Is all this stuff really the same?
This question often comes up regarding fashion jewelry, in general. Is it all really the same? The answer is a resounding, “NO”.
Plating: The most important ingredient in fashion jewelry is the plating. Merchandise is often under-plated in fashion jewelry because the outer appearance does not improve much by increasing the plating, whereas the cost to produce the item does greatly increase (for some items, the plating costs more than the item underneath the plating!). We know, however, that the wearability greatly increases with increased plating thickness. To give you an example, a chain purchased at Target stores, or the like, will usually measure at about 1-2 mils of gold. Avon, and other mail order or multi-level businesses will usually measure at 2-3 mils of gold (this is why they call their jewelry “gold tone”, not gold electroplate). At the finer department stores like Macy’s you will find the name brand jewelry like Monet and Trifarri to measure at 5 mils of gold. Our standard gold electroplate contains 5 mils of gold—still better than most in the industry. Our premium product, gold bonded, has 50 mils of gold, or 7 times more gold than regular gold electroplate. No one else in the industry has a thicker plating thickness. We do all of our 50 mils plating here in San Clemente, and do not farm it out overseas, either, where the quality for this highly technical process can be compromised. Approximately half of our customers swear by the 50 mils plating, and will sell nothing else. Silver plating: where you see a /50 on the price list, we actually plate with 100 mils of silver because silver is much less costly than gold. However, we put such a good coating over our standard silver plated items, that many feel that the standard silver plating is sufficient.
Raw Materials: Diamond-cut Korean brass is far superior to the Chinese brass, which is not as smooth or fine. The polishing is also better in Korea than China. The white metal that is often used in fashion jewelry also decreases costs, but can break or bend easily, and is very heavy. We do not use white metal, or pot metal—only the finest brass base.
Stones: Czech crystals are pretty, but nothing like the Austrian Crystals from Swarovski, the crystals we use. Many fashion jewelers use lucite to reduce their costs. We stick with the Swarovski crystals. Regarding Cubic Zirconia, there are a few grades of stones available. Our factories always ask us which grade of stone we want to use on our product. We always answer the highest grade of stones. Our stones are almost always prong-set, not glued in where they can easily fall out.
The bottom line is that our commitment to quality has kept us successful for 30 years. It is the reason why most of our sales come from repeat customers who are loyal to us largely due to their experience with our product. Your customers will be the same with you, as you sell this product. It is not perfect, but it is simply the best in the fashion jewelry industry. We will continue to work at reducing your prices. However, we will not do so through quality reductions.
We wish you every success in selling the S&A line. We will support you with our lifetime warranty, and will try to fulfill your needs.
Thank you much.
