{"id":17322,"date":"2012-10-10T17:32:42","date_gmt":"2012-10-10T21:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=17322"},"modified":"2012-10-13T23:03:28","modified_gmt":"2012-10-14T03:03:28","slug":"gold-chain-sticker-shock-strikes-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/gold-chain-sticker-shock-strikes-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Gold-Chain Sticker Shock Strikes Again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The price of <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/category\/gold\/\" target=\"_blank\">gold<\/a> has more than tripled since I started my first jewelry business in 2005. If you have questions about why gold costs what it costs, I have answers for you in these posts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/get-smart-about-the-price-of-gold\/\" target=\"_blank\">Get Smart (About the Price of Gold)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/get-smart-about-the-price-of-gold-part-ii\/\" target=\"_blank\">Get Smart (About the Price of Gold), Part II<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If those posts trigger your<a href=\"http:\/\/www.urbandictionary.com\/define.php?term=tl%3Bdr\" target=\"_blank\"> tl;dr<\/a> issues, consider this: I recently made a piece for $2,500.\u00a0 That was the cost to me. Years ago, I SOLD the same piece to a customer for $1,500. That&#8217;s not unusual. <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/buy-gold-and-your-investment-will-double-overnight-promise\/\" target=\"_blank\">The costs of producing new versions of old designs regularly exceed my former selling prices.<\/a> As a result, I do a lot more silver designs than I used to, but I can&#8217;t give up gold. <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2012\/01\/why-i-love-gold\/\" target=\"_blank\">It&#8217;s still my favorite metal<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Normally, when I want to give myself sticker shock, I check the price of 16 inches of heavy 18K-gold chain that I first used in 2006.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_17332\" style=\"width: 494px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/buy-gold-and-your-investment-will-double-overnight-promise\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17332\" class=\" wp-image-17332  \" title=\"bigchain\" src=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/bigchain.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"484\" height=\"647\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/bigchain.jpg 598w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/bigchain-224x300.jpg 224w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 484px) 100vw, 484px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-17332\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taking a bite out of the chain in 2010.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In 2006, the 16 inches of chain &#8212; excluding the clasp &#8212; cost <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/2008\/08\/cost-of-living\/\" target=\"_blank\">$255 wholesale.<\/a>\u00a0 By 2008, it was $444. In 2010, it went up to $530. Last year, it cost about $640.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/BT-CO-20121008-707458.html\" target=\"_blank\">the cost of gold in market trading hit a 2012 high of nearly $1,800 an ounce<\/a> (in 2005, as I launched my business, gold&#8217;s price per ounce was below $500). I was too busy filling orders for two necklaces to price my usual heavy chain, but I experienced sticker shock anyway, due to this much more delicate 18K-gold chain.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_17333\" style=\"width: 503px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/new-spidey-manicure-new-mid-finger-rings\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-17333\" class=\"size-full wp-image-17333\" title=\"chain\" src=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/chain.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"493\" height=\"913\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-17333\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Click for information on the Sally Hansen nail strips seen in this photo.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I haven&#8217;t been buying this style very long, so I don&#8217;t have years of perspective on it, but I was still impressed to pay slightly more than $200 wholesale for 18&#8243; of chain (including clasp, this time).\u00a0 Technically, <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/get-it-on-sale-while-you-can\/\" target=\"_blank\">I should double my costs when selling wholesale to a store<\/a>. The store then &#8212; at a minimum &#8212; doubles the wholesale price to cover all of its costs and make a profit when it sells to you, the retail customer. What does that mean? That this chain and clasp should cost $800 in a store, just for what you see above &#8212; a generic chain with no pendant or other design element.<\/p>\n<p>In reality, I don&#8217;t mark up my costs for findings &#8212; chains, clasps and jump rings &#8212; like I should, because the ultimate retail price would be unreasonable. Sometimes I even pass along the original cost of such parts to y&#8217;all. It&#8217;s not ideal. Obviously, a business that doesn&#8217;t make enough of a profit is eventually no longer a going concern. But like a lot of jewelers I know, I&#8217;m absorbing more expenses than I should while trying to raise my profile to the point where I get the orders that will allow me to produce my designs in <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2010\/09\/omg-get-smart-about-quantity\/\" target=\"_blank\">quantity<\/a>. Making more pieces at once lowers my costs, which enables me to raise my profit margins.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, you&#8217;re getting a better deal than you might realize on some of my most expensive work, especially when you shop my sale <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/store\/categories.php?category=Sale\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>. For more information on costs and how they&#8217;re affected by quantity (aka &#8220;economy of scale&#8221;), click <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/get-smart-about-4000-suits-and-10000-rings\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>. <\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The price of gold has more than tripled since I started my first jewelry business in 2005. If you have questions about why gold costs what it costs, I have answers for you in these posts: Get Smart (About the Price of Gold) Get Smart (About the Price of Gold), Part II If those posts&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/gold-chain-sticker-shock-strikes-again\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,147,76],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17322","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"category-education","9":"category-gold","10":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17322"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17367,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17322\/revisions\/17367"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}