Korean Job Discussion Forums

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

Do prices of new rings from a company like Tiffany go up and down? Or do they just go up and stay there?

I was quoted a price for a particular ring from them direct over the phone, and it was a lot less than I expected (about $400 less). I asked her to check again, and she said that she made a mistake, and that her quote was from 2 years ago. She said precious metals have gone up in price since then, and she corrected the price to the range I expected it to be in.

Are precious metals (Platinum in this case) going up a lot lately? I really don't need to purchase this ring at this moment. I can afford to wait 3 or 4 months if they might go back down.

Would that matter?

SeoulShakin · Joined: 05 Jan 2006 Location: Seoul

Generally speaking, they tend to go up and stay up.

When I worked in jewelry for two years, we always had to adjust the prices of our gold/platinum section as the kept inflating. I don't ever recall having to adjust them downward. It's quite a pain having to change the price tags on every single pair of earrings, bracelets, chains, etc in your showcase, and then have to do it again a month later. Unless you hope to catch that particular ring on sale, if you wait a few months/years, the cost is likely to go up.

There are some stores, that if you visit them in person, you can get them to give you the tax off, or additional warranties etc for free. I'm not sure about over the phone, as our company was solely face-to-face customer interaction.

Hope this helped.

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

Yes, thanks.

I checked the price of Platinum online, and you can follow it up and down exactly in-line with the anticipation of change of Clinton to the next president, watch it go down slowly, then shoot up with 9/11 happening.

It's tripled in price since!

Would have been a great investment over the last 10 years!

spliff · Joined: 19 Jan 2004 Location: Khon Kaen, Thailand

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

According to the latest edition of the economist, gold isn't much of a hedge against inflation or down markets. They noted lead has proven to be a far better metal to invest in.

pkang0202 · Joined: 09 Mar 2007

Melt pennies into copper bars.

Pennies are worth MORE in their weight than they do their legal value.

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

The platinum prices are somewhat due to China, from what I read.

dogshed · Joined: 28 Apr 2006

bassexpander · Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Location: Someplace you'd rather be.

Modern pennies are made with Zinc, I heard.

ernie · Joined: 05 Aug 2006 Location: asdfghjk

the next time you get a quote that seems too low, get it in writing ASAP!

mole · Joined: 06 Feb 2003 Location: Act III

I don't follow the price of precious metals, but I got my platinum wedding band in Korea.
Custom made by an upscale master jeweler who was a university classmate of my wife.
We looked through catalogs like Tiffany's for a model, but he procured the materials and made it.
He may well have cut us a deal, but I'm sure he's cheaper than name brands.
Might that be an option for your ring?

Also, you can buy platinum ingots. I had a catalog, but it's long gone and I don't remember the name of the outlet.