Gold Price and its Effects on Jewelry Stores – Raleigh, NC


Just this past week gold prices hit a six month high at $1728. While this is still a ways away from the $1900 prices we saw in 2011 many analysis predict that we may see this trend continue to rise. Well what does this mean for the average jewelry consumer?

First, and most obviously this means that the average cost most jewelry findings (ie earring backs, heads, shanks…) will be on the rise. Even though most of these components are going to be more it should not affect the prices of all pieces equally. for example, a heavyweight men’s wedding band with on design detail will be much more affected than a pair of diamond cluster earrings. This is because of the men’s band cost is almost completely made up of the raw metal cost, while the earrings have a variety of things that go into their cost including stones and labor. The pieces of jewelry that are affected the most by fluctuation metal costs are men’s bands, chains, and bracelets. Once again this is mainly because of the weight of the items.

Second, the rising cost of metal means better trade in for your old jewelry. At J.M. Edwards Jewelry we have many customers that wish to trade in their old out of fashion jewelry for something more up to date, whether it is a new engagement ring mounting, set of earrings or even a fantastic Vahan bracelet. Most of the times this works very well for customers. We see a large amount of jewelry from the 80’s that are very large gold necklaces and bracelets, that have a significant weight to them. Many customers find that because gold has increased in value so much they receive almost the same amount for the scrap metal that they paid for the item. We give our customers 100% of the market value of their old pieces when they are trading them in, so you are guaranteed that you are getting the highest price.

We hope this helps you better understand the effects of metal prices on jewelry stores and their products. While this issue has many more elements that are too lengthy to discuss here we would be more than happy to answer any questions our customers may have. Thank you for reading.

Carl