Many have commented recently about the rapid rise in the price of silver briefly in discussions on other topics, but we have not had a direct discussion about how we are dealing with it. I haven’t bought much silver since early 2025. I have a lot of finished jewelry that is priced based on the price at the time. While I would like to sell all of it, that is not realistic, so I need to decide if I reprice based on whatever the price is after the first of the year. Our father always said that you need to use the replacement price, not what you paid for it. This is back when silver might have been $4/ounce. Making jewelry is a hobby business for me, but it is something I have to do. I have spent a lot of time lately reacquainting myself with copper and brass, both fun metals to work in. Many of my designs are very heavy and take a lot of metal. A typical bracelet may be in the 15 - 25 gram range. I have looked for ways to use less metal, but I don’t want to compromise my style. Our heavy bracelet styles have been around for a long time and Don and I inherited a very nice market for them from our father. Out of curiosity only, I have experiemented with enameling, engraving, reactive metals, chasing, filigree and other styles that don’t use as much metal. They are all a lot of fun. I guess that, at 76, I need to find another direction on which to take my art. Any thoughts on how the price of silver is impacting others would be appreciated. Thanks…Rob
This is a very good question Rob. Thanks for asking!
I just checked Rio Grande. Sterling silver sheet is $85.33 an ounce right now. 14 kt casting grain is $3320 an ounce today. That is crazy! I have a friend who owns a jewelry store. He sells his stuff based on the price today, not when he bought it. It’s a huge amount of work to constantly change prices, but it’s better than going out of business. He has to keep bringing in new inventory.
Recently I had a student who wanted to make a gold wedding set. His design was for wax carving and casting. When we did the math, explaining how much extra gold it’s going to take for the sprue and button, he changed and simplified his design to be fabricated, so there’s very little extra. It wasn’t like he was in business and was going to continue to work in gold. Fabrication was his best option.
Years ago when I bought a PUK and then an Orion arc welder, I found that technology lent itself to experimenting with materials that I had never explored before like stainless steel. Stainless steel and arc welding go together like magic. I went through a phase of looking for stainless steel found objects to take apart and reimagine into wearable objects. Stainless steel is everywhere in our lives when you start looking for it. Sometimes I added in powder coating and bits of gold overlay. It was super fun.
Going back to my jewelry store owner friend. He says you have to raise prices and live with the consequences. The numbers are just too huge right now for miscalculations.
I’m really excited to hear about how others are dealing with this as it’s a huge issue for our field. Again thanks for bringing it up!
Jeff
as a retired hobbyist, I have the opposite problem- how to dispose of 35lbs for crude ingots melted from sterling silver scrap, bought over 25 year ago when the price of silver was $2.50 to $4.00/oz. I don’t have records of all of the purchases. I can’t determine my basis, other an average good faith estimate of the value of the silver purchase over a period of 4-5 years. I want to send all of my silver and gold (several ounces) to a refiner and have it returned as investment physical metal bars. Refiners under IRS rules must treat precious metals as cash. Anything over 10K per year is reported to the IRS as an all cash transaction. The refiner must send form 8300 to the IRS. The limit even if in small increments is still 10K per year total. Once the IRS has form 8300, it creates a taxable transaction. Capital gains on precious metals are treated as collectables- fine art, gemstones, vintage jewerly, all jewerly in general, antiques, anything that has value that can be collected. The capital gains rate on collectibles is at 28%..much higher than long term capital gains for other assets. including financial assets, real estate, which are taxed at 15% long term capital gains. Real estate is in it’s own category, with more tax breaks. Paying the taxes on the return of physical precious metal fine silver and fine gold investment grade bars is unaffordable,unless some of the metal is sold for cash to pay the taxes. The sale of metal for cash another 28% taxable event, adding to even more taxes…I’ve check with my accountant who confirmed the taxes. The “like kind” exchange was abolished in 2017 for all personal property, all property except for real estate. Sending metal to the refiner in yearly lots worth less than 10K will take me more than 7 years to exchange, if the price of precious metals doen’t continue to rise. “Going under the radar” will take a long time. Longer if the price keeps rising. A ten fold rise in metals is a 900% rise, less 20% for refining fees, less 28% for taxes, less 10% of insurance and secure shipping, a 58% total. I would have to pay these up front costs and taxes out of pocket if I get the metal back as investment grade bars. This will cost me more than I can afford out of pocket… Selling all for cash is not an option. Precious metals will continue to rise in value. I still want to keep most of it as physical metal as a long term investment.
The current spot price of gold is $4,300 per oz, silver is at $63…gold went from $2,770 to $4,300 since Jan.1 2025. Gold has a floor of $4,000 over the last few months. Silver doubled in price over the same period of time, going from $31 to $62/oz. No one is expecting that the price of precious metals will drop over time. Diversification away from the dollar as the value of the dollar slowly declines, by central banks, multinational investors will keep the value of precious metals going up. If anyone is going to work in precious metals, now is the time to buy in small quantities orf as much as you can afford. The price will head higher. .
I’ve found the cheapest way to buy sterling as cuttings and clean filings from precious metal dealers. The mark up is about $4/ ounce. Scrap has a lower value of 40-50 dollara per ounce. If it’s clean scrap,it can be melted and poured into ingots, rolled out into sheets and pulled into wire. Gold coins have a 4% mark up to the gold content. 90% coin gold at one ounce is 21.6K to 22K gold, Austrian philharmonic coins are fine gold coins. Buying coins and alloying them down with copper and some silver will bring the alloy down to 14K quite easily if you can weigh the metals accurrately. This is the cheapest way that I found to buy gold for jewerly purposes. Lower K gold is like scrap silver. Once melted and alloyed, it can be used for rolling and fabrication. If bought retail or online, always watch for the mark up.
Jeff…I have a spreadsheet that I use to calculate my prices. I can input the latest spot price and it all flows down to a per gram price. I can modify the profit and commission fields should there be a reason to do that, but I try to keep my per gram price the same regardless of how or where a piece is sold. People seem to keep buying regardless of price. This is also true of gold and I may be making more of this rapid rise in price than is necessary. I started making silver jewelry a long time ago when $2 - $5 spot prices were common. I have a bracelet that today sells for $80. In 1975 it sold for $8. Let’s see what 2026 brings.
I was wondering about how prices might be affecting your sales. When the oil embargo hit and gas was hard to get and expensive people thought the motorhome industry was toast, but after a while sales got back to normal.
People have been interested in jewelry for at least tens of thousands of years, so it is likely that buyers will adjust to the new prices eventually.
Rob and I have discussed this but not to any great depth. We both use sterling in our bracelets. We have Legacy Designs that were our fathers and we make them pretty much the same way with some minor variations. And we both have proprietary designs that are unique.
Dad had a very complicated method of pricing for each bracelet. This method worked for him and I never figured it out. I tend to use The Three to Four times the Materials method for pricing. I discussed this in the beginning with Dad and he said it would work as well as anything but to remember that the art was worth something too.. He also said the What The Market Will Bear is a pretty good method too. But since I was just starting in the market at that time I had no clue what it would bear.
Dad, Rob, and I were set up to do a small craft event. The chance to do a show with Dad and Rob was nothing I’d pass up. But Dad was too sick to attend by then so Rob and I soldiered on. I had a few dozen bracelets and some conchas, and the odd pin. And I followed Rob’s lead in pricing and we both did pretty well that week end. Afterwards I compared my Three/Four method to Rob’s and we were with in a few dollars of each other.
The point is there isn’t one way to do this. And I don’t think there is a best way. Every one’s situation is different. Maybe as a Craft Artist I have to learn what is an acceptable return for me and I will go from there. That said, this past week end my wife and I did a crafts and arts fair and the price of metal seemed to be no major concern. Sales were excellent. Our first show in 2026 isn’t until April and things may change. I have new product ideas so we’ll have to wait and see. But with three months to go I have some time to work on this. ….Don
Using Metals that look good and Metals that don’t react with your skin is the formula I use. Stainless as mentioned previously is plentiful in junk yards 2nd hand shops etc. Combining it with other Metals like copper and brass and even other steel alloys and different kinds of woods.
We are Creative People and the use of different materials will be welcomed because it will be valued, like mentioned before the design is worth something and your labor of Love shows in your work. Like I said We Are Some Of The Most Creative People On The Planet We Set Trends ..~~*BB
Rob, I’ve read your note and the others posted, including Don’s. I may have felt the metal pricing squeeze earlier as I work in Argentium and it’s about 20 to 30%more than sterling. I’ve taken a few different approaches:
-
I don’t do a lot of shows, maybe 4 a year and only those sponsored by or in communities where I have pieces in a local gallery. When I have a show and sometimes even in a gallery, I post a nicely framed note about Argentium’s qualities and also note the current market price of both sterling and Argentium;
-
I’m setting more semiprecious and precious stone in my work, not just earrings, but pendants and necklaces as well. It seems to help justify the pricingin the minds of the clients. And, yes, I weigh the settings and consider the current market price of Argentium. It keeps going up, and I see that trend continuing
-
About a year or so ago, I started working with other metals, copper, bronze, and pewter. You and other in the Ganoskin Orchid community gave me lots of valuable help and advice. At the very young age of 75, I transitioned from being a cancer researcher to my passion for metalsmithing. It’s not a hobby, it’s a passion. And I do try to break even or better ( well, except for investments in tools, you understand). With a few years of college chemistry, I love making and testing patina formulae. Lately, I’ve been getting commissioned to make copper bowls engraved as wedding presents. I’m not sure my hourly fees are quite covered, but maybe they are close. I do love exploring the different metals: pewter is just wierd, as you don’t anneal.
So, hopefully I’ve shared a few ideas that might spark your creativity, especially around the use of other metal.
,
Interesting topic, in many countries silver jewelery is sold based on weight, you pick the piece and the clerk put the piece on the scale and based on weight you get the price. As a hobby jeweler myself I toured South America where they used the maligned alloy Alpaca or German silver, I used alpaca myself and made some nice pieces typically pendants, but if you properly silver plate Alpaca the results are quite satisfactory. I am talking about silver plating with the quality and thickness used in silver plate cutlery that requires about 30 minutes of plating not the two minute job occasionally mentioned by silver plating solutions vendors. Regarding using stainless steel, it is very hard on the tools, most pieces you see on the market are chains and stamped pieces made in industrial plants in the orient.
So as a newbie to the industry - looking at the prices I do wonder how I’m going to make a living doing jewelry. One route though my family feels is nuts, is to observe and follow in the steps of Hemmerle, the German jewelry company that specializes in iron jewelry and another called Mashandy who specializes in bronze. By observing how these two brands utilize precious metals I hope I have a chance of making a living…? Yes I do/did buy silver when I get a dip in pricing, why? I use SS 925 for making master forms to then make the rubber molds from(advice of instructor). Otherwise I plan on only using bits of gold(18k) and SS 925 for areas that have skin to metal contact. The rest will be bronze which can be patinated!
I’m a hobbyist that does chasing and repousse. The technique allows me to make large pieces, such as bracelets, using relatively little metal. Most of my work is in 20 ga. Argentium because of the extra malleability and you don’t have to back things saving even more metal. I’m lucky enough to have purchased 10 oz of Argentium .960 casting shot back when it was about $20 an oz so I’m living on that and scrap.
.The dollar in 1960 is worth ten dollars today, - or one dollar today is worth a dime- the cumulative effect of an average 4% inflation rate since 1960. Another factor that is driving up the price of silver and gold, is electronics. The build out of AI data centers is a multi trillion dollar investment so far, and only within this year. Industrial demand for gold, copper, silver, and base metals as aluminum and steel, has skyrocketed with AI data center infrastructure builld out. Copper prices have also risen by 30% just this year. Copper has tripled in price since since 10 years ago, has almost doubled in the last 5 years. Copper demand is not slowing but instead is accelerating as our aging electrical grid is being slowly upgraded. US electrical generating and transmission capacity has to double within the next 5 years to meet the demand of AI centers, EV’s, green energy generation…
People are still willing to pay a high price for silver, gold and jewelry. Many look upon them as investments for the future. Gemstone values have also skyrocketed over the same number of years. Engagement rings, wedding rings are still being paid for even at the high price of metals. The amount of metal in a piece of jewerly is minimal compared to the price of a natural 1ct VS1, VS 2 diamond. Synthetic diamonds of the same quality cost $1.2-4K. The price of 5 grams of 14kt gold in a solitaire is $375.
The jewerly market is getting used to high prices of precious metals. You should be able to pass the cost along to the customers. Using mixed metals is another good solution. The contrast between different metals is attractive. I have made rings with silver, gold and copper.
Just got off the phone with my go to refiner. I usually bite the bullet and cash out instead of wasting time trying to cast and roll out ingits as time is more valuable than silver to me.
That said he said they are having a LOT of trouble selling to the next guy as there is a glut of silver on the market! Has a 14 day pay out hold when used to be same day.
Baffles me as to why the price is so high and I anticipate a price drop if true.
Anyone else hear about the glut of silver?
Yeah after a panic this week my bread and butter daily sale rings will only cost me ~$25 more (at $80oz price) and I can make that up with slight price increase and being more efficient in my production and wiser with Tucson gem show buys!
Don’t panic! Do the math and adjust accordingly! I’ll be making more thinner bands etc…Use more scrap. MAYBE learn to cast a better ingot but that’s never proven to be cost effective for me.
I usually make recycling whatever silver that I plan to reuse the last thing that I do in a day. By then I have used up my creative energy and I know that I will be called out of the shop around 5:00 PM for a before dinner drink and some end of the day conversation. I don’t really count this time in my productivity models as it is fairly mindless in nature. It does appear that the spot price has gone down in the last day. Hopefully the profit taking will happen and the price of silver will settle. Probably not where is was a year ago, but at least be predictable. Happy New Year everyone!…Rob
the price of gold dropped almost 5% early am COMEX trading today. A gold crash like after many huge increases can be expected from history. Silver prices have also head much lower. Silver as an investment is being dumped along with gold. However, what’s to be remembered is that silver is an INDUSTRIAL metal, the demand by industry (excluding jewerly) is 60% of all demand. Silver is used in electronics, solar panels, EV cars and all cars now. Silver is in AI data centers, all kinds of applications. It’s electrical conductivity is the best of all metals at room temperature. Not even copper has that type of industrial value. Silver demand is inelastic- the industrial demand is fixed or growing, the supplies are limited, hence prices go higher. China, the world’s largest producer of gold and silver, just announced that as of Jan.1, 2026, it will ban the export of silver. Silver will outperform gold for the next year..The price gold is at $4,352, Silver is at $72.72 as of this moment. Refiner’s output usually goes to jewelers, who have cut back on their purchase of precious metals due to the price. Among industrial users there’s no glut of silver. They buy silver by the metric ton, using futures to take delivery thereof, using futures as hedged against price increases. The year to date industrial demand for silver has been about 700 million ounces. The total global production year to date is 800 million ounces. The surplus of 100 million ounces has been consumed by jewerly, investment and other non industrial uses of silver..
Back in 1970 when I was starting out as a jeweler a very wise lady who’s family had owned a high end jewelry store once told me to invest in silver not gold. When i asked why she told me, “In the long run silver will be valued more because It has a lot more needed for industrial uses.” I took her advice.
gold and silver have both gone down today. Gold is struggling to find a new floor at 4,300. Silver crashed from 84 to 70 dollars. These swings in the price of metals have always been around. After a huge run up, the price goes down, stays down before the next run, in a decade’s time. In the long run precious metals will out perform most assets classes except stocks. ..Copper is still at an all time high. Copper is becoming a semiprecious metal at $5.70 per lb. Copper is almost purely industrial. Still much cheaper to work in copper and brass than any other metal… The problem with precious metals is how to determine your basis when submitting scrap and filings to a refinery. Precious metals require detailed and continuous record keeping with reciepts. Precious metals are treated as collectibles- like fine art, antiques, precious gemstones. Capital gains are taxed at 28%. Any gain less 20% refining costs leads to a net gain of 48% of the actual gain. Fees and taxes eat up almost have of the gain. Refining fees are deductible from the total gain.. a minimum tax is still at 28%. The IRS also treats precious metals as a cash transaction. Any more than 10K per year in total for each year generates a form 8300, reported by the refiner. To fly under the radar, only small batches of metals can be sold to the refiner without trigger form 8300. Smaller batches mean higher fees… with high price of precious metals, only small batches per year can be sent to the refiner. My goal is to send 22lbs of crude melted down sterling scrap ingots bought at $2.50 to $4 per ounce to the refiner in exchange for investment grade hallmarked bullion, then hold on the the bullion forever. I also have to deal with several ounces of 18K gold. I bought the stash of precious metals years ago, in the late 1980’s and 1990’s, Gold had bottomed at $200/ oz….Needless to say, I do not have the reciepts. Only a fair value estimate can be given to the IRS..