Ring of Mara for $1,000.00 - Would you buy it?

KaGaOri

Don't really like those rings, especially with that price tag. Could get tempted by the necklace, though - https://gear.bethesda.net/products/amulet-of-mara-reimagined. Luckily my savings are safe, since Bethesda store doesn't ship where I live (but does to 3 out of 4 bordering countries - what gives?).

Stokowski

Oh Horse Armour, what have you become?

BlackTearsOfHope

If it was at least 14k gold and you could buy 2 for that price for you and your significant other, then yes, I probably would.
But I already have a large 10k gold ring and it only cost a 10th that price they have listed.

Linaleah

Belegnole wrote: »

What a ripoff. That ring is worth closer to $200.00 and that's from a goldsmith.

I call shenanigans

no goldsmith worth their salt is going to sell a the plainest band ring at material cost.

$500 sounds about right for the jeweler's direct price. and then there is the bethesda markup. is it a fair markup? probably not. but is it completely unheard of? nope. its pretty standard actualy.

Linaleah

and honestly folks. you are paying for branding here. its how Hermes for example gets away with charging THEIR outrageous prices, for items that while are high quality, when you take prestige of a name out of the equation are worth nowhere NEAR what they are charging for them.

the question is. is the branding worth the markup for YOU. if the answer is no? fair enough! its not worth it for me either! but that doesn't make it outrageous ripoff, especially when you consider how much larger markups are on "luxury" goods from famous brands.

Goregrinder

Linaleah wrote: »

Belegnole wrote: »

What a ripoff. That ring is worth closer to $200.00 and that's from a goldsmith.

I call shenanigans

no goldsmith worth their salt is going to sell a the plainest band ring at material cost.

$500 sounds about right for the jeweler's direct price. and then there is the bethesda markup. is it a fair markup? probably not. but is it completely unheard of? nope. its pretty standard actualy.

Yeah that's kind of what I figured, who would waste time to buy goods, only to resell them at the same price they paid for them...they made no profit and and actually netted a loss at that point for the time and effort they spent to "break even". Since time = money, time spent with no profit gained is always a loss unless something else is gained besides a profit.

JamieAubrey

You know someone will buy it just because they can

Goregrinder

JamieAubrey wrote: »

You know someone will buy it just because they can

That's very true, I know if I was personally into jewelry outside of watches that'd be something I'd buy. I know I've dropped way more than that on individual items from other hobbies, so I am sure $1k is just a drop in the bucket for others.

Linaleah

Goregrinder wrote: »

Linaleah wrote: »

Belegnole wrote: »

What a ripoff. That ring is worth closer to $200.00 and that's from a goldsmith.

I call shenanigans

no goldsmith worth their salt is going to sell a the plainest band ring at material cost.

$500 sounds about right for the jeweler's direct price. and then there is the bethesda markup. is it a fair markup? probably not. but is it completely unheard of? nope. its pretty standard actualy.

Yeah that's kind of what I figured, who would waste time to buy goods, only to resell them at the same price they paid for them...they made no profit and and actually netted a loss at that point for the time and effort they spent to "break even". Since time = money, time spent with no profit gained is always a loss unless something else is gained besides a profit.

a good number of people on Etsy do. their justification is "I'm just doing it as a hobby, I'm happy it covers the cost of materials"
people who have to make a living off their craft - cannot afford to do that.

Goregrinder

Linaleah wrote: »

Goregrinder wrote: »

Linaleah wrote: »

Belegnole wrote: »

What a ripoff. That ring is worth closer to $200.00 and that's from a goldsmith.

I call shenanigans

no goldsmith worth their salt is going to sell a the plainest band ring at material cost.

$500 sounds about right for the jeweler's direct price. and then there is the bethesda markup. is it a fair markup? probably not. but is it completely unheard of? nope. its pretty standard actualy.

Yeah that's kind of what I figured, who would waste time to buy goods, only to resell them at the same price they paid for them...they made no profit and and actually netted a loss at that point for the time and effort they spent to "break even". Since time = money, time spent with no profit gained is always a loss unless something else is gained besides a profit.

a good number of people on Etsy do. their justification is "I'm just doing it as a hobby, I'm happy it covers the cost of materials"
people who have to make a living off their craft - cannot afford to do that.

Yep that is true, and a for-profit company like Bethesda definitely can't afford to not make profit.

Katahdin

I wouldnt buy it but the rings are made of real gold and they are pretty ornate and engraved so the price is probably fair for what it is

.

spartaxoxo

Danikat wrote: »

10 karate wedding rings

I know you meant karat but now I would love to see a 10 karate wedding ring

Danikat

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

10 karate wedding rings

I know you meant karat but now I would love to see a 10 karate wedding ring

Wow, I missed that auto correct.

I'm not sure what that would look like. Maybe one with embossed images of different karate moves all around?

Minyassa wrote: »

Disclaimer: I'm not trying to totally badmouth 10k gold. I understand a lot of people cannot afford expensive jewelry and I know many people who are perfectly happy with the 10k wedding bands they bought as poor youths. It still looks good and it is more scratch-resistant than higher gold alloys. I just balk at the idea of using 10k gold for customs and selling it for high prices.

Maybe this is the wrong way to look at it but when I was shopping for wedding rings (the only time I've considered buying gold jewellery) I was thinking I'd prefer one with less gold in the alloy because it would be more durable. Especially after my mum told me hers used to have a pattern on it and that lasted about 5 years before it was too worn down to really see.

In the end I not only went for palladium and silver because I just don't like gold colour and it seemed pointless to pay extra for white gold that looks just like cheaper metals, but also a mokume gane ring, so the pattern goes all the way through and even if it does get worn down it will still show. 10 years on it looks pretty much the same, so it looks like the plan works.

Jaraal

I will not buy it in a box
I will not buy it from a fox
I will not buy it for a grand
I will not buy it, Scam-I-am.

Zer0_CooL

@Danikat Defenetly not a couple hundrets.


10K yelow gold is about 24$/g.

Assuming the ring is 2mm thick Ø12mm width 6mm => 452mm3 => 0.452cm3

Yellow Gold => 11.58g/cm3 *0.452cm3 = 5.2g

5.2*24= 125$

So the material price is 125$ for one ring. And since this is a mass product they are casted and polished, not forged. Which will probably look cheap.

The big question is (maybe i oversee something); while the picture shows two rings, the description is singular. So Do you pay 1000 bucks for one or two rings?

Either ways i'd never pay a thousand bucks for this. Its obviously massive overpriced.

EDIT: Checked again. The description clearly is SINGULAR, scrolling through the picture further below showing pictures with only one ring. In my opinion, this is borderline scam.

Girl_Number8

Seems game merch is a bit overzealous. A hoodie is cool or a plushie with non-combat pet code but $1k ring of mara nfw....

Nice design concept but I do not see it as a big seller compared to the other items mentioned. Especially with the pandemic still costing people much of their income.

Would be interested though, to see actual customer pics and their reviews.

CSose

Goregrinder wrote: »

Minyassa wrote: »

Goregrinder wrote: »

Minyassa wrote: »

I worked as a jeweler for many years, both in fabrication and sales. Back in the day when I would have had to carve this wax model by hand and then make a mold and cast it myself, $1000-1500 for a single ring in 20-24k gold (because 10k is budget material and you do not spend hundreds on a custom ring model and then use the cheapest garbage metal to make it) would be reasonable. Nowadays we don't have to carve wax models, we can do the modeling in 3d software and print out the blank to mold. So let's say, since Zenimax has constant access to 3d modelers, the ring production itself cost however many hours of wage that the artist put into it--I've seen people put out something like this in an afternoon. Then printing the model in X sizes, cost of printing plastic--negligible. Then sent to the casting company starting at about $25 for six rings of the same size and the more models you do at once the greater the discount so for an order the size I would hope to get I'd expect the casting cost to be negligible. Let's say this is a 10mm band overall and would weigh around 10 grams, estimating. That's 250 bucks of 10k gold. It could well be that artist salary + gold cost, x3 for standard retail markup might equal $1000, I have no idea how much they pay their artists hourly. But it sure seems an awful lot for a mass produced, 10k ring. If you're really, really struck by the romantic urge, I'd hold out to get someone else to do this for you in *good* gold.

Disclaimer: I'm not trying to totally badmouth 10k gold. I understand a lot of people cannot afford expensive jewelry and I know many people who are perfectly happy with the 10k wedding bands they bought as poor youths. It still looks good and it is more scratch-resistant than higher gold alloys. I just balk at the idea of using 10k gold for customs and selling it for high prices.

But does this count as a custom? This seems more like a limited run set to me. And is your $250 ballpark the cost to make each ring, or what you would sell it for if you made batch of these after you added your markup?

$250 is the cost of 10 grams of 10k gold right now, just the metal itself*, and is about the maximum you could sell the ring for at a jewelry shop if you needed to hock it later. Gold prices never reflect design, unless the design is unique and a shop thinks they can flip it.

*not counting any wholesale bargain a manufacturer might get.

Ah ok so the worth of each of these rings wouldn't ever go below $250, since that's the cost of just the 10k gold required to make each one, if they are 10 grams each. So the price going above that wouldn't be unheard of essentially.

A 10k gold ring with no gems is worth about $25 US. There is not enough gold in this ring to even mention it as having value. The only value this ring has is it's relation to ESO and for ESO fans. It has near zero value for the metal and no gem stones.

DarcyMardin

A thousand *actual* dollars? Uh, no.

Enemy-of-Coldharbour

Goregrinder

CSose wrote: »

Goregrinder wrote: »

Minyassa wrote: »

Goregrinder wrote: »

Minyassa wrote: »

I worked as a jeweler for many years, both in fabrication and sales. Back in the day when I would have had to carve this wax model by hand and then make a mold and cast it myself, $1000-1500 for a single ring in 20-24k gold (because 10k is budget material and you do not spend hundreds on a custom ring model and then use the cheapest garbage metal to make it) would be reasonable. Nowadays we don't have to carve wax models, we can do the modeling in 3d software and print out the blank to mold. So let's say, since Zenimax has constant access to 3d modelers, the ring production itself cost however many hours of wage that the artist put into it--I've seen people put out something like this in an afternoon. Then printing the model in X sizes, cost of printing plastic--negligible. Then sent to the casting company starting at about $25 for six rings of the same size and the more models you do at once the greater the discount so for an order the size I would hope to get I'd expect the casting cost to be negligible. Let's say this is a 10mm band overall and would weigh around 10 grams, estimating. That's 250 bucks of 10k gold. It could well be that artist salary + gold cost, x3 for standard retail markup might equal $1000, I have no idea how much they pay their artists hourly. But it sure seems an awful lot for a mass produced, 10k ring. If you're really, really struck by the romantic urge, I'd hold out to get someone else to do this for you in *good* gold.

Disclaimer: I'm not trying to totally badmouth 10k gold. I understand a lot of people cannot afford expensive jewelry and I know many people who are perfectly happy with the 10k wedding bands they bought as poor youths. It still looks good and it is more scratch-resistant than higher gold alloys. I just balk at the idea of using 10k gold for customs and selling it for high prices.

But does this count as a custom? This seems more like a limited run set to me. And is your $250 ballpark the cost to make each ring, or what you would sell it for if you made batch of these after you added your markup?

$250 is the cost of 10 grams of 10k gold right now, just the metal itself*, and is about the maximum you could sell the ring for at a jewelry shop if you needed to hock it later. Gold prices never reflect design, unless the design is unique and a shop thinks they can flip it.

*not counting any wholesale bargain a manufacturer might get.

Ah ok so the worth of each of these rings wouldn't ever go below $250, since that's the cost of just the 10k gold required to make each one, if they are 10 grams each. So the price going above that wouldn't be unheard of essentially.

A 10k gold ring with no gems is worth about $25 US. There is not enough gold in this ring to even mention it as having value. The only value this ring has is it's relation to ESO and for ESO fans. It has near zero value for the metal and no gem stones.

Ah so 10k gold isn't a rare material? Like I can go outside and just find a bunch of it out in the dirt, that's how little value it has is what you're saying?

Danikat

Random bit of trivia: Some people in this topic could make some decent money buying gold locally and selling it to other people. We've got reported prices for the gold the ring's made from ranging from $25 or 'so little it's usually not sold' up to $250, with most estimates around $150 - $200.

I'm kind of curious about how much of that is down to regional differences, and possibly different currencies which all use the dollar symbol, but I suppose that's out of the scope of this topic.

Goregrinder wrote: »

CSose wrote: »

Goregrinder wrote: »

Minyassa wrote: »

Goregrinder wrote: »

Minyassa wrote: »

I worked as a jeweler for many years, both in fabrication and sales. Back in the day when I would have had to carve this wax model by hand and then make a mold and cast it myself, $1000-1500 for a single ring in 20-24k gold (because 10k is budget material and you do not spend hundreds on a custom ring model and then use the cheapest garbage metal to make it) would be reasonable. Nowadays we don't have to carve wax models, we can do the modeling in 3d software and print out the blank to mold. So let's say, since Zenimax has constant access to 3d modelers, the ring production itself cost however many hours of wage that the artist put into it--I've seen people put out something like this in an afternoon. Then printing the model in X sizes, cost of printing plastic--negligible. Then sent to the casting company starting at about $25 for six rings of the same size and the more models you do at once the greater the discount so for an order the size I would hope to get I'd expect the casting cost to be negligible. Let's say this is a 10mm band overall and would weigh around 10 grams, estimating. That's 250 bucks of 10k gold. It could well be that artist salary + gold cost, x3 for standard retail markup might equal $1000, I have no idea how much they pay their artists hourly. But it sure seems an awful lot for a mass produced, 10k ring. If you're really, really struck by the romantic urge, I'd hold out to get someone else to do this for you in *good* gold.

Disclaimer: I'm not trying to totally badmouth 10k gold. I understand a lot of people cannot afford expensive jewelry and I know many people who are perfectly happy with the 10k wedding bands they bought as poor youths. It still looks good and it is more scratch-resistant than higher gold alloys. I just balk at the idea of using 10k gold for customs and selling it for high prices.

But does this count as a custom? This seems more like a limited run set to me. And is your $250 ballpark the cost to make each ring, or what you would sell it for if you made batch of these after you added your markup?

$250 is the cost of 10 grams of 10k gold right now, just the metal itself*, and is about the maximum you could sell the ring for at a jewelry shop if you needed to hock it later. Gold prices never reflect design, unless the design is unique and a shop thinks they can flip it.

*not counting any wholesale bargain a manufacturer might get.

Ah ok so the worth of each of these rings wouldn't ever go below $250, since that's the cost of just the 10k gold required to make each one, if they are 10 grams each. So the price going above that wouldn't be unheard of essentially.

A 10k gold ring with no gems is worth about $25 US. There is not enough gold in this ring to even mention it as having value. The only value this ring has is it's relation to ESO and for ESO fans. It has near zero value for the metal and no gem stones.

Ah so 10k gold isn't a rare material? Like I can go outside and just find a bunch of it out in the dirt, that's how little value it has is what you're saying?

In some places you really can find gold in the soil, although filtering it out and getting enough together to be worth selling is a pretty time consuming process, so it's often not worth it. But that's what fuelled the American gold rush, and the USA isn't unique in having gold even in surface level substrates. There's also gold in sea water but if I remember correctly that's even more trouble to collect and get into a workable form so most attempts have actually run at a loss.

But I suspect @CSose did the same Google search I did and missed the part where $25 is the price for 1g of 10k gold and this ring will weigh more than 1g. The weight will depend on the size of course, but even the smallest one is probably about 4-5g.

(Overall I still think this ring is expensive for what you get, but it's the upper end of of what I'd expect to see companies charging for actual jewellery which is also game merchandise. I don't think it's actually worth that much and I wouldn't buy it even if I liked it, but I'm not surprised they're charging that much.)

Sarannah

If the ring came attached with a woman to marry, I would buy it... otherwise no! But I'm not the type to spend money on stuff like this, as I don't even wear a watch.

I can imagine players who met on ESO, and got married later on, to buy this kind of stuff.

ArchMikem

Why would I want to spend money I don't have on a couple of wedding rings for Singles Awareness Day?

Goregrinder

Danikat wrote: »

Random bit of trivia: Some people in this topic could make some decent money buying gold locally and selling it to other people. We've got reported prices for the gold the ring's made from ranging from $25 or 'so little it's usually not sold' up to $250, with most estimates around $150 - $200.

I'm kind of curious about how much of that is down to regional differences, and possibly different currencies which all use the dollar symbol, but I suppose that's out of the scope of this topic.

Goregrinder wrote: »

CSose wrote: »

Goregrinder wrote: »

Minyassa wrote: »

Goregrinder wrote: »

Minyassa wrote: »

I worked as a jeweler for many years, both in fabrication and sales. Back in the day when I would have had to carve this wax model by hand and then make a mold and cast it myself, $1000-1500 for a single ring in 20-24k gold (because 10k is budget material and you do not spend hundreds on a custom ring model and then use the cheapest garbage metal to make it) would be reasonable. Nowadays we don't have to carve wax models, we can do the modeling in 3d software and print out the blank to mold. So let's say, since Zenimax has constant access to 3d modelers, the ring production itself cost however many hours of wage that the artist put into it--I've seen people put out something like this in an afternoon. Then printing the model in X sizes, cost of printing plastic--negligible. Then sent to the casting company starting at about $25 for six rings of the same size and the more models you do at once the greater the discount so for an order the size I would hope to get I'd expect the casting cost to be negligible. Let's say this is a 10mm band overall and would weigh around 10 grams, estimating. That's 250 bucks of 10k gold. It could well be that artist salary + gold cost, x3 for standard retail markup might equal $1000, I have no idea how much they pay their artists hourly. But it sure seems an awful lot for a mass produced, 10k ring. If you're really, really struck by the romantic urge, I'd hold out to get someone else to do this for you in *good* gold.

Disclaimer: I'm not trying to totally badmouth 10k gold. I understand a lot of people cannot afford expensive jewelry and I know many people who are perfectly happy with the 10k wedding bands they bought as poor youths. It still looks good and it is more scratch-resistant than higher gold alloys. I just balk at the idea of using 10k gold for customs and selling it for high prices.

But does this count as a custom? This seems more like a limited run set to me. And is your $250 ballpark the cost to make each ring, or what you would sell it for if you made batch of these after you added your markup?

$250 is the cost of 10 grams of 10k gold right now, just the metal itself*, and is about the maximum you could sell the ring for at a jewelry shop if you needed to hock it later. Gold prices never reflect design, unless the design is unique and a shop thinks they can flip it.

*not counting any wholesale bargain a manufacturer might get.

Ah ok so the worth of each of these rings wouldn't ever go below $250, since that's the cost of just the 10k gold required to make each one, if they are 10 grams each. So the price going above that wouldn't be unheard of essentially.

A 10k gold ring with no gems is worth about $25 US. There is not enough gold in this ring to even mention it as having value. The only value this ring has is it's relation to ESO and for ESO fans. It has near zero value for the metal and no gem stones.

Ah so 10k gold isn't a rare material? Like I can go outside and just find a bunch of it out in the dirt, that's how little value it has is what you're saying?

In some places you really can find gold in the soil, although filtering it out and getting enough together to be worth selling is a pretty time consuming process, so it's often not worth it. But that's what fuelled the American gold rush, and the USA isn't unique in having gold even in surface level substrates. There's also gold in sea water but if I remember correctly that's even more trouble to collect and get into a workable form so most attempts have actually run at a loss.

But I suspect @CSose did the same Google search I did and missed the part where $25 is the price for 1g of 10k gold and this ring will weigh more than 1g. The weight will depend on the size of course, but even the smallest one is probably about 4-5g.

(Overall I still think this ring is expensive for what you get, but it's the upper end of of what I'd expect to see companies charging for actual jewellery which is also game merchandise. I don't think it's actually worth that much and I wouldn't buy it even if I liked it, but I'm not surprised they're charging that much.)

Yeah $25 seems a little low to me, because gold is still a rare metal. Plus the labor involved into taking flakes and scraps of gold, and turning into material you can use to create a ring alone adds value to the material itself. One thing I've learned is that labor aint free! That's someone else's time and talent to turn one thing into another, regardless of how easy or hard it is for that individual.

CSose

Goregrinder wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

Random bit of trivia: Some people in this topic could make some decent money buying gold locally and selling it to other people. We've got reported prices for the gold the ring's made from ranging from $25 or 'so little it's usually not sold' up to $250, with most estimates around $150 - $200.

I'm kind of curious about how much of that is down to regional differences, and possibly different currencies which all use the dollar symbol, but I suppose that's out of the scope of this topic.

Goregrinder wrote: »

CSose wrote: »

Goregrinder wrote: »

Minyassa wrote: »

Goregrinder wrote: »

Minyassa wrote: »

I worked as a jeweler for many years, both in fabrication and sales. Back in the day when I would have had to carve this wax model by hand and then make a mold and cast it myself, $1000-1500 for a single ring in 20-24k gold (because 10k is budget material and you do not spend hundreds on a custom ring model and then use the cheapest garbage metal to make it) would be reasonable. Nowadays we don't have to carve wax models, we can do the modeling in 3d software and print out the blank to mold. So let's say, since Zenimax has constant access to 3d modelers, the ring production itself cost however many hours of wage that the artist put into it--I've seen people put out something like this in an afternoon. Then printing the model in X sizes, cost of printing plastic--negligible. Then sent to the casting company starting at about $25 for six rings of the same size and the more models you do at once the greater the discount so for an order the size I would hope to get I'd expect the casting cost to be negligible. Let's say this is a 10mm band overall and would weigh around 10 grams, estimating. That's 250 bucks of 10k gold. It could well be that artist salary + gold cost, x3 for standard retail markup might equal $1000, I have no idea how much they pay their artists hourly. But it sure seems an awful lot for a mass produced, 10k ring. If you're really, really struck by the romantic urge, I'd hold out to get someone else to do this for you in *good* gold.

Disclaimer: I'm not trying to totally badmouth 10k gold. I understand a lot of people cannot afford expensive jewelry and I know many people who are perfectly happy with the 10k wedding bands they bought as poor youths. It still looks good and it is more scratch-resistant than higher gold alloys. I just balk at the idea of using 10k gold for customs and selling it for high prices.

But does this count as a custom? This seems more like a limited run set to me. And is your $250 ballpark the cost to make each ring, or what you would sell it for if you made batch of these after you added your markup?

$250 is the cost of 10 grams of 10k gold right now, just the metal itself*, and is about the maximum you could sell the ring for at a jewelry shop if you needed to hock it later. Gold prices never reflect design, unless the design is unique and a shop thinks they can flip it.

*not counting any wholesale bargain a manufacturer might get.

Ah ok so the worth of each of these rings wouldn't ever go below $250, since that's the cost of just the 10k gold required to make each one, if they are 10 grams each. So the price going above that wouldn't be unheard of essentially.

A 10k gold ring with no gems is worth about $25 US. There is not enough gold in this ring to even mention it as having value. The only value this ring has is it's relation to ESO and for ESO fans. It has near zero value for the metal and no gem stones.

Ah so 10k gold isn't a rare material? Like I can go outside and just find a bunch of it out in the dirt, that's how little value it has is what you're saying?

In some places you really can find gold in the soil, although filtering it out and getting enough together to be worth selling is a pretty time consuming process, so it's often not worth it. But that's what fuelled the American gold rush, and the USA isn't unique in having gold even in surface level substrates. There's also gold in sea water but if I remember correctly that's even more trouble to collect and get into a workable form so most attempts have actually run at a loss.

But I suspect @CSose did the same Google search I did and missed the part where $25 is the price for 1g of 10k gold and this ring will weigh more than 1g. The weight will depend on the size of course, but even the smallest one is probably about 4-5g.

(Overall I still think this ring is expensive for what you get, but it's the upper end of of what I'd expect to see companies charging for actual jewellery which is also game merchandise. I don't think it's actually worth that much and I wouldn't buy it even if I liked it, but I'm not surprised they're charging that much.)

Yeah $25 seems a little low to me, because gold is still a rare metal. Plus the labor involved into taking flakes and scraps of gold, and turning into material you can use to create a ring alone adds value to the material itself. One thing I've learned is that labor aint free! That's someone else's time and talent to turn one thing into another, regardless of how easy or hard it is for that individual.

https://somethingborrowedpdx.com/how-much-is-10k-gold-ring-worth/

Katheriah

Sarannah wrote: »

I can imagine players who met on ESO, and got married later on, to buy this kind of stuff.

Anyone that buys me an overpriced, low quality gold ring is getting a divorce right away.

QuebraRegra

CSose wrote: »

It's 10 karat gold. I've never even heard of anyone advertising gold content under 14k.

...talk about your last ditch marketing to make a buck right before cashing out.

I assure you it's made of real golde (tm)

Goregrinder

CSose wrote: »

Goregrinder wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

Random bit of trivia: Some people in this topic could make some decent money buying gold locally and selling it to other people. We've got reported prices for the gold the ring's made from ranging from $25 or 'so little it's usually not sold' up to $250, with most estimates around $150 - $200.

I'm kind of curious about how much of that is down to regional differences, and possibly different currencies which all use the dollar symbol, but I suppose that's out of the scope of this topic.

Goregrinder wrote: »

CSose wrote: »

Goregrinder wrote: »

Minyassa wrote: »

Goregrinder wrote: »

Minyassa wrote: »

I worked as a jeweler for many years, both in fabrication and sales. Back in the day when I would have had to carve this wax model by hand and then make a mold and cast it myself, $1000-1500 for a single ring in 20-24k gold (because 10k is budget material and you do not spend hundreds on a custom ring model and then use the cheapest garbage metal to make it) would be reasonable. Nowadays we don't have to carve wax models, we can do the modeling in 3d software and print out the blank to mold. So let's say, since Zenimax has constant access to 3d modelers, the ring production itself cost however many hours of wage that the artist put into it--I've seen people put out something like this in an afternoon. Then printing the model in X sizes, cost of printing plastic--negligible. Then sent to the casting company starting at about $25 for six rings of the same size and the more models you do at once the greater the discount so for an order the size I would hope to get I'd expect the casting cost to be negligible. Let's say this is a 10mm band overall and would weigh around 10 grams, estimating. That's 250 bucks of 10k gold. It could well be that artist salary + gold cost, x3 for standard retail markup might equal $1000, I have no idea how much they pay their artists hourly. But it sure seems an awful lot for a mass produced, 10k ring. If you're really, really struck by the romantic urge, I'd hold out to get someone else to do this for you in *good* gold.

Disclaimer: I'm not trying to totally badmouth 10k gold. I understand a lot of people cannot afford expensive jewelry and I know many people who are perfectly happy with the 10k wedding bands they bought as poor youths. It still looks good and it is more scratch-resistant than higher gold alloys. I just balk at the idea of using 10k gold for customs and selling it for high prices.

But does this count as a custom? This seems more like a limited run set to me. And is your $250 ballpark the cost to make each ring, or what you would sell it for if you made batch of these after you added your markup?

$250 is the cost of 10 grams of 10k gold right now, just the metal itself*, and is about the maximum you could sell the ring for at a jewelry shop if you needed to hock it later. Gold prices never reflect design, unless the design is unique and a shop thinks they can flip it.

*not counting any wholesale bargain a manufacturer might get.

Ah ok so the worth of each of these rings wouldn't ever go below $250, since that's the cost of just the 10k gold required to make each one, if they are 10 grams each. So the price going above that wouldn't be unheard of essentially.

A 10k gold ring with no gems is worth about $25 US. There is not enough gold in this ring to even mention it as having value. The only value this ring has is it's relation to ESO and for ESO fans. It has near zero value for the metal and no gem stones.

Ah so 10k gold isn't a rare material? Like I can go outside and just find a bunch of it out in the dirt, that's how little value it has is what you're saying?

In some places you really can find gold in the soil, although filtering it out and getting enough together to be worth selling is a pretty time consuming process, so it's often not worth it. But that's what fuelled the American gold rush, and the USA isn't unique in having gold even in surface level substrates. There's also gold in sea water but if I remember correctly that's even more trouble to collect and get into a workable form so most attempts have actually run at a loss.

But I suspect @CSose did the same Google search I did and missed the part where $25 is the price for 1g of 10k gold and this ring will weigh more than 1g. The weight will depend on the size of course, but even the smallest one is probably about 4-5g.

(Overall I still think this ring is expensive for what you get, but it's the upper end of of what I'd expect to see companies charging for actual jewellery which is also game merchandise. I don't think it's actually worth that much and I wouldn't buy it even if I liked it, but I'm not surprised they're charging that much.)

Yeah $25 seems a little low to me, because gold is still a rare metal. Plus the labor involved into taking flakes and scraps of gold, and turning into material you can use to create a ring alone adds value to the material itself. One thing I've learned is that labor aint free! That's someone else's time and talent to turn one thing into another, regardless of how easy or hard it is for that individual.

https://somethingborrowedpdx.com/how-much-is-10k-gold-ring-worth/

Yeah that seems like a more realistic value, at least $100 for the whole ring itself, for the materials to make it. Then it goes up from there.

Psiion

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CSose wrote: »

Goregrinder wrote: »

Minyassa wrote: »

Goregrinder wrote: »

Minyassa wrote: »

I worked as a jeweler for many years, both in fabrication and sales. Back in the day when I would have had to carve this wax model by hand and then make a mold and cast it myself, $1000-1500 for a single ring in 20-24k gold (because 10k is budget material and you do not spend hundreds on a custom ring model and then use the cheapest garbage metal to make it) would be reasonable. Nowadays we don't have to carve wax models, we can do the modeling in 3d software and print out the blank to mold. So let's say, since Zenimax has constant access to 3d modelers, the ring production itself cost however many hours of wage that the artist put into it--I've seen people put out something like this in an afternoon. Then printing the model in X sizes, cost of printing plastic--negligible. Then sent to the casting company starting at about $25 for six rings of the same size and the more models you do at once the greater the discount so for an order the size I would hope to get I'd expect the casting cost to be negligible. Let's say this is a 10mm band overall and would weigh around 10 grams, estimating. That's 250 bucks of 10k gold. It could well be that artist salary + gold cost, x3 for standard retail markup might equal $1000, I have no idea how much they pay their artists hourly. But it sure seems an awful lot for a mass produced, 10k ring. If you're really, really struck by the romantic urge, I'd hold out to get someone else to do this for you in *good* gold.

Disclaimer: I'm not trying to totally badmouth 10k gold. I understand a lot of people cannot afford expensive jewelry and I know many people who are perfectly happy with the 10k wedding bands they bought as poor youths. It still looks good and it is more scratch-resistant than higher gold alloys. I just balk at the idea of using 10k gold for customs and selling it for high prices.

But does this count as a custom? This seems more like a limited run set to me. And is your $250 ballpark the cost to make each ring, or what you would sell it for if you made batch of these after you added your markup?

$250 is the cost of 10 grams of 10k gold right now, just the metal itself*, and is about the maximum you could sell the ring for at a jewelry shop if you needed to hock it later. Gold prices never reflect design, unless the design is unique and a shop thinks they can flip it.

*not counting any wholesale bargain a manufacturer might get.

Ah ok so the worth of each of these rings wouldn't ever go below $250, since that's the cost of just the 10k gold required to make each one, if they are 10 grams each. So the price going above that wouldn't be unheard of essentially.

A 10k gold ring with no gems is worth about $25 US. There is not enough gold in this ring to even mention it as having value. The only value this ring has is it's relation to ESO and for ESO fans. It has near zero value for the metal and no gem stones.

no, its not.

even if you are selling it for material cost alone, THAT goes by daily gold price. now, we are estimating how many grams is this ring, but lets be generous and say there is 3 grams of gold in this (for a 7 gram ring since 10k is about 41% gold) 1 gram of gold is currently trading at $60. so at the absolute minimum, we are talking you are selling it to an assay company - its $180. but lets say the ring is smaller and lighter and there is only 2 grams of gold in it. that's $120 for this ring. but lets go REAAAALY low. it doesn't look to be that thin, but hey lets pretend that it is and there is only one gram of gold in this ring. its STILL $60 not $25.

this is NOT a plated ring. its not even gold filled ring. 10k is 41% gold. there IS enough gold in this ring to mention it as having value.

and yes 10k gold is a fairly common gold percentage and have been for a while.

basic gold testing kit - you can get density machines nowadays, but they are pricey and can't go wrong with a classic.

https://www.riogrande.com/product/complete-gold-testing-kit/1115281 notice that it STARTS at 10k

another edit, cause things and stuff. that site you linked? gives you a price for a TOTAL WEIGHT OF A RING and it does NOT take any work or overhead into account - just price of materials. not for a weight of gold in a ring. this ring of mara is a thicker band in part because of its design, its not a delicate solitaire. at the very least, i cannot imagine it weighting less then 3 grams total, but I honestly think its more like 7 grams.