Engraving Charges (Raise your prices)

Jewelry Discussion
1

A story from the not too far past:

I was in a store that was trying to “hire back” a jeweler who had
worked for them previously. After leaving them he bought an engraving
store (trophies and such) and bought a $25,000 Hermes engraving
machine. I told this store (while he was there) to charge $15 to
engrave, not $5, also, to CHARGE the customers who bought a charm an
engraving charge in addition to the charm.

I actually told them to RAISE the price of each charm to $15 and
write on the tag “includes engraving”.

The engraver turned to me and said, “who in their right mind would
buy a $20 silver charm and pay $15 to engrave it?” (Remember, who
owns an engraving store!)

He also said there was Wal-Mart in town and I was nuts.

So that night after leaving their store for the Hotel I went by
Wal-Mart. They also had silver head charms for $20. I asked the
young girl “can you engrave it if I buy it?”

She said: “No sir, we don’t engrave at all. We can’t engrave
anything of yours much less anything we sell. Sorry.”

So I came back to their store the next morning and told them they
were all fools!

"Do you guys understand that if the customers buys a charm at
Wal-Mart, they can’t engrave the $20 charm? That they bring the charm
to YOU and you DO CHARGE to engrave it. So the customer buys the $20
charm from them and pays you $15 to engrave it, adding up to $35
total.

Now they buy the SAME charm from you and it’s only $20 including
engraving. Why in the world would YOU want to be cheaper than
Wal-Mart?"

So I spoke to them last week, they charge $15 to engrave an out of
the store charm and $10 to engrave their own charms (they just have
lots of guilt, I guess). But at least they CHARGE.

The engraver fellow? He still has his engraving store up for sale
and has been for 2-3 years now. His minimum charge to engrave is only
five bucks. And that’s using a $25,000 computerized engraving
machine.

The moral of the story? Never ask a craftsman how much you can
charge. Don’t ask the jeweler, don’t ask the watchmaker and don’t ask
the engraver.

David Geller

2 
The moral of the story? Never ask a craftsman how much you can
charge. Don't ask the jeweler, don't ask the watchmaker and don't ask
the engraver.

Careful there Mr. Geller; I know that you are trying to make a point
here, and I know I’m quoting you out of context, but that’s an overly
broad brush you’re using. Perhaps the moral of your story ought to
be, “don’t ask someone else what to charge for your services, figure
out how much you really need to charge for them”.

David L. Huffman

3 
Careful there Mr. Geller; I know that you are trying to make a point
here, and I know I'm quoting you out of context, but that's an overly
broad brush you're using. Perhaps the moral of your story ought to
be, "don't ask someone else what to charge for your services, figure
out how much you really need to charge for them".

Oops, I think the point was it’s the CUSTOMER who determines what
you can charge and they do it based on the VALUE of your
service/product to them and their knowledge of your COMPETITION.

James E. White
Inventor, Marketer, and Author of "Will It Sell?

4

I think, on the other hand, it is a mistake to “compete down”. Your
customer may or may not have the knowledge to place a realistic
value on your work. You have to educate them to that effect. There
is a time when the competition and what they charge is irrelevant.
Dale Carnegie aside, a jewelry purchase is fraught with issues of
trust, credibility, self esteem, status, you name it. Even vanity
and superstition play parts in these choices. My boss once told me
"you can’t sell apples from an empty cart" to which I replied, “but
that’s exactly what I do around here”. When I take a sketch book and
a fist full of colored pencils out on the sales floor, and the
customer says, “I don’t really know what I want”. . .that’s a pretty
empty cart to most observers. But I did that to the tune of over
$200,000 in custom sales last year. Go figure. My point is, to a
merchandiser, a showroom full of inventory is valuable, and a
trained, experienced artist has a value that is intangible. To an
artist, the showroom is irrelevant unless it is full of his own work.
It’s the customer’s perception of that artist’s “gift” that he is
selling.

David L. Huffman

5

This is the ‘Things Remembered’ syndrome. By having an engraving
shop at every mall and having high school age kids doing the work,
they have brought down the value, or the implied value of the
engraving because people get the idea that engraving jewelry is an
easy thing to do and that anyone can do it, so it shouldn’t cost
much. What the engraving stores don’t tell you is that they usually
will not engrave anything that they do not sell themselves because of
replacement issues due to mistakes or damage to the items. Or else
you have a store that offers the engraving as a service in order to
make the profit on the sale of the item itself and the charge is
very little which further cheapens the engraving’s intrinsic value. I
have a sometime customer who wholesales silver who bought their own
engraving machine and they engrave anything they sell for $3.00,
even if it’s 1000 pieces. If it’s an item that they cannot engrave in
their machine easily or a difficult piece, they turn the engraving
work down and refer the customer to me to get rid of them. These
people get irate with me because I charge my rate and will not do the
job for $3.00. This is because the stores have cheapened the implied
value of the engraving. The customers have to be re-programed to
recognize the value of the work. I agree with Mr. White- it’s the
customer who determines what you can charge.

Ricky Low, Hand Engraver
6222 Richmond Ave. #795
Houston, Texas 77057-6230
ph- 713.974.3710
fax-832.251.1190
email Ricky_Low@hotmail.com

6

Hi Rick Low and others: It seems to me you are contradicting yourself
when you say what you did . . .

    The customers have to be re-programed to recognize the value of
the work. I agree with Mr. White- it's the customer who determines
what you can charge.

You have to (re)educate the customer to recognize the value of the
work! Exactly. Then is it the newly educated customer that
determines the value of the work? I’m not trying to be flip or
insulting here. And I’m certainly savvy about the difference between
hand engraving and mall-kiosk machine engraving. I’m trying to make
the point that you can’t let an ignorant customer determine the value
of your work. How did we ever get them to pay 2 and 3 times markup
on jewelry in the first place? We “educated” them that it was worth
that. (Possibly with the help of a few like Mr. White). If someone
else “educates” them elswise, then we have to “re-educate” them to
survive. Mr. White is making his living “educating” people that his
opinion is worth something. That’s his product. And if every Tom,
Dick, and Harry got a mail order degree and printed up their business
cards and called themselves “marketing experts”, he’d have to get
busy re-educating his potential customers as to the difference
between the value of his opinion and theirs.

David L. Huffman

7

Maybe we’re splitting hairs here because I’m in agreement with what
you are saying in concept, David. It is the customer who ultimately
determines what I can charge by either paying for my services or not,
these newly re educated customers. They CAN refuse to pay my price,
after all. They have to be re educated to recognize the value of the
work I do for them before they will accept that price though. It’s
called salesmanship or marketing these days, I think. And it is not
all hand work, but some machine work as well because the customers
want that service of having it done instantly while they wait there
watching, etc… all the things that some stores provide as a
complimentary service incidental to the sale of some items they
carry. So I should spend a half hour of my time just dealing with the
customer and another half hour to actually do the job and only charge
$3 or $5? That’s the whole problem…the customer controls what I
can charge and their idea of the value is skewed, so they have to be
re educated to recognize the value of my price by salesmanship and
marketing. Mr. White will do well regardless because he knows
business and explains it well. Just read the book…:^)

Best of luck to you, David.

Ricky Low

8 
    ....the customer controls what I can charge and their idea of
the value is skewed, so they have to be re educated to recognize
the value of my price by salesmanship and marketing. Mr. White will
do well regardless because he knows business and explains it well.
Just read the book.....:^)

Yes, Rick, I understand your point. There is a reality to deal with
in terms of “what the market will bear” and it’s a reality that’s
constantly being manipulated by people with bigger advertising
budgets than most of us. I think, though, that in the case of hand
engraving, isn’t it interesting that a skill that had become so
scarce has been able to re-assert it’s value in the market once more,
in spite of the “advances” of technology? Ten years ago, I knew they
were out there, but I didn’t personally know where to look, and I’m
in “the trade”. I think the market awareness is just dawning.
Sometimes we can be very sucessful in our efforts to re-educate the
public if we catch them at the moment that they are fed up with the
everyday schlock and we present them with something as elegant and
personal as hand engraving and they happen to be ready to listen and
look. I have to believe in the value of a thing well done by someone
with an understanding of beauty. Otherwise, I know I’d miss my craft
from time to time as I took up chicken farming as an alternative.
:slight_smile: By the way, what’s the name of the book you mentioned?

Best of luck to you, too, Rick.

9

Well, hopefully this re assertion of the hand engraving craft is due
in some part to the efforts of some of us trying to bring it about.
:^) I do think that it is reasserting itself after existing on a
market of mainly older people who are old enough to remember the
difference and an eye for the ‘artfullness’ of the work as opposed to
the mechanical sameness of machine engraving. Generally speaking,
when a customer is shown the difference and taught just a bit about
how it’s done, the skill necessary, and see how much nicer the hand
work looks, they don’t mind paying the higher price. However, this
problem is further compounded by the fact that most good hand
engravers don’t want to deal with all of this and move on to
engraving other items where this problem doesn’t exist and their
value is more readily recognized, like die work or firearms and
knives and don’t seek this other type of work. Consequently, there
are less teachers for re education of the customers. By the way, have
you noticed the ‘Things Remembered’ stores going down around the
country? I didn’t mean I had JUST read the book, David. I meant that
if you doubted what I was saying as to whether he knew what he was
saying, then just read Mr. White’s book, ‘Will It Sell?’. Highly
recommended! Good luck to you! Ricky Low

10 
        the customer controls what I can charge and their idea of
the value is skewed, so they have to be re educated to recognize
the value of my price by salesmanship and marketing."

Sorry, I disagree with you. Jewelry repair is trust driven. not
price driven.

And yes you should charge for the half hour toe explian and 5
minutes to engrave. You eitehr need to shorten your explanations or
hire someone to listen to the customer, @$6 per hour.

David Geller

PS Jewelry repair has a 90% clsoing ratio. There are people sizing
rings at $7 REATIL and there are people sizing rings at 450 retail.
they both have a 90% closing ratio

11

The last post showed ring sizing at 450, it should be a dollar sign:
$50.

I have spoken to those who charge $50 to size a ring smaller and
spoke to someone who knows a jeweler who charges $60.

David Geller

12

We have always used a hand engraver and charged more than machine
engraving. We just tell the customer that they are getting a hand
made product so why would they want a machine to engrave the product?
Actually I can’t recall being challenged on this issue over price
ever–only on the fact that it takes longer to get it done.

Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Spirer Somes Jewelers
1794 Massachusetts Ave
Cambridge, MA 02140
617-491-6000
@spirersomes
www.spirersomes.com

13

Thanks for your response, Mr. Geller. While I respect your opinion,
I don’t see how trust factors into what price I can charge though,
because the customer wants what I can do for them and if they feel
that my price is fair, they buy, thereby setting the price I can
sucessfully charge. Enough customers decline due to price, I have to
lower my price in order to sell or find something else to do for a
living, right? So, I think the simple answer is they control the
price I can charge while I do everything in my power to demonstrate
to them why I’m worth the rate I want to charge them. This is all
dramatizised for effect to make my point though, how I relate this
to you and given as a very general demonstration. I generally don’t
have time to explain all of this to any customer due to the amount of
work and customers that I already have, nor do I find it necessary to
do so to get work. Like Mr. Spirer, I have worked all along with
stores like Tiffany’s,Cartier, Gordon’s, Zales, etc. where you have a
staff that is knowledgable about the work and mostly high end stores
that have customers who are knowledgable about the differences, have
a decerning eye for nice work, and usually don’t mind paying as long
as it’s delivered on time and also referrals from satisfied
customers. The ones that the difference has to be explained to are
usually turned away by a substantial enough minimum charge. Thanks
again for your insight in this area, everybody.

Ricky Low

14

I’ve followed this conversation with interest, and I think you’re
both right. There is a point at which the customer will balk and
walk away – if you tried to charge me $450 for a ring sizing, for
example, I’d laugh at you and go elsewhere. (With a nod to Mr.
Geller’s slip of the keyboard!) But what I think Mr. Geller is
suggesting is that most customers are a lot less price sensitive than
many jewelers assume. While I might balk at $450, I won’t at $50 –
even though many jewelers charge $20. In fact, as a customer, I
probably won’t even know that many jewelers charge $20! Personally,
I don’t shop around on price – Mr. Geller is right. I want someone
I trust, someone I have heard or know does good work, and is
convenient to get to for drop off and pick up. Once those conditions
are met, I ask the price. As long as it seems reasonable, I’m going
to pay it – I don’t want to have to start a search for someone else
who meets those conditions just to save a couple of bucks. My time is
valuable, too!

So yes, the customer does determine what you can charge – but too
many jewelers assume the customer will walk away if you raise your
prices on repair work. Mr. Geller’s experience suggests that repair
work is not as price sensitive – i.e., I’m less likely to walk away
because of price – as the sale of diamond tennis bracelets, for
example, which I’ve seen advertised everywhere for $99. (There you’ll
have to teach me the difference between your bracelet and the mall
jewelers’ so I’ll pay your higher price.) Remember, also, that it
may in some instances be more profitable for you to lose some
customers as long as you are charging a higher price that nets a
higher level of profit on the customers you retain. Economics
textbooks use mass transit ridership to illustrate this point: For
each amount you raise the fare, a certain percent of riders will find
alternate transportation. There is a point at which the fare has been
raised so much, the transit system will lose money because of those
lost riders. But up to that point, the transit system will make more
money even though it has fewer riders, thanks to the fare increase.
Same with jewelry repair. The trick is figuring out where the break
even point is. Transit systems do polls and studies to determine how
many riders they’ll lose with various fare hikes: Most of the
jewelers I know do it by gut instinct – which can lead them to
charge far less than they reasonably can, as Mr. Geller suggests.

Good luck to you all in this holiday season!

Suzanne
Suzanne Wade
writer/editor
Suzanne@rswade.net
Phone: (508) 339-7366
Fax: (520) 563-8255

15

Dear Ricky

The first question is: =93Are you happy with the income you get from
your work?=94 If the answer is yes, great.

But you contradicted yourself and you don=92t know it and you
contradicted yourself to the positive.

Firstly, you wrote =93I don’t see how trust factors into what price I
can charge though, because the customer wants what I can do for them
and if they feel that my price is fair, they buy, thereby setting the
price I can successfully charge.=94 No they don=92t set your price, yo=
u
do. Learning salesmanship will turn more customers into =93yes=92s=94 =
than
no=92s.

True, they can decide not to buy but that does not necessarily
determine what you charge. The =93end of the day=94 receipts determine
that. Your job is not to sell EVERYONE. Your job is to sell ENOUGH
people at a price that will give you the income you want. Plain and
simple. You say people won=92t pay, but then you wrote: =93I have wor=
ked
all along with Stores like Tiffany=92s, Cartier, Gordon’s, and
Zales=85=85… that have customers who are knowledgeable about the
differences, have a discerning eye for nice work, and usually don’t
mind paying as long as it’s delivered on time and also referrals from
satisfied customers.=94

What you said is =93the customers don=92t mind paying=94. The companie=
s
you mentioned aren=92t cheap on what they charge; in fact Zales does
almost a 4 time markup on what trade shops charge them.

Let=92s go back to the stores. Think about this: When a customer comes
in to buy a >product< the store probably sells 20-40% of the people
who come in.

But when the customers come in for a repair the stores sell over 90%
of them. It=92s not the PRICE; it=92s the trust, salesmanship and fine=
sse
of the sales person. Knowing that 90% of the customers will pay, why
charge $5 to engrave when you could charge $15?

Also let=92s look at the numbers. Let=92s say that at $5 to engrave yo=
u
sell 90% of the 10 people you talk to. Ninety percent is 9 customers,
at $5 each brings in a total of $45.00.

Now let=92s say you go to $15. I have found when you raise your prices
about 5% of customers will leave the store and not have the work
done. But in your case let=92s say a whopping 40% say =93No Thanks.=94=

That would leave only 6 customers who would pay the $15. Six
customers times $15 each brings in $90.00! That=92s double the income
for 40% less work.

You=92re not trying to sell EVERYONE, just sell the right number. Our
store went from $5 to $10 minimum to engrave, no discernable decrease
in numbers of engraving customers. The same thing at $15.00. Watch
batteries were the same. Went from $5 to $15 and still do the same
amount of watch batteries.

There is a threshold where customers will say =93you guys are high as
a kite and ALL of the city is going to revolt.=94

But I haven=92t met any jewelers who even came NEAR that threshold
number. It IS out there but I promise you that you won=92t be charging
that =93pie in the sky=94 number.

People who have bought my price book were scared because of the
increases were high but after using it they weren=92t scared any more
as raising their prices brought in between 50% and 100% INCREASES in
shop sales. And that included the customers who says =93you guys are
high as a kite=94

Here are just some of our prices we get:

Engagement ring smaller: $22.00

Half shank on same: $115.00

6 prong tiff head, wg, installed & set 1 ct diamond: $162.00

Carve & cast (no metal) shadow wedding band next to customers eng
ring: $325.00

Bead set (with hole already drilled) $18.00

Bead set (with out hole already drilled) $32.00

Channel set $18.00

Size man=92s class ring smaller: $68.00

Solder rings together at bottom: $20.00

Minimum to machine engrave $15.00; 75 cents per letter (you get 15
letters for the $15)

Minimum charge to hand engrave: $53.00

One letter monogram: $63.00

Family Crests: $488.00

I post this to give you strength to raise your prices as until they
make robots, increasing your prices is the only way to increase your
income.

I have been in the industry for 40 years and I have yet to find a
craftsperson that closed up shop because they wee the HIGHEST priced
craftsman around. I have only seen people close up because they
charged too little. The companies you mentioned are not cheap and
when they take in work they make really good money from it. The
companies that are doing well are never heard from. You only get to
meet whiners, people who are bad mouthing their careers. When you
start to ask people who are doing WELL how they do it you=92ll find
they are charging premium for their services.

I travel to stores, see their books, do seminars and I can tell you
a secret of the jewelry industry:

=93THE PEOPLE WHO MAKE THE MOST MONEY ARE THOSE THAT CHARGE THE
HIGHEST PRICE=94

Plain and simple. There are two types of craftsmen out theRe:

A. I will charge based upon what I think the market will bear and
never even try for a month higher prices as I believe if ONE CUSTOMER
walks, all will walk. My income will be determined by what I ask
customers to pay for my services and I will ask the bare minimum to
reduce customer whining.

B. I will charge prices based upon a time study and the prices
charged will be based upon how much money I WANT TO MAKE. I do not
care what the competition charges for the same services because my
craftsmanship, service and guarantee is the best in the area and
even if one area in these three is weak, I will make up for it in one
of the other two. My prices will be based upon what I want to make
and not what the customer wants to pay. After servicing the customer
they will forget the price, only think about the beautiful job I do
and they will send referrals. This will be the mark of how successful
I am in my business. Happy customers, good cash flow, increasing
sales and referrals tell me that my pricing practice is indeed
correct. I constantly learn selling techniques so as to increase my
closing ratio.

Just choose =93A=94 or =93B=94. It=92s just a choice you make.

David Geller

16

I guess that I am sounding like I’m contradicting myself and I don’t
mean to seem to be on the other side of this issue because I agree
with what you say, David. I was speaking originally in the context
of machine engraving and what is being charged for it and your
original post about that. I agree that they should charge more and
applaud your efforts to enlighten them in this area. Hand work adds
another dimension to it, because like you suggest, I DO get customers
based on trust as you’re describing it, or people who know of my
reputation and trust me according to that or from a referral type of
trust. I don’t mean to give the wrong impression. People trust me
with their wedding rings, Jaegers, Piagets, Pateks, Audemars,
sterling flatware,etc…I see your point.

Myself personally, I don’t think that you can call up any jewelry
establishment in the area who would tell you that I was cheap, quite
the contrary. :^) My reputation is for being expensive, so a
referred customer or repeat knows this in advance usually. Like
Suzanne said, as long as they think that the price is reasonable for
the work and they are happy with it, they will pay it because after
all, they are busy people, the ones who can afford this type of work
and don’t want to spend what free time they have searching this out.
Her point is a very good one because of the time factor. I try to
pre-sell 100% of them and avoid any I will have problems with as far
as price. I can afford to do this because my prices are high enough
to offset any loss of these customers. I also agree that a lot of
jewelers are under priced. They seem to do this work cheaply as a
service to their customers in order to get the really good and
profitable occassional sale, but maybe it’s because I’m in a
wholesale atmosphere where I am and deal with a lot of customers that
are resellers and as such, they are always trying to get the best
possible price that thay can get. If a price is considered too high,
they just have it done overseas instead or use the immigrant jeweler.
The situation would be different in a stand alone store setting or
for someone who is already a customer. Competition plays into it more
so for a jeweler than for an engraver also because of scarcity. Your
prices are very interesting. Thanks for providing them as an
example. A very smart lady convinced me of this concept of raising
your prices a long time ago by explaining to me that when people
consider you expensive and you’re still in business, obviously
SOMEONE is using your services, so you must be expensive because you
are very GOOD at what you do or possibly the best available. And some
people do want the best and some even demand it, price being no
object to them. She was the business manager for Dr. Micheal De Bakey
and before she went to work for him, he was broke. :^) Now they pay
this guy in the thousands just to simply show up and WATCH and even
send helicopters and jets to pick him up. It convinced me that she
was right about it- wouldn’t you agree?

Thanks for the insight, everybody.

Ricky Low

17

I have observed this thread for some time and had to reply.

David Geller knows what he is talking about. We just don’t take the
time to analyze the numbers.

The price that we charge our customers should not based on what our
competitions is charging. We must calculate our true cost of doing
business and how much profit we want to make.

How do we justify a lower price to our customers? I work really fast
and sacrifice quality, but I can do the job cheaper! I don’t
recognize my abilities as good as the competition, therefore I don’t
make as much money!

I grew up in the industry. I have worked at the bench for 30+ years
and operated my own retail store. The only thing that I discounted
was old merchandise. I wanted to move old merchandise, recover some
of my money to buy something that would make me a profit.

All repairs were calculated while considering the following:

Materials: Parts Cost, stone breakage and reworks
Labor: Shop Operating Expenses
Employee Benefits: Vacations, Insurance etc.
Profit Margin: The amount of Return on Investment.

It will take time to work out your Gross Profit Margin, but the
effort will make your life easier.

Retail ring sizing should reap you a minnimum 75%GPM, while custom
orders can be as much as 80%GPM. You make the choice on the percentge
of profit that you want to make. We have to remember that this is
Gross Profit and we have not included operating expenses. We can’t
give anything away. If you normally charge $18.00 to size a gold ring
down, your probably about GPM is 75%. By doing one size down at no
charge and charging for one, we have lowered our GPM to 33%. We need
to have 3 chargable sizings to bring the GPM to 55.56%. Just because
our retail prices are higher, we do not make the expected profit.
Just one discounted repair or no charge repair drastically effects
your GPM.

Regards,
Roger Kitchens

18

Ricky, Gordons and Zales customers high end??Knowledgeable staff???I
have worked for both of these schlock chains for years and not only
is their merchandise junk they go through sales staff in
droves.Gordons is owned by Zales and is their low end storehouse.If
customers were knowledgeable they would run at a very high rate of
speed away from such sorry excuses for quality.I know that most of my
customers and I do work for six stores don’t know anything about
jewelry and rely on me to inform them.They trust me to work on rings
that have been in their families for generations.I tried to put my
apprentice,who is quite capable at ring sizing and chain solders and
knows what has to be done in repair situations.My customers went nuts
they did not trust a new face.I have been in that window for 8
years.Some come by just to chat.Trust is the first factor in a
relationship with your customers you build that trust by doing good
and honest work.If you raise your prices and they trust you they
won’t go across the hall to someone they don’t trust.Customers do not
set prices.Business sets price.Price is not decided by how many
customers buy a widget.The widget makers figure what it cost to make
the widget and price it accordingly.Service related business is no
different…Regards J Morley Coyote Ridge Studio

19

I have been hand engraving 15 years for the trade only, being on the
wholesale end is much different then retail I’m at the mercy of the
salesmanship of the retailer and their knowledge of hand engraving, I
handle around 150 stores nationally along with Tiffany’s, Ross
Simon.

When I pick up a new customer from time to time I get the oh my God
your expensive my customer will never pay these prices, with that I
smile and ask do you know how hand engraving is done, I know when
the price comes up they don’t have a clue I give them a short
explanation And tell them lets do this job and if your customer is
unhappy call me I’ll do it no charge, before I know it they’re back
with more work and Picking the most expensive monograms, design
work, family crests Then ask what happen I thought your customers
would never pay my prices As always the first customer shows off the
hand engraving bringing in more Customers.

Many times I get calls from the retailer asking me to talk with the
customer We get on the phone talk for a short time; the retailer gets
back on the phone I tell them charge the customer $500.00 (complete
silence) later they Call back how did you do that this customer didn’t
want to spend $50.00 Don’t take this the wrong way but customers are
like sheep you need to lead them, I ask is it a gift, something
personal, my answer is the same in ether case do you want engraving
that’s ok or WOW that’s awesome, I also explain hand engraving is not
just having something personalized it’s a heirloom that can be handed
down to your great grandchildren, 95% of the time price goes out the
window, the other 5% say I don’t care I just want it engraved, at
that point I give them a couple of places to have it machine engraved
Engraving and Things ECT… half of them come back saying they can’t
do it Or the work isn’t very good.

I don’t know about you David but I worked my butt off learning hand
engraving lots of sleepless night, pricing of course has to be
within reason If a customer comes in and wants an 18k diamond ring but
only wants to spend $200.00 do you give it to them anyway (NO) the
same goes for hand engraving. I make a great living hand engraving I
didn’t start out thinking I was going to make a lot of money just
that I could make a living because of my love for the trade I’m doing
better then just making a living and remember as wholesaler my price
is half the retailers.

In closing I’m honest with people if an item is not worth hand
engraving I tell them, so many things made today are total garbage,
and you get what you pay for.

20

Hi J Morley- Actually I was referring to Sweeney&Co, Corrigan’s and
very Harry Gordons Jewelers. Sweeney’s and Corrigan’s were later
acquired by Zales, which is why I said that name. Zales owned the
other Gordons stores you speak of, right enough, and I tend to agree
with your assessment of them. This Gordons store I mean was not owned
by Zales, but was owned by the family and not one of the chain stores
that were acquired by Zales. They are all Bailey, Banks, and Biddle
stores now, I think. I think they still owe me money from the
bankruptcy :^) Ricky