MGH
Well-known member
Hi all,
I’m wondering if someone could provide examples of what/how a refinery charges for stone removal from jewelry. I’ve been doing a little bit of this work for two different local customers. One of them told me initially that when they send it out, the refinery charges 1% of the gold content as the stone removal fee and also requires that the customer sell the gold to them (at what rate I don’t know). Of course the customer has to pay for shipping (both ways to get the stones back) and they lose a little more on the sale of the gold. I’ve been doing the service on small lots (about one ounce of recovered gold at a time) and I assume I charge a little more than what they would end up paying in total at the third party, but both customers seem happy to keep it local and get their physical metal back (I assume they get a better rate on selling their gold elsewhere).
Doing infrequent small lots one at a time, the work I do would not be at all sustainable as a business. But I value the experience and the contacts I have through these couple of customers. There are also at least some synergies as I can work on stone removal at the same time as my personal refining.
The main reason I ask about rates at other refineries is that I may have the opportunity to work on 1 – 2 pounds of breakout material for yet another customer. I found Dan’s comments in this thread that are in line with what one customer told me already. http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=13033#p151641
Just wanting to make sure this is a typical rate. I want to be competitive in pricing, but I’m not sure I’d be willing to go much lower than my current rates. Anybody have any experience they can share on how this service is priced elsewhere?
Thanks,
Matt
I’m wondering if someone could provide examples of what/how a refinery charges for stone removal from jewelry. I’ve been doing a little bit of this work for two different local customers. One of them told me initially that when they send it out, the refinery charges 1% of the gold content as the stone removal fee and also requires that the customer sell the gold to them (at what rate I don’t know). Of course the customer has to pay for shipping (both ways to get the stones back) and they lose a little more on the sale of the gold. I’ve been doing the service on small lots (about one ounce of recovered gold at a time) and I assume I charge a little more than what they would end up paying in total at the third party, but both customers seem happy to keep it local and get their physical metal back (I assume they get a better rate on selling their gold elsewhere).
Doing infrequent small lots one at a time, the work I do would not be at all sustainable as a business. But I value the experience and the contacts I have through these couple of customers. There are also at least some synergies as I can work on stone removal at the same time as my personal refining.
The main reason I ask about rates at other refineries is that I may have the opportunity to work on 1 – 2 pounds of breakout material for yet another customer. I found Dan’s comments in this thread that are in line with what one customer told me already. http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=13033#p151641
Just wanting to make sure this is a typical rate. I want to be competitive in pricing, but I’m not sure I’d be willing to go much lower than my current rates. Anybody have any experience they can share on how this service is priced elsewhere?
Thanks,
Matt