Palladium pricing issues

Orchid,

Like many of you, I have been using palladium as an alternative to
white gold metals. I’ve used Stullers “Special Projects” when I’ve
had to do a custom piece in pd. That is, until I found out a very
ugly little discrepency. Stuller & Hoover charge double what the
market is. I thought my math was really off. That is, until I called
2 supervisors @ Stuller to confirm what was going on. When the price
was confirmed, I asked them if they knew that the price reflected a
price for pd that was double what spot price was. They were
chagrined, but did acknowledge this issue. I ended up eating the
difference because of time frames. The decision was wholly mine to
make. This post only serves as a warning to those of you who have
started moving your customers into alternative metals. Stuller &
Hoover are absolutely free to charge whatever they want. Those of
you who manufacture, also have a choice on whether you want to take a
hit THAT big. There is @ least 1 company that charges what I would
call a very decent price, & that is PM West. PM was 60% less than
Hoover & Stuller. It also wasn’t just me either. I had been
recommending pd to other friends of mine. I asked them to call me
whenever they did something in pd & let me know the weight & price.
The “extreme” pricing was across the board, lest some of you think
that I had hacked off someone at Stuller. I hadn’t.

I also want to say that Stuller absolutely comes through with most
everything else, & I really haven’t ever had an issue to complain
about. The same goes with Hoover. These are all very decent hard
working folks that try to make our jobs easier. In this one area,
however…if you have custom pd work that needs to be done…go to
PM West.

Walt Teats
Don Rand Designs
www.donranddesigns.com