Based on your financial expertise, provide your response or viewpoint on the given financial question or topic. The response format is open.

Is it true that the price of diamonds is based on a monopoly?
diamonds are intrinsically worthless -- and therefore have quite little resale value It may be true that De Beers has a near monopoly on diamond supply, but they are still a scarce resource, so their supply is still very limited.  They do have resale value - that's one reason why diamond jewelry is stolen so often. There's just not a huge secondary market for diamonds that I know of (unlike cars, for example).  You can sell diamond jewelry at pawn shops or online brokers, but you probably only get a fraction of their retail value. They are not intrinsically worthless.  They do have value in the industrial sector as powerful cutters, although synthetic diamonds are much more prevalent in this market.  Their value in industry is much lower than their worth as jewelry. Think about gold - it does not have a monopolic supplier but it still has a relatively very high value.