Page 3 of 7 FirstFirst 12345 ... LastLast
Results 21 to 30 of 68

Thread: Stamping silver 925

  1. #21
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Romsey
    Posts
    5,256

    Default

    You may have noticed I have a bee in my bonnet about the subject

    The thing to remember is you're not simply selling on a piece of metal at a profit - you're actually adding quite a lot of value to it. There are ancillary costs alongside it - packaging, hallmarking, consumables (e.g. polishing, burrs etc.); then there's the cost of selling it: If it's sold in a gallery, then the cost of sale has to include lighting, wages, insurance and everything else.

    Your £10 bit of silver has gone through a number of transformations already, each with attendant costs. The ore it was mined from probably didn't cost very much, but everyone in the chain has to be paid.

    As for assay costs - while I hand-carried my last packet in to London (reduced the postage cost, increased my time costs - but there were other things I needed to do too), I put it through as Early Hall and paid just under £2 per piece including return shipping. I don't think that's excessive, but I appreciate that the costs on smaller packets can bump things up a lot.

  2. #22
    Join Date
    Aug 2012
    Location
    Fearn North East Highlands
    Posts
    55

    Default

    I seem to have developed a bit of a bee in my bunet also, is the hallmark there to guarantee that the 8g of 925 is indeed 925 and therefore worth a tenner. It is not a judge of any added value, the only added value seems to go to the assay office.(I did not realise in my ignorance it could be as little as £2 per item) I still think there is a case to increase the 7.78g for sterling silver.

    DONNIE

  3. #23
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Location
    Exeter, Devon
    Posts
    1,803

    Default

    Hallmarking is also my bone of contention. I live in Devon so chose the London Assay office, look out Steve here it comes. We chose London because we liked the hallmark!!!!!, and the people seemed really nice when I rang up initially. Here is my opinion, the Assay Office is a bit naughty putting a price for 5 items or under at £15 or whatever it is. Very often I get a commission and as I am a bit slow making and finishing, a job can take me up to a week, (its a hobby, not a 12 hours a day job, ) I do work most afternoons but only for a couple of hours if that depending on what else I or hubby wants to do. During that week, I dont normally make anything else, apart maybe for a pair of little earrings or something just for a change from something a bit more challenging. To send commission up to be hallmarked is £15 for 5 items or under, then add £5 for registered post to send up (normally in a chinese takeaway box with padding and in a jiffy bag). There is a nominal charge for hallmarking which I am fine with, but then they charge about £13 to send it back in the same box and jiffy bag that I sent up to start with, which I bought in the first place. It isnt as if it comes back by courier, its just the same post as I sent it up in so cost is £5, and they didnt have to supply packaging either. So an item that should have cost about £15 costs about £30. Most of the items I make I try to keep under 7.78 grams simply because the cost of the Assay office, so they are losing out, I would love to get all my things hallmarked but if I add £30 onto the cost of the item, it wouldnt sell in the craft markets. If I could spread the cost by putting more things in the bag, that would be different, but most of my things are pendants, rings and earrings, and as a hobby I dont spend all my spare time doing jewellery, I have retired and I plan to enjoy it.

  4. #24
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Romsey
    Posts
    5,256

    Default

    The primary reason for the hallmark is to guarantee to the consumer that the metal content is at least what it is stamped as. Nothing to do with the quality of workmanship (well, apart from showing it's not flooded with solder...), just it really is the metal it is claimed to be.

    From the makers POV, you get your mark on the piece - if someone wants to know who made something, they can find out. There's also the intangibles of a piece of jewellery feeling more valuable if it has a hallmark on it (even if it didn't need it), pride in workmanship and the likes. I like to hallmark everything, regardless of the weight - and if I have smaller pieces around, they go in with a packet to make up the numbers too.

    If I hadn't gone for early hall, the hallmarking cost would probably have been closer £1.30 per piece.

  5. #25
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Romsey
    Posts
    5,256

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Patstone View Post
    So an item that should have cost about £15 costs about £30.
    Pat, no piece of handmade silver jewellery should cost £15. If it's a casting run into the 1000s, then maybe.
    As for the Assay Office costs - well, I'll leave that to Steve, but it's worth remembering that there's a fixed cost per packet, effectively; I doubt it takes much longer to do the paperwork on a packet with 30 items as it does for a packet with 1 item.

  6. #26
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    London
    Posts
    502

    Default

    Patstone....you were charged £13 to send it back? We charge £3.25 per packet for the handling of return postage.....and then whatever the post office charge to send the packet back by the same way as it arrived. £3.25 covers things like the salary of the guy whose job it is to collect your items from the marking floor, take it to dispatch, recover your packaging ( we always use customers own packaging so that there can be no issues with us "using the wrong or insufficient packaging" ), rewrap your parcel and then take it to the post office. When you compare it to other handling charges in other industries, (for example the checking service for your passport which involves someone at the counter glancing over your application and telling you that you've signed outside the box....all for £8.75) it's not that bad and I think in line with the other offices.
    Regarding minimum charges, these are also in line with the other offices, apart from our charge for 1 to 2 items, which is the least expensive of all the other offices. It's not so much being "naughty", as the time involved in handling small packets. 10 packets each with one item does take far longer to process than one parcel of 10 items, and so the charges simply reflect this.
    Donnie, you're right, the hallmark is a guarantee of the fineness of the metal, not the quality of the manufacture, but a hallmarked item also has added value in the eyes of the public, so a "white coloured metal" ring of 8g would not sell as well, or for as much, as a "hallmarked Sterling silver" ring of 8g. (I know from personal experience!)7.78g was fixed as the equivalent to the old 5 pennyweights and I think it was thought that items of silver under that weight, at the time the law was passed, was not worth hallmarking. On the other hand, in Ireland, there is no weight limit for silver and all items need to be hallmarked regardless of weight (with one or two exceptions)



    Quote Originally Posted by Patstone View Post
    Hallmarking is also my bone of contention. I live in Devon so chose the London Assay office, look out Steve here it comes. We chose London because we liked the hallmark!!!!!, and the people seemed really nice when I rang up initially. Here is my opinion, the Assay Office is a bit naughty putting a price for 5 items or under at £15 or whatever it is. Very often I get a commission and as I am a bit slow making and finishing, a job can take me up to a week, (its a hobby, not a 12 hours a day job, ) I do work most afternoons but only for a couple of hours if that depending on what else I or hubby wants to do. During that week, I dont normally make anything else, apart maybe for a pair of little earrings or something just for a change from something a bit more challenging. To send commission up to be hallmarked is £15 for 5 items or under, then add £5 for registered post to send up (normally in a chinese takeaway box with padding and in a jiffy bag). There is a nominal charge for hallmarking which I am fine with, but then they charge about £13 to send it back in the same box and jiffy bag that I sent up to start with, which I bought in the first place. It isnt as if it comes back by courier, its just the same post as I sent it up in so cost is £5, and they didnt have to supply packaging either. So an item that should have cost about £15 costs about £30. Most of the items I make I try to keep under 7.78 grams simply because the cost of the Assay office, so they are losing out, I would love to get all my things hallmarked but if I add £30 onto the cost of the item, it wouldnt sell in the craft markets. If I could spread the cost by putting more things in the bag, that would be different, but most of my things are pendants, rings and earrings, and as a hobby I dont spend all my spare time doing jewellery, I have retired and I plan to enjoy it.

  7. #27
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    London
    Posts
    502

    Default

    PS Bond - the paperwork for one packet of 30 items would take about the same as one packet with one item.....but the processing of the packet would of course take much longer!

  8. #28
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Location
    London
    Posts
    502

    Default

    With regard to assay charges in general, of course I can't comment on the other offices but our guys go through a 4 year apprenticeship to become a qualified assayer and marker and to charge £10.00 for the services of such a specialist I don't think in the grand scheme of things is too bad . Motor mechanic apprenticeships are also 4 years long, but I can't remember ever getting anything done to my car for £10.00!

  9. #29
    Join Date
    Mar 2013
    Location
    U.K
    Posts
    101

    Default

    At the end of the day it's each to their own, take a horse to water and so on, I try to look at it from both sides, as a buyer and a maker. I have also fell foul of a seller, the item stamped 925 but I knew it wasn't, it seemed to cheep, so checked by scratching at the metal with a file, this revealed the copper underneath, so i think this help make my mind up.

    I drove my items to Assay as the delivery price would have been about the same cost, I found the assay price very reasonable, and I can't wait to make more items and send them for assay, I then know I bought silver wire or sheet with a guaranteed minimum 925 content, I can assure buyers (although some have set ways of purchase) that they are getting genuine content, and in years to come someone may be able to say Oh my nan's pendant was made by (me)
    Don't get me wrong I still have some pieces that are not yet hallmarked, but all my new pendants, rings and bangles will be sent for testing and hallmarking, no matter what the weight.

  10. #30
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Posts
    1,743

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by donnie View Post
    I seem to have developed a bit of a bee in my bunet also, is the hallmark there to guarantee that the 8g of 925 is indeed 925 and therefore worth a tenner. It is not a judge of any added value, the only added value seems to go to the assay office.(I did not realise in my ignorance it could be as little as £2 per item) I still think there is a case to increase the 7.78g for sterling silver.

    DONNIE
    As someone who also sends in small, often single numbers of stuff made to commission, I automatically factor in £30 to cover the cost of hallmarking for each item. If I can send in 2 items, great, but usually it's just the single item. However, I think that BAO have recently brought in a minimum package for less than 5 items, because the last thing I got done cost £23. I was pleasantly surprised

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •