Oh, they’ll find a way to make money.
I’ve never been terribly interested in the monetary value of something like this, but in the aesthetic value (admittedly, though, this is probably because I’ve never been in a tax bracket to think of something like this as an ‘investment’ - and I’d rather have farmland, anyway ;-)
I think I recall reading that Coco Chanel was sort of famous for mixing higher quality stones with paste in her jewelry designs, to achieve the effect that she desired.
I always thought that was a sort of transcendent and enlightened approach ;-)
Our best haul was a synthetic sapphire bracelet for $19.99 on Groupon. When we go out and she's wearing it, she tells me gets that "bitch!" look from other women.
Must be a female thing, my radar can't pick up sub-millisecond microexpressions.