[Jewelry making - Article 00289] - Re: [Orchid] How to value customer's scrap on trade

[Stephen Walker]

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>     A normal customer for some reason believes that his gold jewelry
>     holds up its value, 

    For this reason I usually overpay if I consider the seller a real
    customer. If someone I have never met before wants to sell some
    gold, I offer what the material is really worth to me. If I have an
    ongoing retail relationship with the seller I am really giving the
    customer a discount. The good will from this is usually worth it and
    sometimes I get something that has value beyond the scrap value,
    that can be resold. 

    A situation that I often get is the return of a wedding ring after
    several years, either because of divorce, damage or drastic size
    change. Since I know this is already my alloy, I find it very easy
    to give the customer generous credit. After all, the actual cost and
    time to replace a cast ring when you already have the mold and you
    are casting anyway, is not that great. Becuase of the nature of my
    designs it is easier to re-cast than to cut a ring to resize. 

    Another thing I frequently do is cast customer's gold, usually old
    sentimental jewelry, into new pieces. I explain all about how the
    alloy might not mix well with the extra gold I add and how the karat
    might not be plumb. If they are doing this for emotional reasons,
    they usually do not care that much about how little they save. If a
    customer who cannot really afford what they want, this can also be a
    way to disguise the discount that makes the purchase affordable. 

    Before Christmas a friend who is terminally ill wanted me to remount
    the diamond from an earring into a ring for her husband. She really
    is very hard up and even paying $100 would be beyond her means. She
    did have some old gold jewelry she could bring to the trade. Not
    enough to cover my regular price, but it is not always about money.
    As far as she knows the trade was a fair one and she does not
    consider herself a charity case, and that is just fine by me. 

    Not quite off-topic. Several months ago I started a thread about
    legacy diamonds. I am very happy to report that I was able to sell
    one of the stones to a woman who was glad to have it because of who
    it had formerly belonged to. She had the stone made into a ring for
    her husband. As a child and then as a younger woman she had been
    friends with the deceased former owner of the ring. I also used the
    gold from the ring to cast the new ring. 

Stephen Walker

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