Posts from — September 2009

Pricing is an issue that many people in the jewelry
business often worry about. However, there is a
method that you can easily use, whether you
purchase jewelry wholesale or make your own
jewelry. Pricing is very important. You don’t want
to charge too much, because you won’t sell
anything. On the other hand, you want to make
sure that you charge enough to make a profit.

If you purchase your jewelry at wholesale prices, a
markup of 15% to 30% is usual, and people will pay
these prices. In the grand scheme of things, apply
the 30% markup, and make that the ‘regular’ price.
When you need to move merchandise hold a sale,
and use the 15% markup price as the sale price.

If you make your own jewelry, determine the total
cost of the piece, including the cost of supplies,
shipping, warehousing and packaging, then apply a
15% markup. With the 15% markup, your jewelry
will be priced at the wholesale price. If you sell the
jewelry to the general public yourself, as opposed
to selling it to retailers, apply the retail price, which
in this case would be about 45% above your costs.

We seldom think about how the diamonds
we wear came to us. Natural diamonds, as
opposed to synthetic diamonds or fake
diamonds, are mined from the earth. There
are currently two methods of mining
diamonds: Pipe Mining and Alluvial Mining.

When pipe mining is used, the diamonds
are extracted from the earth through volcanic
pipes. These are not man-made pipes. These
are natural pipes in the ground. Shanks are
put into the ground next to the pipes, and
tunnels are driven into the deepest parts of
the pipe. The diamonds are not sorted out at
the mine. Instead, huge rocks that are full of
diamonds are brought out of the mine and
moved to a screening plant for separation.

The Alluvial mining method is done in
riverbeds and on beaches. Walls are built to
hold back the water and the sand on the bank
or beach is moved with a bulldozer until the
level of earth that diamonds can be found in
is reached. Again, the diamonds are not
sorted here. Instead, the sand that contains
the diamonds is bulldozed into trucks, and
taken to screening plants.