Oh, Carbon, is their anything you can't do? Besides wear out, I mean. While greater men than I determine how to implement this magical element into plans to save humanity from impending climate, terror or economic apocalypse (whichever comes first), I'll content myself with congratulating Obbligato Black Diamond Guitar picks for their ingenious use of the sixth element.

Obbligato claims that their picks showed zero wear after "over two years playing with steel and bronze strings on a wide variety acoustic and electric guitars. . . even under 4X magnification." Of course, Carbon is a diamagnetic material, so magnification wouldn't really have any observable effect upon it anyway. . . science jokes! But seriously, folks, if you want the real scoop on what the Black Diamond picks are all about, check out this (nearly inscrutable) table, copped from the Obbligato website:

It all makes sense now! Except for one thing: how much does it cost? While the specific price has eluded me research, we can extrapolate a probable price based on the little information we're given from the table, specifically the bit about "Higher initial cost but quickly pays for itself in under a year by not having to replace it." Let's say you go through picks at a rate of about four-per-week, and that the cost of a dozen picks is about $4-per-pack. You'd go through 208 picks a year, or 17 and 1/3rd packs.

It's a fair guess, then, that the Obbligato Black Diamond picks cost anywhere between $0 and $69. Wow, what a (bargain/ripoff!)