Price of new jewelry is too much?

[Andreaoid]

I've been back and forth with my local jewellers about creating a new signet ring since November. I want to model it on my late husband's. His is too big to alter and very sentimental to me so I've decided create a new one from my own 14k gold.

How much would you expect to pay? The job is to create an oval signet ring (slightly larger face than women would normally wear), tiny ring size D, a deep seal engraved family shield and laser inscription of two words (the ring size is too small to use hand inscription). All of this will use mostly my 14k gold but they also need to use new 14k grain to make it pure 14k hallmark so some new gold will be used.

This is jewellers in East Midlands. They just called me, after 5 months of finalising and dragging out the process. The quote is £3,100. I nearly fainted. Is it (un)reasonable to call it quits? I'm 35, widowed and wanted something of my husband's to wear every day. But it seems like I'm not in the right 'salary band' for it.

YABU.

It’s strange you say this. I was in a jewellers earlier this week, and the person who served me was talking about how the price of gold as sky rocketed recently. I have a ring I’d like repairing, and she was saying how a lot of people are saying choosing not to go ahead with repairs once they receive the quote, because the cost of a repair is disproportionate to the original cost of the the piece of jewellery.

I was trying to buy some gold studs recently and got told the same, that the price of gold has hiked. Sorry op x

I think that's exorbitant as you are providing most of the gold. Yes, I know gold has increased but £3,100 is the price of an ounce of gold! I had a signet ring made for a significant birthday a few years ago, also using family gold, and the cost was about £500.

Sorry I didn't read your post properly.

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I don't know much about jewelry, but that sounds like a lot of work so I'm not surprised that it's pricey.

As someone who was widowed at a younger age than you, I would urge you to perhaps take a step back from this project, especially if spending that amount of money is an issue. You'll likely find in a few years that it becomes less important than it seems right now. Can you wear his ring on a necklace?

Precious metals have risen in price dramatically in the last few years. Almost doubled in fact and you have to have someone who can do the work plus business rates etc.

Why don't you remove the shield part of the signet ring and incorporate it into another piece of jewellery ?

Surely that would be cheaper. You could have it say placed as a pendant on a necklace. If it is too small to drill a hole it could be mounted on or in another piece of metal.

That would probably be far cheaper than the re-engraving/reproduction and would keep the original piece.

It's been almost 2 years now and I thought it'd be a nice gesture - I would wear a piece of his family every day until my passing. We haven't had a proper wedding (2+2 only), I don't have a proper wedding ring, etc. So I thought I'd make a replica of his for myself. His is too large to wear on my neck - it's a large signet ring that he wore on a third finger, not a pinky.

I genuinely thought that the ring would be around £1,500 with today's prices for just the grain and the job. There's no way they can do it without the grain as the melting wouldn't retain 14k hallmark and it could cause pitting down the line.

How much of the cost is the weight of extra gold, and how much is the work? Do you have any other jewellery / gold you could give them to include in it?

I’d try to find that out, then get quotes from other jewellers.

They've only provided the final quote, not itemized. I'm providing over 14g of my 14ct gold but they always need to use an extra gold (called grain) to make sure we keep the 14ct hallmark and avoid pitting down the line. At least that's what they told me. I will ask for the price split and ask around.

It seems odd that you’re moving from a large man’s ring to presumably a slightly smaller women’s ring (as you say it’s too big for you to wear) and they need more gold to do it with. It can’t be much, and it might be that it’s less to do with cost of gold and more to do with jeweller time costs (which is of course understandable, but might vary a lot more between jewellers).

It's on the steep side but there is a lot of work involved and the price of gold has certainly rocketed.

It is often cheaper to buy in new fresh gold to work with rather than try and reuse existing gold due to the issues of carat and pitting. I normally offer scrap price for the old gold and offset against the cost of fresh new gold.

Hallmarking also isn't cheap and for one item it's a lot. I paid a small fortune to get a one off gold wedding ring hallmarked for a client just before Christmas and I've another one about to go.

If it's a signet ring is it being cast? That can put the price up. Carving the wax for casting can take hours and is a skilled job. If they are outsourcing that it will all add to the cost.

Many casting houses either won't use sentimental gold or if they do will charge extra as it has to be ring fenced from the rest of the gold they would be using. Pieces are not usually cast one at a time. They are also returned in a rough state from the caster and the "finishing" can take hours.

I would look at going on a mini break to somewhere you can get this done for less.

I appreciate it’s not to everyone’s tastes, and probably a bit far just for this, but I buy my gold jewellery in Dubai and it’s basically the spot price plus around 30% on top for a “making fee”.
im sure there must be another country closer to the UK, where you can find something similar, maybe turkey?

do you have to use your old gold to make the ring? I imagine it would be easier for them to use their own, and you can sell yours to put towards the price?

Ignore this - I reread your op properly and you’re not melting down his ring, you’re using some of your own gold.

I did explore to do the signet ring in an Eastern European country a year ago (on a break). But they do not have the deep seal carving expertise as signet rings are not in 'fashion' there.

I might ask the jeweller if doing it from their gold and offsetting the price with mine would change anything. I just wanted to use my late grandma's ring for sentimental reasons as well - combining two people I lost.

I think I might pivot - ask for a price of the same ring from new gold, using the old gold for offsetting the final price rather than making it from the old gold. And potentially doing other tweaks to take the price down.

I wish they asked me how much money I wanted to invest into it from the beginning and then guide me through the options to keep the price reasonable. My fault, I guess!

Deep seal engraving is a very specific skill, and that will be costly too. If you have a budget in mind it is always a good idea to mention it - they could perhaps alloy your gold to 9ct for example, or buy in a 9ct signet to engrave, and offset the value of your 14ct gold. That would decrease the labour enormously.

It's been a quarter century for me, so I get it, I really do. It would have been a lovely gesture. But in the grand scheme of things it's just not that important. I try to honour my late husband in the way I live my life and raise our children.

I'm remarried so I wear my new husband's ring now. (I say "new" - we've been together way longer than I was with my first husband!) There are a couple of photos of my late husband displayed in our house, but apart from that no real physical signs that he existed. But he lives on in our memories, and we still talk about him often. What I'm trying to say is that he passage of time (two years is nothing really) will give you more perspective and you'll understand that things like this that you thought were so important now really aren't, so don't spend money you can't afford on this.

I would also try getting a quote from a manufacturing jeweller in either Hatton Garden or the Birmingham Jewellery quarter. They can often be cheaper as they will have a lot of skills "in house".

Have you also thought a bit outside the box - for example having the engraved part of the original ring set into a pendant for example?

Have you seen where gold prices are?

The OP is providing the gold to be used in the ring.

If they've dragged it out for 5 months do you really want to use them anyway?

I would shop around. Make sure you know how much weight of gold you're contributing and ask them how much extra is needed. The price of gold is high so you have to be prepared that it might cost more than expected.

Talk through your ideas with jewellers and ensure they know what kind of budget you're working with.

Seal work can be very detailed, it is not necessarily cheap to do. But if you give your ideas to a jeweller with an idea of budget, they should be able to advise on what's realistic.

I would also explore other options, like converting your late Hs signet ring into a different piece.