[Jewelry making - Article 00073] - Re: [Orchid] Wholesale -retail cost of gems

[Don Rogers]

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>      When I buy a stone at wholesale, how much of a markup should
>     there be on the stone itself when put in a setting? 

    A simple question that doesn't have a simple answer.  As a general
    rule, the higher the cost of a stone, the less the markup.  IE if
    you paid $5.00 for a stone, you might be able to ask $20.00 for it. 
    However, If you paid $5,000.00 for the stone, you might only ask
    $7,500 for it.  This assumes that you bought "right".  IE you didn't
    pay to much for the stone.  In the last example, if you paid close
    to $7000.00 for the stone, it might still only be worth $7500.00
    retail.  What you need to do is establish what a similar stone will
    retail for and then set your price, regardless of what you paid for
    it.  If you price it to high, people will happily go somewhere else
    to make their purchase.  If you price it too low, people tend to
    think that there is something wrong with it and will also tend to go
    somewhere else.  Finding the "grove" is the real challenge and that
    will require a lot of research on your part.  There is no "proven"
    formula to decide the price of a stone. 

Don

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