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Ring sizing & incremental pricing

Jewelry Discussion
#1

Hi,

I have rings already made and for sale on Etsy. However customers
have the option to choose their ring size and their ring becomes a
"made to order" item (not custom). My dilemma is whether to increase
my price for rings that are made for sizes considerably larger than
the ring illustrated. I did a test from 5.5 to 8.75 which increased
the weight of metal by 0.6 ozt. Now, if I were to make that ring
without Etsy stuff in mind, I would charge for the weight of
materials used without a doubt. But my Etsy listings quote one
price, albeit for the size illustrated.

Should I offer size options with price increases, depending on the
size they choose? Obviously there won’t be much difference when
making a ring half a size larger, but 3 sizes certainly requires
more material. So perhaps I should start at 2 sizes above
illustrated ring. I have tried to see what others on Etsy do, but no
one seems to increase their prices to accommodate larger ring sizes.

Conundrum. pinions?

Thank you,
Emma Tallack

#2

Emma - there is an easy answer - if the little bit of metal to make
a ring larger affects your profits, you are pricing too low. Only if
you are working in high karat gold should it make a bit of
difference.

What do you do now when the price of silver goes up $5? Change
prices?

Judy Hoch

#3

Emma- I would simply state on my page that larger sizes require a
small extra fee.

Have fun and make lots of jewelry.
Jo Haemer
timothywgreen.com

#4

Emma,

We have a similar problem with Sterling bracelets. What we have done
is to find the average and charge the same price across the middle
on the range of sizes. Then slightly less for a small size and
slightly more for a large and very large size. More for the sake of
marketing presentation than anything else.

My Dad had a very complicated method of figuring the price of a
bracelet. Mine is much less so. And my brother has a method that is
very good and it is in the archives.

If I were building in Gold I’d be working by weight for every piece
sold. One of the nice aspects of Sterling is the Lea way it allows
me in pricing jewelry for my local market.

Few things cause fits like trying to figure a price for our work.
Good luck and have fun.

Don Meixner

#5

Hello Emma,. Make your rings in a size 7 and price them in a size 8
1/2 so that you don’t have to increase the price. I hope you sell a
bunch. Have fun. tom

#6

Emma, if you go to most stores out there for them to sell the ring
to their client they size the ring for free.

You are kind of barking up the wrong tree here. Your prices in their
original quote should include the cost for sizing. add it in.

Regards,
Russ

#7

I agree with Don. If you are making multiple copies of the same
design in silver with the only difference being size, use an average
price. You can treat those pieces that go outside of average as
custom work. Since you probably don’t stock these sizes anyway, they
are likely custom and can be priced accordingly. In my pricing
formula, the cost of silver is less than 20% of the final price with
the rest being labor and any makeup applied to my labor. Don’t forget
your indirect cost, sales and administrative cost, commissions,
profit and other cost. If you are buying stones and including them in
the design, treat this expense as indirect or other cost, but at
least apply a profit to them in some way. I cut most of my own
stones, so I treat them as part of the silver by weight. This may or
may not make sense to everyone, but it works for me. Working in gold
is a different story, but you still should be able to account for all
your cost in your price plus a good profit. In the end, we have to
price to the market we serve or make your own market. This takes
time. Good luck. Rob