[Jewelry making - Article 00379] - Re: [Orchid] Rising Costs Of Precious Metals

[Richard W. Wise]

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    When the gold price rises it seems that more people get interested.
    The 70s runup put an end to the "Sterling Era". Some of you old
    timers will remember that period when sterling was in and gold was
    out. Pretty much coincided with what might be called the 2nd Arts &
    Crafts Movement. Similar to the 1st one in many ways, part of the
    rejection of all things precious that took place in the late 60s. I
    mean gold really didn't work well with a work shirt and jeans. 

    I started business in early 1978 and we called ourselves
    silversmiths. Then gold started its run and it seemed like overnight
    gold was in and silver was out. The next year we changed our name
    to...goldsmiths. Gold went up, more people wanted it, sales
    increased, what could be bad about that? There was a downside. People
    were so sensitive to the ost of the material that they would come
    into the shop and want to know the weight of every piece they were
    interested in. Now, I was young, leftish and idealistic trying my
    best to live the Arts & Crafts aesthetic, and I found such questions
    insulting. But, indignation is not an effective sales tool. Finally I
    hit on the answer. Rather than indignantly refusing to weigh one of
    our handmade creations I hit upon another angle. 

    One day a smart-ass New Yorker (there are a lot of those) walked
    into the shop and asked to see a pendant that had maybe five dwt. of
    gold and maybe ten hours of labor in it. 

    "How much does it weigh", he asked. 

    "I don't know", I replied. "I can tell you that it took two days to
    make but don't worry about the weight, the gold is free!" 

    The man stared at me wild eyed. "Whadaya mean the gold is free?" 

    "Thats right", I said, "we don't charge for the gold only for the
    work we put into the piece." 

    That changed the whole sense of the discussion. Don't think I made a
    sale but I did get a good bit of satisfaction. Try it! 

Richard
www.rwwise.com
For Information and sample chapters from my new book:
www.secretsofthegemtrade.com

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