Wholesale sterling silver jewelry guide: determine prices by quality

Title: jewelry guide:Wholesale sterling silverdetermine prices by qualityWord Count:715Summary:It takes many years of experience in tradingsterling silver jewelry to tell whether a pieceof jewelry is of high quality or not. Especiallywhen you are buying wholesale silver jewelry, aminor difference in the quality might affect your

business reputation in the long run. Thisarticle summarizes the basic metrics for anyonewho is beginning to trade silver jewelry to gaugethe quality of silver jewelry.Keywords:Sterling,silver,jewelry,wholesale,hiphop,men,ring,pendant,bracelet,earrings,goldArticle Body:It takes many years of experience in tradingsterling silver jewelry to tell whether a pieceof jewelry is of high quality or not. Especiallywhen you are buying wholesale silver jewelry, aminor difference in the quality might affect yourbusiness reputation in the long run. Thisarticle summarizes the basic metrics for anyonewho is beginning to trade silver jewelry to gaugethe quality of silver jewelry.

<b>Finishing</b>Most of the sterling silver jewelry has some sortof plating because silver itself turns yellowover time. There are several ways of finishinga piece of silver jewelry and they will affect thecost of the jewelry substantially.1. High polished sterling silver jewelry has noplating on the jewelry at all and is particularlypopular with engravable items or for people whoare allergic to certain metals such as nickel.The jewelry is polished by machine withoutadditional raw material cost.2. Some silver jewelry has a black antique lookto cater to certain consumers. These items areprocessed by putting the jewelry into chemicalsolution to oxide the silver before polishing andthe pricing is similar to that of high polishedones.3. Another common way of finishing sterling

silver jewelry is nickel plating. Althoughnickel plating is illegal in some countries, mostof the Italian silver jewelry sold in the markettoday is plated with nickel. However, sincenickel is not considered as precious metal, theprice is usually not affected by the cost ofplating.4. The most expensive way of finishing sterlingsilver jewelry is using Rhodium. Rhodium is aprecious metal that is even more expensive thansilver. Therefore, silver jewelry with Rhodiumplating is usually at least five cent moreexpensive per gram. Since Rhodium has theproperty of being highly tarnish resistant andvery expensive at the same time, somemanufacturers would coat the sterling silverjewelry with a thin layer of copper before platingthe Rhodium to reduce the cost. It might be agood idea to ask the vendors if the Rhodium isplated directly or not because some people haveskin type that would turn the copper underneath

green.<b>Stone cutting</b>Sterling silver jewelry usually has natural orsynthetic stones set on it. The cutting of thestones, even with the same size, might affect thecost. For instance, the synthetic diamond cubiczirconia stones would cost more if they are inprincess cut as suppose to round brilliant cut.Furthermore, emerald cut and baguette cut stonesare even more expensive than princess cut ones.<b>Stone setting</b>1. The way that stones are set on a piece ofjewelry also affects the cost. Many pendant andbracelet styles employ an economical settingmethod called wax setting. The stones are notreally set one by one on the jewelry. Rather,they are fixed on the mold before the jewelry iscast out from the melted silver and come out ofthe mold together with the silver. This lowersthe cost of the silver jewelry significantly.

However, the quality of the setting is notconsistent and the heat of the silver in liquidform might affect the quality of the stones.2. Besides wax setting, there are severalhand-setting methods that are widely adopted.The most common one is prong setting, where thestones are held in place by three to eight prongs,depending on the style. More advanced settingsinclude channel setting, bezel setting, pavesetting and invisible setting. Understandingthe labor costs involved in different kinds ofsettings is one of the keys to getting merchandizewith the best prices.<b>Stamping and Casting</b>Another categorization for sterling silverjewelry is the way they manufacture the metal part.To save cost, some jewelry is made by stamping andcutting the needed shapes out from a large sheetof silver and than bend it into the desired shapes.

On the other hand, a more traditional way ofproducing <ahref=\"http://www.samsoneinc.com\">sterlingsilver jewelry</a> is to cast the metal out of amold, which is more labor intensive and hence morecostly due to the polishing and filing requiredafterwards. The way the jewelry is made affectsthe durability a great deal and hence the successof your business.