on a much larger scale!
By Brenda Stickler November 13, 2013 - 7:45 pm
You fail to tell one of the most important differences, the diamond can be an investment. Moissoinite does not have re-sale value.
By Shane Stone November 14, 2013 - 7:03 am
Hi Brenda – It’s actually the opposite. Diamonds can be resold, but usually at half of their value. So if you buy a $4k diamond and resell it for $2k, you’ve lost $2,000. But if you buy a $400 moissanite, the maximum you can lose if you can’t resell it is $400! Much less of a loss!
By Dale September 13, 2017 - 9:59 pm
Depending on how you want to make a turn atound. If you bought a D flawless during 1970 it would have cost you $10,000. If you gove it now to your daughter she’ll be so ecstatic at how its risen. Meanwhile anywhere in the world even third wirld countries, try pawning a moissanite you’ll be lucky if ypu het a cent. Its a fake thats wgat they’ll tell you.
By izzi December 30, 2013 - 3:14 pm
Diamonds only depreciate.
By Dale September 13, 2017 - 9:56 pm
Diamonds don’t deoreciate. You have to wait for year to recover the profit the seller made from you. But moissanite … $600 … just say goodbye to that $600.
By Ben November 26, 2014 - 10:53 pm
That is utter nonsense spread by clever diamond advertising. The only diamonds that are investments, are the ones that sell for millions. Investments are items intended to increase in value. Most diamonds do not increase in value with time. Don’t have to take my word for it. Spend $30,000 on a diamond ring. Whether you try to sell it the very next day or three decades from now, you’ll never come close to recovering what you spent on it. Reason being: that gem you bought isn’t rare and never will be. Truly rare diamonds are WAY out of the general population’s price range. SO DON’T fool yourself when you drop tens of thousands on a diamond ring. It’s no investment. It’s a steeply depreciating purchase.
By theresa January 9, 2015 - 6:50 am
I don’t care if there fake Good bye Diamond. HELLO Moissanite.
By Robert Laurent April 29, 2015 - 9:41 am
Have you ever tried to sell a diamond? Hahahaha!
Go ahead and see what your “investment” brings back to you. As I understand it, a wise investment is one that gains value, not loses value. A jeweler will tell you everything you want to hear when buying a diamond. Go to that same jeweler to sell it. Good luck.
By Kevin December 11, 2015 - 1:32 pm
Diamonds aren’t and investment and if you don’t believe me then try selling your rings. Besides people only paying a fraction of what you think they’re worth they’re only as valuable as what someone is willing to pay you for them.
By Dale September 13, 2017 - 10:00 pm
That is the bottom line. Moissanite is becoming cheaoer and cheaper esp since china and india started making them
By christie February 26, 2019 - 3:08 am
Surely you have not tried selling jewellery back to jewellers. diamonds are not an investment my friend.
By Sam December 2, 2013 - 12:01 pm
It is not the opposite. A diamond has true intrinsic value. Its value, if it has the good 4 C’s and is certified will never lose its value, but gain value. When resold, it is often in a setting with sentimental value attached and sold for need of quick cash conversion with the owner willing to take a loss due to the need for that quick cash, often without the certification papers. Moissanite is a cheap alternative and gives off that fakish fire. Your reference to wars(often called ‘blood diamonds’) and cartels may be somewhat accurate, but that is how it goes. A diamond IS an investment. Moissanite is just that, Moissanite. A lab created stone with no intrinsic value, with its resale way below a diamond, check eBay or Craigslist sometime, They practically give Moissanite away, with the mount, if real gold having more value than the stone. Natural Moissanite is extremely rare, so it is lab created as silicon carbide. It is often used in diamond scams, because of its clarity and sparkle. It’s basically a junk stone, like lab created rubies, sapphires and emeralds.
By B. Wong December 4, 2013 - 2:44 am
Sam,
Diamonds are NOT an investment. Have you looked how hard it is to sell a second hand diamond? And even when you are able to sell it on Ebay you are taking a HUGE loss (with certification papers they still are taking losses of 50%+). Shane is spot on, you will take a loss selling either stone second hand, but with the lower upfront cost the Moissante wins on that front. If diamonds were truly a solid investment then why does the entire stock market ignore them and instead trade in gold and silver?
What intrinsic value does a diamond have that any other precious stone doesn’t? They are all sparkly and pretty (although I admit diamonds do have a unique niche in industrial applications such as saws and drill bits). Does a magical certificate make the diamond sparkle better? Does it make it larger or clearer or more beautiful? Did you know that moissanite can be sent in and certified also?
And finally I know you think Moissanite is a junk stone; it’s lab created so it’s fake and has no value. What if I told you that you can lab create diamonds also? And these diamonds look exactly the same as ones that are mined. Are they junk also? Are they worth less?
By emmy February 5, 2014 - 2:25 pm
I think it’s the concept of economics that makes diamonds so valuable. It seems moissanite are a great stone as well. Our perception of diamonds as well as the monopolizing ways of DeBeers have affected the market.
Can I make a really weird, drastic comparison using people? Babies that are made through the use of test tubes are just as valuable & actually cost more money to make, but they are no better or worse humans.
All that being said, I have a diamond a 1/2 carat heart my husband bought in ’06 for approx $1000. A man is expected to dedicate 2 months salary to this purchase! We were in college; it was a great sacrifice & I’m thankful. Seven years later, my ring is valued by Kay’s at around $1300. I didn’t believe what you said about diamond’s depreciation being similar to that of a car’s, so I too checked EBay to see what used prices were. Maybe they don’t depreciate at the same rate as cars, but it seemed significant. My thinking is that my ring has simply “appreciated” in value to Kay’s due to the extreme spike in the price of gold.
By Shane Stone February 6, 2014 - 6:37 am
You’re lucky that your ring has increased in value! And yes, I agree with you – it’s probably due to the cost of gold, not the diamond. Congrats and thanks for sharing!
By James February 16, 2014 - 2:06 am
You should try to sell them your rings and see what they say. Suddenly that $1300 ring isn’t worth half of that when they’d be the ones buying. Also, if your ring has gold it it obviously that part of it has gone up in value parallel to the gold price.
By Emmy November 16, 2014 - 6:25 pm
A man is expected……. what a chauvinistic thing to say. By the way women have jobs and plenty a money today and there is now a growing practice of the WOMAN buying the man an engagement gift as well ( 2 months salary is the norm)
By Gemma January 11, 2015 - 9:25 am
Aww for **** sake shut up, who brought feminism into this? It was always the man that proposed in the past and like it or not; 90% of the time it still is, so do yourself a favor and stop giving woman a bad name
By Jennifer March 11, 2015 - 8:10 am
Did you ask what they would buy it for, if you were coming in to sell it to them? Obviously the seller can say something they are selling is “worth” whatever they want to say it’s worth, to convince you of their products and buying more there. The true question regarding the diamond and gold “holding their value,” is, can it be sold at the value paid or higher?
As mentioned here many times, and from what I have heard from my own jeweler, the value is in gold, over diamonds, and obviously, over moissanite. If sparkle and sentimental value is what engagement and wedding rings are for, at this point I’d go with moissanite. .
By trina September 17, 2014 - 8:42 pm
Diamonds do NOT depreciate in value. A diamond is a naturally occurring stone, there is a set amount in the world currently and we won’t be able to resupply it naturally. Thus the value. Also, do you know that diamond wholesalers get a lot of stones from pawn shops? Yeah, they get some new ones too. But, generally if you go to your local shop they have gotten a decent percentage of their supply from diamond wholesalers who have gotten them from pawn shops. They will remove the stones from the settings and make newer nicer settings to put them in. Source: I work for a company that buys/sells jewelry.
By Mike Williams July 31, 2014 - 6:42 pm
Diamonds weren’t even used in engagement rings with any regularity until the DeBeers Mining Co. forced them on us through advertising, and hired N.W. Ayer to tell Americans just that in the 1930s. For a truly great read about how awful the diamond engagement ring is to couples in this day and age and what it means… and doesn’t, anymore, check out Diamonds are a Girl’s Worst Friend at: read http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/weddings/2007/06/diamonds_are_a_girls_worst_friend.html. It’s a worthy, informative read.
By vicki September 10, 2015 - 9:32 am
Maybe you should check out the wholesale price of lab created rubies,etc… and as more man made diamond type ll come on the market natural diamond will continue to loss value unless it is a true investment pieces like DF or true natural color over 1 ct.
By Alyssa November 22, 2015 - 8:43 am
It seems like you are hung-up on your preference for diamonds for no real reason. I’m extremely happy with my moissanite engagement ring – in fact, I told my husband explicitly I do not want a diamond. Spending thousands on a rock that is not rare or even slightly unique is, to me, stupid. Regardless, it’s all about the symbolism and sentimental value at the end of the day. You can think the stones are junk, but I think moissanites are great!
By Leslie June 1, 2016 - 2:34 pm
I did the exact same thing. Told him I did not want a diamond. He discovered moissanite and gave me a beautiful moissanite ring. People are genuinely wowed by the ring. I heard life shouldn’t be measured in minutes but by moments that take your breath away. This stone costs less than a diamond but absolutely takes people’s breath away more than a diamond in the same size.
By Leslie June 1, 2016 - 2:59 pm
@Sam
Lets be clear. Moissanite is naturally occurring. Discovered in meteorites, it is extremely rare and so is often man made. So yes, mossianite and diamond stones are often man made or “fake,” but the fire of a moissanite stone (silicon carbide) is very real and occurs in nature. Yes, its hard to believe something from nature has more beauty and has more fire than a diamond, De Beers doesn’t want you to know that, but its true. This is why I donate money to Wikipedia, do your research.
By Amy November 6, 2016 - 2:58 pm
Yes, what you said is all true, but have you not thought about how mining diamonds create holes in the earth? Also, technically, a diamond is just a junk stone too. It’s just a piece of carbon that’s been naturally and chemically involved with heat. In the old days, diamonds were popular because of the sparkle and the hardness. But now, we know that moissanite is a 9.25 on the mohs scale, and moissanite has much more sparkle.
By Dale September 13, 2017 - 10:25 pm
Moissanite may be cheap for americans used to pay $2000 for a CC 3 ct moissanit or amora but if you do say goodbye to that money. W diamond you can pass it on to your greatgrandchildren and value will be higher. Just try buying a moissanite for $2000 go to the pawnshop maybe in the US they’ll give you sonething but go to asia, they give you nothing for it.
By Rachel April 2, 2020 - 2:15 pm
Amen! Finally someone who speaks out against this ridiculous fab of the Moissanite. What I’ll never get is why people are spending thousands on something that has no more worth than the classic fake diamond, CZ. I’ll take my beautiful REAL VS2 / G diamond over the Moissanite any day! Kudos to my fiance for not trying to be cheap when it came to our engagement!
By gabe December 16, 2013 - 2:37 pm
@Sam,
if someone wants a stone that has that “fakish fire”, then its not really a junk stone at all. the value is up to the person buying it, and at that price, there’s not a lot of risk for a good looking stone
By Leslie June 1, 2016 - 2:45 pm
@Gabe. Lets be clear. Moissanite is naturally occurring. Discovered in meteorites, it is extremely rare and so is often man made. So yes, mossianite and diamond stones are often man made or “fake,” but the fire of a moissanite stone (silicon carbide) is very real and occurs in nature. Yes, its hard to believe something from nature shines brighter than a diamond, De Beers doesn’t want you to know that, but its true. This is why I donate money to Wikipedia, do your research.
By Dale September 13, 2017 - 10:27 pm
Did you ever hear a multi millionaire giving his wife a moissanite? Try it andvtell her she’ll make you swallow it
By Pete March 9, 2014 - 6:35 am
Two days ago I was looking at 1k diamond rings, and I had an offer to buy a second hand ring for 3 000 pounds that was valued as 4 000 pound ring when it was new. They say it is because they don’t have to pay tax for second hand ring. Price difference is unbelievable for a ring that left the store once.
By Lois April 7, 2014 - 1:25 pm
It’s all in the eye of the beholder. If you like how a moissanite looks in your rings, earrings or necklace, who cares? You get more for your dollar and if YOU’RE happy with it, that’s all that matters.
By Michele Stevens May 12, 2014 - 12:40 pm
Moissanite maybe pretty and inexpensive , but there’s nothing like the real thing ! I have a half carat diamond ring grade K ,it has lots of sparkle and I love it ! Just knowing it’s a diamond makes me happy ! big perfect stones look fake to me .
By Ben November 26, 2014 - 11:04 pm
“Like the real thing”?? Moissanite may resemble diamond, but it is not fake diamond. It is a gem in its own right, which happens to be less expensive than diamond. Your perception that paying more=better product is exactly the mentality product companies hope their advertising will instill in the public. Way to go!
By Ronald May 22, 2014 - 9:37 pm
“just knowing it’s a diamond makes me happy” Such a shallow statement. Would be glad to marry someone who is happy that I love them so much I want to devote the rest of my life to them, no matter what if anything is on their finger….
By Jason August 4, 2014 - 7:36 am
Perfect response. Diamonds are only what they are because of great marketing. White Sapphires are much more rare, yet demand 1/3 the cost. They don’t have the “fire” that diamonds do, but are still beautiful. The whole thing about a ring costing a certain amount of months worth of a man’s salary is all out selfish and greedy. Who cares if it cost a year’s salary or came from a cracker jack box? You are marrying the man not the ring, right?
By Jane Doe June 21, 2014 - 6:17 am
Well, I had a beautiful diamond put into another setting. The following appraisal, which was done at another jeweler, identified that my sentimental stone was probably switched. While this is rare and I’m working with the GIA to confirm that status of my ring, it has dampened my appreciation of diamonds. From my research, there is really no way to protect them from cleaning or resetting. Even if the diamond is laser marked, it looks like the marking can be buffed out. This may be the route I go if I decide to sell the ring and replace it with a stone of my direct choosing.
By Heidi Heath October 23, 2014 - 6:32 pm
Who cares about how they look or that you are happy because you know it’s a real diamond? Not one soul on the planet can insure that a real diamond came from a conflict free area. How can you sleep at night knowing all the lives that have been tortured to get that stupid rock on your finger? DeBeers is disgusting and evil. They created all this.
By vicki September 10, 2015 - 9:37 am
chemical traces show where the stone came from
By Jacquie November 16, 2014 - 2:25 pm
You forgot about an even rarer stone…white zircon. It can be diamond cut and look like a real diamond, and yes it is real. Zircon has a very close refractive index to a real diamond, but no one really knows about them. When they find out, the price will definitely go up. I just ordered two 10 mm rounds for $19.98 on Ebay. I will test them to make sure they are real white zircons.
By Shannon December 13, 2014 - 5:33 am
I sold my $10,000 engagement ring after my divorce. I went to 6 different jewelry shops, and was offered the exact same dollar amount from all. $3,500. I accepted it, because the ring had lost any meaning. Now my current fiancé and I are looking at moissanite. They are beautiful, it is about the love behind the ring, and I will be very proud to wear it
By johnie April 19, 2015 - 2:18 pm
All stones have intrinsic value, but diamonds have a much higher inflationary price which results in a much lower resale value. And moissanite has 2.5 times the fire.
By laura July 8, 2015 - 7:52 am
I just traded my diamond for a moissanite and I love it. To each their own and what they like, some women prefer gem stones over diamonds, it’s all in what you like, my ring now costs more than my diamond did. You wear what makes you happy rather it be lab created or not, the real meaning is what the ring represents and that’s two people becoming as one.
By Ellie May 3, 2016 - 9:01 am
Hi, What is the size comparison between a 6.5 moissanite and a diamond size on the finger, does someone have a pic they could post. Thanks
By James January 14, 2018 - 3:40 am
Google “Nicky Oppenheimer intrinsic value of diamonds” and you’ll know… If the billionaire leader of the DeBeers Cartel says what he said, then you are being DUPED if you buy a diamiond. Period.
By Donna mcgibbney March 31, 2018 - 4:53 pm
What’s all the fighting about. The midrange is just as beautiful. If you don’t have all the money it takes to buy a large beautiful perfect diamond, then get a large beautiful moissanite. Personally I don’t worry about reselling. I think if you not wealthy the impossible fits the bill