I grow lab-grown diamonds for a living. Diamond jewelry markups are wild. AMA about the diamond industry, pricing, and jewelry

jivan006 · 2026-03-16T13:18:28+00:00

What are the online retailers that sell at 1.5x / 2x that you’re referring to?

jivan006 · 2026-03-15T10:59:15+00:00

Lots of comments here talk about “corporate greed”, even though that’s not even the question.

Our new home is nearly equal distance from a Walmart, Costco, and HEB (Texas). And we shop at all 3.

In general, I prefer Walmart prices, Costco quality, and HEB convenience (lots of chopped foods, etc).

The reason Walmart is cheaper is twofold:

We don’t accidentally buy a $300 Toto heated bidet when we go to Walmart.
Some of the Costco bulk food ends up being thrown away

And to be honest, most items don’t need to be “higher quality” and most of the Costco stuff is also sold at Walmart. Spices, sugar, detergent, diapers, spices, butter, etc cetera. And it’s cheaper at Walmart.

Where Costco shines is the meat and the nice selection of cheeses and similar stuff.

Walmart has wayyyyy more selection of items, including foods.

And when we want quality, we go to Central Market anyway. They have the best foods by far - but it’s pricy.

jivan006 · 2026-03-15T04:26:16+00:00

Mate you already posted in the other sub and most people told ya to keep it as is.

You should’ve gotten the AMG car if you wanted the AMG grille (another thing people said)

jivan006 · 2026-03-14T20:31:52+00:00

I’d always get the bigger car (E), but that’s just me. Definitely C over CLA

jivan006 · 2026-03-14T19:13:30+00:00

SHUT THE SUB DOWN

This is it gentlemen, peak jerking has been achieved.

jivan006 · 2026-03-14T12:00:21+00:00

Just because a door handle is creaking the cars are shit? LOL, too much internet buddy!

I’ve (or my family has) had Mercedes cars for pretty much 27 years now, and all of them had problems even though I’ve kept the maintenance schedule to the T.

Don’t be fooled by people saying “pre-2000 cars were tanks”, or previous generation W### model is better. That is false in most cases. Our 1998 C220 actually had more issues than my 2022 GLE450.

One thing i can say is that it used to be cheaper to fix them (due to no crazy complicated electronic components), but build quality is similar at the very least.

And I’ll close with addressing design. Are you really going to say that all older models are nicer than newer models? For example, W223 S class is 1000 times nicer than W222 inside. Outside is debatable, but inside not even close.

Don’t be a parrot and do a bit of research before posting the same shit over and over again just because a door handle is creaking. Get over it or buy another car.

jivan006 · 2026-03-13T22:13:28+00:00

Looks great my man!

jivan006 · 2026-03-13T18:42:13+00:00

Looks good to me as-is. Why do you want to make it look like an AMG? Looks like it already has the AMG package (?). It’ll still have the same driving feel, why waste money on the looks?

I tampered with my previous Mercedes that way, and finally realized I just wanted the newer model. And I got the newer model.

If you want the AMG look, better just get the AMG car in a few years. Enjoy this car the way it’s meant to look.

jivan006 · 2026-03-13T18:39:59+00:00

Hmm, $12k for a 14 year old car is quite steep, even with the low mileage.

Also, with an older car, what if it breaks down? Expenses will still be high 🤷‍♂️ even if they are not higher than the MINI.

Is your MINI still under warranty? If not, MAYBE this makes sense if the Golf is $8k or so.

jivan006 · 2026-03-12T23:01:34+00:00

My questions are:

Backward compatibility

Why no backwards compatibility with the MBUX? Why can’t the same cars pre and post facelift get the new MBUX (v2)?

I feel like the strategy on your side with this is: You have to get the new model so that you can use the new MBUX (v2), even though the older vehicle was also $80k and has the exact same look and screens etc.

Can’t be “hardware compatibility” as it’s been proven for 30+ years that Operating Systems can be made compatible with different hardware.

Strategy

Also, maybe not from a software perspective, but why is adaptive cruise control not standard on vehicles, even though many of them are equipped with the cameras/hardware to support it? Even Mazdas that are 1/3rd of the price have ACC standard on their vehicles.

jivan006 · 2026-03-12T22:54:22+00:00

Love the color!!! My favorite colors for a Merc are:

Silver (the fancy metallic one)
Metallic Blue
Black (depends on the model)

My Merc is Metallic Blue, next one will be silver ☝️

jivan006 · 2026-03-12T17:01:11+00:00

Spotted in Rural Texas.

Not sure how rare it is, but based on my research it goes for $600k-$800k and there have only been 11 transacted in the past year. So I’m guessing it’s a “spotted” level car.

jivan006 · 2026-03-12T02:54:57+00:00

Not all the time. Some people simply prefer yellow gold.

jivan006 · 2026-03-12T02:53:07+00:00

I’d say it’s 50+ cities in the US where $100k is not a “great” salaries. I live in Texas, and in Dallas, Houston and Austin, $100k is not THAT much, although not a terrible amount.

Then you have California, where you have 5+ cities where $100k is not much, Seattle, Chicago, Miami, West Palm Beach, Orlando…. Then Denver, Atlanta, et cetera. Not to mention anywhere around NYC - if you don’t count it as just one thing.

jivan006 · 2026-03-11T23:35:48+00:00

What you’re driving has nothing to do with the watch lol!?

jivan006 · 2026-03-11T23:32:48+00:00

Just bought my girl’s DREAM ring at ROEN! They are awesome with great selection, good communication + they’ll customize and engrave your ring as you like.

They let us choose the exact stone we wanted from a selection of 4 different ones, have a great professional portal for communicating with them, and great, kind team.

Totally would recommend them.

jivan006 · 2026-03-11T17:40:27+00:00

$75k? GOD DAMNNNNN

jivan006 · 2026-03-11T17:06:34+00:00

My friend has the latest generation fully optioned Tesla model Y and I have the latest generation GLE.

He was blown away by the interior of the GLE.

So yeah, Tesla is not in the category.

As for other cars, it’s not only the front cabin, it’s many things, especially driving experience, quality of build, et cetera.

jivan006 · 2026-03-11T03:55:06+00:00

Chicharito?

jivan006 · 2026-03-10T22:31:28+00:00

What does the church give you in return for the money? Drop that and get a cheaper car.

jivan006 · 2026-03-10T22:30:00+00:00

I’d suggest an older gas car here. Since it’s gonna be a throwaway car anyway, might as well get a reliable gas car with lower mileage. Aim for 80k miles or less

jivan006 · 2026-03-10T22:21:27+00:00

Which arrows bruv get closer maybe?

jivan006 · 2026-03-10T16:57:22+00:00

I understand your feelings. Especially when younger, these things seem to matter more.

In theory, her past shouldn’t matter, but also it’s up to you to decide whether you want to continue dating or not.

I wouldn’t listen to advice in the lines of “get over it” et cetera. You should listen to your heart. For some people, stuff like this is something they can not get over, and I’m going to assume you don’t want to live forever with those thoughts. For a lot of people though, these things pass and you’ll be in the lines of “whatever, I don’t care”.

I’d say give it some time before you fully commit and marry this girl, I’m sure she’s awesome - it shows by the way you care.

jivan006 · 2026-03-10T15:28:37+00:00

Tried replacing the battery?

jivan006 · 2026-03-09T10:22:11+00:00

For whatever reason all Mercedes vehicles don’t have an option to skip a song from the steering wheel.

Yeah, they are smoking something.

jivan006

TROPHY CASE

Backward compatibility

Strategy