The Latest Gold Rush: Prices are Going Up…And Up!

Unfortunately, blogs can’t only contain good news. We are in the process of raising our prices on jewelry and custom orders because both the price of gold and labor have outpaced us. Any current listings on Etsy are staying at the current price but as new items are coming out, we have to make our adjustments upwards. (So shop that sale while it is still on!)

We completed our last price increase in the spring of 2022 but we tried to be modest at that time. However, our base gold price for that increase was $2000 per troy ounce and now gold is at $2500. To top that off, when you make price adjustments for retail you need a small margin in case it moves again. That means we have to use $2700 per troy ounce as a basis for calculating.

This is because you cannot change prices every five minutes as it is both confusing for clients and a lot of work. However, if you shop on any wholesale sites like Stuller or Ross Metals or Rio Grande, you can see that there are constant adjustments because wholesalers have a small margin. I am guessing that their websites adjust prices automatically. This would be impossible on Etsy.

Wholesalers rely on larger orders than retail, which is how they bridge the gap of their low margin. As a retailer, we cannot do that as we sell only one piece at a time, not 10 or 20 or even 200. Each piece we make is from scratch in terms of gems used, layout, labor, etc. The only thing we save on is that we do have molds for our pieces. But the initial layout and CAD work is not really accounted for (normally that would be ‘research and development’ and larger business have a % worked into their cost of goods for that).

In addition to the metal price increase, our setters are charging about 20% more. Given how we make our jewelry, the setters have most of the work. They never get to see the same layout twice and rarely use the exact same gems. The sizes of the gems vary more than diamonds, and colored stones are softer so that takes more time, as does hand applied millgrain, and the shaping of the prongs to claws (something you don’t see in commercial jewelry).

Last but not least, Etsy has been raising its own fees steadily, so our jewelry markup has to change from a very modest multiplier of 2.2 over cost to 2.5. Remember this multiplier is over straight production cost, so it doesn’t include my pay, Karen’s or Diana’s pay, or any additional supplies overhead such as the free shipping, boxes and packaging, or any other running expenses including phone, electricity and internet, office materials and miscellaneous. Standard suggested wholesale markup is x3, retail x5, but unless you are a very well-known brand your markups will not look anything like that! I am very good at reverse engineering the cost of jewelry I see online (occupational hazard) and I would say that places like Tiffany’s do have a 5x markup, and large chains that sell many items over and over (like say places like Kay or Zales) might have it too as they produce very cheap. Tiffany’s produces in-house, not overseas, or in the diamond district, so their basic cost is higher. And their quality is also far higher than that of chain jewelers.

Now there’s one perk of the current price dilemma: platinum prices have been nearly unaffected. My guess is that platinum doesn’t have industrial uses, and it isn’t considered as much of an investment as gold is – gold is a go-to for many investors when stocks and bonds are too volatile or in a downward trend.

Platinum production cost is now pretty much equivalent to 18kt white gold when it comes to making jewelry (platinum is much heavier so the pieces weigh more, that’s to be considered). It is easier to work with because it is a little softer, and it is considered more valuable an investment in terms of jewelry.

I am busily at work creating new pieces, rings in particular because they seem to sell out 90% of the time at present. I will add more platinum to the mix so that you can at least benefit from a more upscale piece if you have to pay higher prices. And I recommend that if you want something made in white metal, you use platinum instead. That will make it easier to set Paraiba or other softer stones, too. And that will make us very happy, lol.

Please allow some patience as we are slowly changing the prices anywhere. As I said, whatever is on Etsy, including prices for setting earrings etc, will be honored until it is changed (we will change the stacking rings and the custom listings). The price list on our website has disclaimers on it, and the individual listings on our site cannot be purchased outright, meaning that we will inform you of any change in price before you make the purchase!