the price of silver
It's funny being involved in a business where a good deal of your raw materials are heavily traded and highly valued. Such is the life of a jeweler.
I've been carefully watching the price of silver; I always wait till it trends downward to buy. It's traded daily, much like the stock market, and the price can change dramatically in one day. Usually it trends in much the same way that gas prices do; I noticed that the price of gas here had fallen sharply yesterday, so I checked the silver market: no such luck. Oy.
What really amazes me is that the price of silver has risen so dramatically so quickly. When I started buying at market price, it was just over $5 an ounce. Now - it's hovering around $15. That's a 200% increase in about five years - ridiculous. In fact, in the summer of '06 when I started buying for my business, it was $10-11 an ounce. So, the cost had doubled in four years - and then tripled by one year later. Argh argh argh! I"m holding out hope that it dips back down again like it did last august - down to '06 prices. In that case, I'll buy a few hundred dollars' worth: enough to last a few years. It's too bad the american dollar sucks right now, though it's still pretty cost effective to order my silver from Canada, and I did find a new supplier whose shipping rates are pretty good.
Even still, though, the rising costs have made me consider less expensive materials, which I was hoping I"d not have to do. I bought some iron, brass and copper chain to fiddle with, and some lead-free pewter components and beads. I can get some pretty neat effects with all of it, but it still feels like a cop out.
It's strange for me to think that just this year I've gone through a couple hundred feet of silver wire. With such a small scale business like I have, that just sounds crazy to me. But, let's hope to double that next season...
That said, my website is kinda up... it's there but not working that really well. It's got lots of work still to come. *sigh*... working on it. Working on it.
So.. yeah. There you have it.
I've been carefully watching the price of silver; I always wait till it trends downward to buy. It's traded daily, much like the stock market, and the price can change dramatically in one day. Usually it trends in much the same way that gas prices do; I noticed that the price of gas here had fallen sharply yesterday, so I checked the silver market: no such luck. Oy.
What really amazes me is that the price of silver has risen so dramatically so quickly. When I started buying at market price, it was just over $5 an ounce. Now - it's hovering around $15. That's a 200% increase in about five years - ridiculous. In fact, in the summer of '06 when I started buying for my business, it was $10-11 an ounce. So, the cost had doubled in four years - and then tripled by one year later. Argh argh argh! I"m holding out hope that it dips back down again like it did last august - down to '06 prices. In that case, I'll buy a few hundred dollars' worth: enough to last a few years. It's too bad the american dollar sucks right now, though it's still pretty cost effective to order my silver from Canada, and I did find a new supplier whose shipping rates are pretty good.
Even still, though, the rising costs have made me consider less expensive materials, which I was hoping I"d not have to do. I bought some iron, brass and copper chain to fiddle with, and some lead-free pewter components and beads. I can get some pretty neat effects with all of it, but it still feels like a cop out.
It's strange for me to think that just this year I've gone through a couple hundred feet of silver wire. With such a small scale business like I have, that just sounds crazy to me. But, let's hope to double that next season...
That said, my website is kinda up... it's there but not working that really well. It's got lots of work still to come. *sigh*... working on it. Working on it.
So.. yeah. There you have it.