will vendors drop the price on platinum setting since....

[Dancing Fire]

the price of platinum has been tanking in the pass 2 months.

 

[stone_seeker]

doubt it...usually there is a much longer lag between spot prices in the platinum markets and retail prices. Spot prices effect the price out of the ground. the retailer bought their metal long before at higher prices. if the prices continue to fall or stay at these lower levels, retail level prices should come down eventually.

 

[Adylon]

Date: 8/23/2008 6:51:32 PM
Author: stone_seeker
Spot prices effect the price out of the ground. the retailer bought their metal long before at higher prices.

Yes and no. If a jeweler bought a mounting at $2000/oz then he'll probably keep the sticker price the same based on that price. However if they get an order for a ring, wedding band, etc. They will pay based on spot price, so they should pass on the savings to their customer you would think.

However the price is usually set at the time of shipping. Like lets say an order is placed for a Tacori ring, whatever. Tacori will bill based on the spot price the day it's shipped, not the day the order is placed. The jeweler may not want to base prices on today if he thinks it could potentially jump in those 2 weeks if you know what I mean. It really depends on the jeweler.

Personally speaking I maintain a database with a 90-day moving average on non-stocked merchandise, that changes prices every $100 change in platinum based on that moving average. So you'd see no price change if the moving average was say 1402-1491, but when it goes to 1501 the price then would increase. I also have a Kitco pool account, and if I get several large orders for gold, palladium or platinum I will hedge in the pool account to prevent a big shift in price. Infact that's what I'm doing right now, I'm making a 750-900 gram platinum chain for a customer that has been waiting for platinum to come down in price for a while. He wired the funds, I locked the price based on last week's spot price, and I transfered it into a kitco pool account to make sure in 3-4 weeks platinum doesn't go up too high once the necklace is finished and the casting bill comes due.