Synthetic Diamonds Sounded Too Good to Be True

Synthetic diamonds sounded too good to be true. According to a new study, they are.

Touted as an eco-friendly alternative to natural diamonds, lab-created diamonds-also known as lab-grown diamonds or synthetic diamonds-are gaining in popularity.

And why not? They look identical to natural diamonds, and, according to major synthetic diamond manufacturers, are up to 30-40% cheaper than their naturally mined counterparts.

There has to be some kind of catch, right?

According to independent research by diamond educational website The Diamond Pro, there is a catch: They're not cheaper at all. On average, synthetic diamonds are actually about 20% more expensive than comparable natural diamonds.

"We've discovered that companies selling lab-created diamonds are using a looser, more forgiving lab-the International Gemological Institute-that gives higher grades than the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). So when you compare apples to apples, they're actually more expensive," says Diamond Pro founder Ira Weissman.

In addition, synthetic diamonds have little to no resale value, further making them a less-than-ideal purchase.

"From a value perspective, you would need to buy the lab-created diamond at a massive discount to justify giving up the value retention of natural diamonds," states Weissman. "While there are certainly many reasons people might buy man-made diamonds, price, as well as value retention shouldn't be one of them."

In order to demonstrate its findings, The Diamond Pro has posted a natural diamond versus lab-created diamond price comparison here.