[Jewelry making - Article 00248] - Re: [Orchid] Pricing ring sizings

[Daniel R. Spirer]

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    He could have charged $60. I can and do 

>     For example the current Geller book lists sizing a ring with 1 to 4
>     stones up one size as $47 for 14K yellow and 

    Apparently Mr. Geller is a little behind the times on this (although
    maybe he has an inflation adjuster in the book that I don't know
    about) as are many of you who don't understand the true value of your
    time and labor. Here's my way of looking at how to charge for
    upsizing rings. Every time I solder something I figure that it's a
    $40 charge. This is based on the following: take in time, pick up
    time, overhead (you know, paying for lights, phone, advertising, the
    gas your torch uses, insurance, etc.), plus the actual labor involved
    in the work. Well when you size something up you have two solder
    joints so that's $80. Then you have to charge for the gold you're
    using. A simple, thin 14k shank, upsized one size, I charge $110
    (used to be $100 until gold went up). A wider band is priced based
    on how big it is but most of them are running in the $125-150 range.
    That's for one size up. Each additional size is more expensive. And
    if there are stones that need protection, I charge more for that too. 


    When you say "I could never charge that much", just go outside and
    look at what your local gas station is charging you for gas. Look at
    how much more your groceries cost today. Look at your electric bills.
    Look at your freight bills. It's all more expensive out there and you
    all need to charge more, just to keep up with inflation, no matter
    the consistent undervaluing of your labor and materials. 

    Less than 5% of my repair customers say no to my pricing. And
    usually the ones that do are the ones I have quoted completely absurd
    prices to because their jewelry isn't worth repairing and I don't
    want to get into the hassle of trying to resolve some problems
    created by some previous bad jewelry work. Actually sometimes I wish
    more of them would say no. I always have more repair work in house
    then I want to deal with. But at least I get paid properly for
    working on it. 

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