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 “One of the smartest things you can do rather than metal in/money out is metal in/metal out,” says Daniel Ballard, national sales manager for Precious Metals West in Ontario, California. “[You can] hurt yourself by buying gold [later] with the check from the refiner because it carries an extra markup.” That markup covers what the refiner has to pay for the gold and, naturally, a touch of profit. “If I give [the metal] back for you to work with, you’ve already bought it once.” By way of example, if on Monday you get a $10,000 check from Precious Metals West for a finished lot, and then on Tuesday you want to purchase $10,000 worth of gold, that order will carry a markup of between 4 and 8 percent. (Precious Metals West’s going rate.) On the other hand, if you ask for your ten grand of 24k to be turned into so much 18k, so much 14k, etc., "there’s going to be only a small charge for blending the alloy," says Ballard. "Or if [the customer] does that at his place, he’ll get the 24k back from me and the only extra cost is the insured shipping. It’s value-added if you compare it to getting a check back.” Along the “metal back” lines, Precious Metals West, a smaller refinery, offers a special “same molecule” service for highly individualized lots. “Let’s say a custom jeweler at a retail store [has a customer] who comes in with grandma’s gold that they inherited,” he explains. “They’d like to make some new jewelry with the family gold. For a minimum charge, we’ll dissolve the gold on its own, reprecipitate it on its own, and either send it back raw or prepare it to be freshly manufactured. The customer can literally be wearing grandma’s gold, but in all new jewelry.” Precious Metals West is able to offer such a service because its facilities are set up with many small workstations. Larger refiners may not be able or willing to do so. Aside from just shipping back fine gold or blending alloys, some refiners may also offer finished product in the form of sheet, tubing, or wire. Be sure to ask whether your refiner offers this service, as not alldo. One more increasingly popular service is the return of stones. Rather than spending time having jewelers pop stones out of returned or scrap jewelry, manufacturers can ship big lots to the refiner and have the metal dissolved and the stones recovered and returned for re-use. "We chemically break down the metal to separate it from the stones," says Vinny Guadagna of United Precious Metal Refining in Alden, New York. "We then clean the stones, sort them, and return them to the customer. Many manufacturers aren't aware of this service." |
