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The rise in gold prices has forced up the cost of jewelry and led consumers to opt for lab-grown diamonds, bespoke retailer Alexandra Beth Samit said on the latest Rapaport Diamond Podcast.
“It really makes custom pieces very expensive, and I don’t think clients always understand…why [it’s] so expensive,” said Samit, who founded and runs New York-based Alexandra Beth Fine Jewelry.
Men have been showing demand for Cuban chain necklaces or bracelets, but they’ve started to balk at the cost, the jeweler-entrepreneur told Rapaport’s Joshua Freedman on the episode. Likewise, members of the public who come in search of replacements for lost jewelry often find the price surprisingly high.
The gold-price jump — from around $2,000 per ounce two years ago to $4,160 at press time — has negatively affected margins on some older inventory on Samit’s website. “We had some people buy things that had been online for a few years, and we hadn’t changed the price,” she said. “So I literally sold a few pieces at a loss.”
Samit has been posting articles on her social media platforms about the spiking gold prices, “just so people…start to understand. It’s not like I’m charging them extra. It’s literally that the piece is costing me [twice as much] to make.”
Some consumers are offsetting this price pressure by buying synthetic diamonds, she added. “If [the jewelry contains] gold and natural diamonds, it’s often too expensive for the client. The high price of gold is…fueling this increasing demand for lab diamonds.”
During the podcast, Samit also talked about using Instagram live sales to explain the potential investment value of gold, and recounted how she got her start in the industry by selling necklaces to friends in high school.
Listen to the episode here:
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