Affordable luxury goods/jewellery

Frijj said:
Affordable means that it’s in reach for most of the population, no?

Inexpensive. Reasonably priced. Luxuries are not reasonably priced, for most people anyways.
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Not necessarily.

Virtually everything for sale is affordable to a billionaire. Maybe they don't have luxuries. Diminishing returns and all that.

I agree what were once luxuries now become essentials.
 


Harry Angstrom said:
The mark up on jewellery is insane.
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agree, its mental. I read something along the lines that if you buy a rolex the majority of the price paid goes towards a vast marketing budget and profit, a relatively small % goes into actual value add in terms of parts, assembly and the engineering work. Basically you are paying to sponsor the golf.

to be fair to the retailers they must have pretty high overheads and loads of cash tied up in stock, plus they wont move many units, relative to most other types of retailers so they need to make a good margin on the few sales that they get.

when i bought an engagement ring i was amazed at how much cheaper it can be via an online jeweller.
 
HANDSOME_DAN said:
agree, its mental. I read something along the lines that if you buy a rolex the majority of the price paid goes towards a vast marketing budget and profit, a relatively small % goes into actual value add in terms of parts, assembly and the engineering work. Basically you are paying to sponsor the golf.

to be fair to the retailers they must have pretty high overheads and loads of cash tied up in stock, plus they wont move many units, relative to most other types of retailers so they need to make a good margin on the few sales that they get.

when i bought an engagement ring i was amazed at how much cheaper it can be via an online jeweller.
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Dealer has 2,3 to 3,0 X mark-up (less taxes). Total mark up is 15-20 X direct costs.
 
HANDSOME_DAN said:
The mark ups sound nice but if you are hardly shifting any it could be grim having a load of cash tied up in that. See Goldsmiths in the town, you never see anyone in there.
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It is a cash-based business. Up to a 3rd of the revenues comes from people buying watches and jewellery for resale...

Big difference between gold/diamonds and fashion jewellery in that matter, though
 
HANDSOME_DAN said:
The mark ups sound nice but if you are hardly shifting any it could be grim having a load of cash tied up in that. See Goldsmiths in the town, you never see anyone in there.
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Aye, because they'll all be watching Gems TV / Gemporia (channel 755 on Virgin) who cut out the middle man, go direct to the mines and have ethical practices - they also have their "Colourful Life Foundation"........................
Whether by chance or design, most gemstones are found in remote areas of the developing world. Our goal is simple: to ensure that communities in those countries benefit when we sell our jewellery.

At first, we pursued this goal by directly funding a number of projects in Zambia, Madagascar, Kenya and Tanzania. But more recently, we decided to create an independent charity, dedicated to improving health and education in developing countries where gemstones are found.

The Colourful Life Foundation works with established organisations to fund research-based projects that will deliver long-term, sustainable benefits to communities. Often, these are aimed at supporting existing educational facilities by solving problems that prevent children from having time to attend school regularly, but the Foundation also supports health and environmental projects too.

We will keep you updated with The Colourful Life Foundation’s progress as it works towards its goal. In fact, we have already shared a success story in our Discover section about our work in Kenya.

I've never bought jewellery from anyone else for about the last 10 years, fuck paying a 50-55% markup ;).
 

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