Gold and platinum price decline impact on setting cost

[Owies Nana]

With the current decline and flatline in gold and platinum prices from their historical highs, at what point should the savings show up in the custom settings market?

Thanks.

 

[Phoenix]

I'd like to see the answer to this Q too. So far, I've not seen any. What's interesting is that while spot platinum price is lower than that of gold, some vendors still charge more for their platinum settings vs the gold ones.

 

[Owies Nana]

Where, oh where are the tradespeople when you need them?

 

[mrs jam]

I don't know about metal prices, but I was excited and surprised to get a message in my Blue Nile shopping cart that the price of the 2.32 ct diamond I had placed in my cart had been lowered!

 

[diamondseeker2006]

My understanding with the handmade settings, the majority of the cost is in the labor. Yes, increases in metals prices gives an excuse to raise setting prices, apparently, but I have yet to notice price declines in settings, especially platinum.

 

[aviastar]

Unless there is a much bigger gap in the price of gold and platinum, platinum settings will be more expensive than gold settings for two reasons:

1) platinum is denser to begin with, so an ounce of platinum doesn't go as far as an ounce of gold
2) 18K gold is 75% pure and platinum is either 90% or 95% pure

So even though platinum is less per pure ounce, you need way more ounces to make a setting in platinum than in gold, so it works out to be more expensive.