[Jewelry making - Article 00218] - Re: [Orchid] Sharing scrap gold buying prices

[daniel spirer]

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Ah Daniel,

>     If you do not know the karat, all estimates are irrelevant. Total
>     your ounces or karat scrap and do the math. How much refiners fee
>     you allow is up to you- Commercial rates run from less than 

    If only it were this simple for retailers. But you forget that we
    have to make money too. So figuring out the actual value of the gold
    that is presented to us is basically meaningless. What makes it
    meaningful is the following: 

    How much overhead are we paying so that we are there for the
    customers to come into our stores to actually sell us the scrap" 

    How often do we actually send in the scrap (I only refine once a
    year so if I base my payout prices on what gold is today and it drops
    significantly by the time I send it in how much have I lost)" 

    How much do we need to make (so that we stay in business so that we
    can keep sending you the scrap that you charge us to refine) on the
    scrap" 

    How much testing do we do on the scrap to insure that what we are
    getting is what we think it is (in other words, what's our cushion
    against something that isn't what we think it is)" 

    All of these factors have to enter into it, not just simply what
    gold is priced at and what we might yield on today's date, as it
    might for a refiner. 

Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers, LLC
1780 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140
www.spirerjewelers.com
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