Pricing Your Silver Jewelry Lesson 1
Pricing you jewelry can be one of the hardest and the most important
aspect of becoming a successful silversmith. When I first started, I
would make a piece, take to show Earl ( the 80 year old charter that
taught me) and ask him what price I should put on it. He would always
say:
"What ever you can get for it!"
Man that would make me mad! I wanted him to say: $20.00, $30.00,
$100.00, $200, something like that! Not: "What ever you can get for it!"
What he was trying to teach me is that the market place will eventually
be what sets the price. But, this is a sure way to go broke until you
learn to price it to the top prices that the market will pay.
This series of lessons will help us all set prices that are high enough
to make a good profit, keep customers coming back, and low enough to
sell fast.
This is the outline we will follow:
Week 1
Outline
Week 2
Tracking Silver
Week 3
Pricing Stones
Week 4
Tracking Material
Week 5
Pricing Your Labor
I will try to send every one a spread sheet for pricing your work. I
made this my self and it takes out all the guess work and your
tendencies to under price jewelry.
Week 6
Total Costs
Week 7
Profit Wholesale
Week 8
Profit Retail
Week 9
Pricing Ordered Custom Pieces
Week 10
Some hidden costs
Week 11
Some hidden labor
Week 12
Summary
That is it for now!
Silverpricing 2
Pricing Silver Projects 2
Silver Tracking
This seems like a no brainer, of course you have to keep track of your
silver to have a clear idea of what price to ask for a piece. The
problem comes with keeping track of each piece of silver you use to make
a piece of jewelry. Different kinds of silver, shapes, cost differently.
You will pay more for bezel (fine silver) than you will sterling sheet,
wire, or casting grain. To have an accurate accounting these price
differences are important.
I made a spread sheet that I can use to keep track of projects. I sent
this to some on one of my lists, but I do not remember just how I did
that. I can not make it an attachment. The list companies to not permit
attachments. You can easily just get a cheap notebook, and when you
begin a project, start a log for the project in it. I label a page for
the project. Then each time I cut off a piece of silver, I note the
size, and the weight. That is right, if you can just weigh it real quick
and put the weight in your log.
When finished with the project, you can add up the weights, and then
weigh the piece. You may be surprised at the amount you may have lost in
the filing and finishing processes.
The problem with just weighing the piece after it is finished is that
you forget about the amount of silver that you cut off and throw in the
scrap pile. How much is filed off and becomes dust, (even though I teach
all my classes, I do not make any attempt to collect silver dust. The
time involved trying to collect it and save it, is always worth more
than the dust. Of course, gold is worth collecting!)
You will also forget about a piece of silver that you may have ruined,
cut to short, or just decided not to use on this piece. All of this
silver, even though you threw it in to the scrap pile and will be able
to use it for something, should be counted towards this piece. Remember,
you want to make a profit. When you use that scrap to make something it
will be profitable, but scrap is not worth the same as wire and sheet.
So, just make a detailed list of every piece of silver you cut off for a
project. It will help you not only price the piece, it will help you
make a profit.
Don
