Hello Orchidland, Regardless of why, precious metal prices are
rising. Now, to the nitty-gritty: what are people doing about
pricing existing work. I’ve always thought that it was appropriate
to factor the cost of replacing materials into the price of finished
work. These metal prices are changing faster than I can recalculate!
What the heck are others doing?
Judy in Kansas where it may be time to go sandbar scurfing… spring
rains loosten all kinds of neat stuff.
Judy M. Willingham, R.S.
B.A.E. 237 Seaton Hall
Kansas State University
Manhatttan KS 66506
(785) 532-2936 FAX (785) 532-6944
Judy: I got together with my customer, and explained that a price
increase was necessary, fortunately they understand and agreed, I
only increased the actual cost of the silver. I calculated how much
the silver would cost per gram up to 8.75 and agreed to hold that
price to 9.00 Per OZ also I told them that likewise if silver drops
back to the 6.50- 6.75 range I’ll drop the price accordingly, I have
had to do this several times over my career and found that all my
clients understood, On orders that are currently in production that
had been bid when silver was at 6.50 will still be billed at the
original price, Fortunately they are still being done with 6.50 per
OZ metal, not the 8.15 stuff , I think most people that are dealing
with contract work understand there has to be cost adjustment based
on the COMEX price, and as long as you keep your price increase in
line with the metals market, and don’t forget transportation charges
are coming up as well, Just be fair and your clients will understand
unless your doing contract work for Wal-Mart then may the Creator
have mercy on your business
We have been repricing our work on a regular basis and we are
widening our quote range for pieces not in the case so that we can
cover higher costs if necessary. The only real problem we are having
is with the platinum which has changed so much, in such a short
period of time that it is near impossible to keep up with. We have
been trying to think ahead and pricing stuff slightly higher than it
would actually need to be at the time of the repricing which helps a
little.
Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Spirer Somes Jewelers
1794 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140
617-491-6000 www.spirersomes.com @spirersomes