Gyrogami Blog - Precious Metals, Jewelry, Artwork

Silver's Wild Ride

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Categories: Instruction and information; Commerce and business

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Silver has utterly obliterated its previous record by more than two-fold! The reasons vary, depending on who you talk to, as some of the explanations seem to contradict others. Its volatility has forced certain businesses/industries to re-evaluate how they operate.

It's not just the small mom-and-pop stores. The USA mint recently suspended sales of silver coins due to market uncertainty. Many refineries have stopped accepting incoming lots and/or new customers or reduced their payouts. Lead times are months, not weeks.

When silver climbs high, I have to consider the market price of my non-jewelry items: purses, cups, bowls, plates, vases, silverware, collectibles, etc. These items have survived many purges and are the best of the best, the rarest of what I've owned.

Then math speaks. It told me to reduce my purse collection from 85 to under 20, to melt nearly every powder jar lid. Every small or non-consequential vase was sent to the furnace, more than halving my collection. Ditto all around.

Still, the remaining pieces likely won't fetch scrap prices but they are too nice to melt. Yeah, an emotional attachment, super-bad for what I do, but I can't reminisce or ruminate. Something has to survive. Worst case, it's another stash should silver go ballistic again.

Jewelry prices, like every product, are based on material and labor costs. As material costs rise, prices follow. I have countless items to adjust when silver increases/decreases more than a few dollars. Redoing prices and website information on a weekly basis is commonplace now.

My automated pricing updates with a few mouse clicks. "Update" means determining the new price though this information must then to be uploaded to the website and printed out. It doesn't change any existing price tags.

Speaking of which, physical price tags are a dying relic for me. It's not economically viable or efficient to redo thousands of tags. A better approach is attaching SKUs or color codes with a price sheet nearby; thus, only the sheet is changed. Unfortunately, some customers will balk at the extra few seconds though I hope their enthusiasm will overcome this distraction.

Consider a 1" round disc earring. Simple enough, right? Well, it can have one of eight textures (or even more complicated, variations and combinations thereof). It can be flat, domed, reverse domed, or fold-formed with any number or sizes of holes punched out. The pair can be non-matching, too. The sheer enormity is dizzying!

Clearly, a method for assigning SKUs is a complex logistical snafu. Some crossover can be expected for charms, pendants, rings, bracelets (cuffs and bangles), necklaces, ear crawlers, toe rings, body jewelry, utensil jewelry, and keychains, OMG!

If you're at my booth and see desirable earrings, turn over the card. Instead of $50 greeting you, don't be intimidated by "MOB-3:8_0.92-5:16-3:20_1.3" or something equally as cryptic. If you're like many, you'll opt for a custom design and it will be business as usual.

Posted by M: February 22, 2026

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