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Gold bracelet



 
 
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  #11  
Old August 1st 03, 03:58 PM
H. J. Corney
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in article , Abrasha at
wrote on 1/8/03 7:08 am:

[[moderators note: newsgroup policy restricts "direct attacks", flame wars,
or
similar language. In contrast to my usual "no editing policy", I've taken the
liberty of removing a few short phrases from this post that would make it not
allowable according to the charter. Edited out sentances are marked with
[[snip]] -- PWR]]

"H. J. Corney" wrote:

in article
, Abrasha at
wrote on 31/7/03 3:01 am:

"H. J. Corney" wrote:


So perhaps if you could educate and convince your customers of the
guarantees offered by an independent UK assay and hallmark you would have
an
edge over your competition.

How so? What about the added cost of shipping the work to the UK and back
and
having to clear customs twice, just to get a foreign assay and hallmark?

Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

Hiya - I thought I would hear from you soon enough with this thread Abrasha
:-)

You would not send a single item unless it was high value it would not be
worth it. You would send a whole batch of unfinished castings probably still
with the stub of the sprue attached because the Assay office can use the
site of the sprue to sample the metal.


Sure, manufacturers are going to send their rough castings to England to be
hallmarked. This is one of the dumbest ideas I have heard of in a long time.
Apart of course of "terrorist futures".


So the cost of postage would be spread across say one hundred items.


[[snip]] Assume the rings weigh only half an ounce, that's over 3
pound of gold. What is the last time you sent 3 pounds of gold across the
Atlantic? What about the cost of insurance, or would you expect any
manufacturer to ship 100 gold ring blanks across the Atlantic without
insurance?


Well I assumed the rings each weighed about three grams. I have looked
through Cooksons catalogue and their are lots and lots of gold dress rings
that weigh between 2 and three grams. So I think for the UK that was a fair
assumption. Half an ounce would be a VERY heavy Mans ring in the UK.

so 100 rings would weigh 300 grams which is 10.71 Avoirdupois ounces or just
over 2 thirds of a pound.

The cost of 300 grams of 18 gold today plus my casting costs for 100 rings
is 3125 USD

To ship the parcel surface mail to the UK from the US is 60.72 USD by
insured UPS surface mail (I used your ZIP code for the US postal address
Abrasha.)

The Cost of UK postage to the US by Royal mail Parcel force surface mail is
considerably less but I can't check at the moment as the royal mail website
does not like my browser.

But from memory it is about 30 USD

So the total postage is approximately 90 USD the cost of hallmarking each
ring is 31p or approximately 50 cents.

So the total cost of Insurance, hallmarking, and postage for each ring is
1.4 USD

So your are right Abrasha I was half a dollar out that serves me right for
estimating on the fly.

I don't
know how much postage from the States to the UK and back is.


No, that's painfully obvious!


I do now :-)

But insured
postage from the UK to the US and back together with the cost of the Assay
would add less than a dollar per ring if you sent enough items at one go.


[[snip]] I challenge you to send one ring from the UK to the US and
back, without the added cost of hallmarking, and only pay one dollar for it.
Not a snowball's chance in hell. You can't even send a letter back and forth
for that.


I would not attempt to sent one ring Abrasha since as you rightly point out
it would be uneconomic. I did not say anywhere in my mail that I would send
one ring. All my calculations were based on "if you sent enough items at
one go"

I don't know about American customs duty but I don't think any charges would
be made for Items that are to be re-imported.


You would still have to clear customs twice, whether duties are due or not.
Which means you would have to ship the items over on a "carnet", with it's
associated costs.


I don't know what a US carnet is so I would be delighted to learn in case I
need to send something from the states one day.

In the UK you make a customs declaration and if you send a parcel out and
its coming back I don't think you would have to pay duty.

The whole idea is so patently stupid, I no longer want to write anything about
this!


The real question is would the average American jewellery buyer appreciate,
and pay extra, for the fact that the item had been independently tested by
an organisation with 700 years experience.

A GIA Certificate adds to the saleability of a Diamond so why shouldn't a
Hallmark add to the saleability of a ring?

Its funny I thought I would be challenged on the UK newspapers assertion
that 60% of the jewellery they tested in the US was of substandard precious
metal quality.


[[snip]] UK newspapers? They tested? What
were the testing criteria, who tested, where was the jewelry bought. Was it a
representative sample of the entire US market. [[snip]] and my
response is so over the top, that Peter will most likely not allow it, so I
will
send it to you as an email also.


I have searched for the newspaper article on the net but cannot find it. The
newspaper was "The Mail on Sunday" on the first of June 2003 Page 5

I do not know where the items were bought or what criteria were used.

But in the UK if an item is market 18ct then it must be AT LEAST 18ct and
not a fraction below at all. I expect Peter is right The newspaper probably
used the UK idea of metal purity. In the UK it would be illegal to describe
a ring as 18ct if it was not 18ct but actually 17.999 ct.

The idea of legally allowing a percentage under would seem absurd. There are
very few jewellery outlets operating on the fringes in the UK.

The hallmarking laws have done their job well for the last 700 years. That
is why I am so upset at the thought of their abolition.

The sterling silver casting grain I buy in London is actually 93.5% silver
instead of 92.5 just to make sure it passes assay.

Thank you for the full unexpurgated version of your post Abrasha. I now
consider myself a fully paid up member of this news group :-)

best wishes

Hillary

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  #12  
Old August 2nd 03, 01:09 AM
Abrasha
external usenet poster
 
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"H. J. Corney" wrote:

I don't know what a US carnet is so I would be delighted to learn in case I
need to send something from the states one day.


A "carnet" is not a US documnet but rather an international document used for
temporary duty-free importation of goods.

See http://www.export911.com/e911/export/ata.htm

The ATA Carnet---the carnet de passage or carnet---is a customs document
allowing for temporary duty-free importation of certain commercial and exhibit
samples without the customs declaration, delay or hassle at the port (or point)
of entry and exit. Carnets do not cover consumable goods (i.e., food and
agricultural products), disposable items or postal shipments.

For more information do a google on "carnet importing exporting"

Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com
 




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