How our live pricing works: every gram, shown
Net weight, gross weight, purity, making charge and the market rate in US dollars. A plain-English guide to how every Shifora price is built, and why it moves with the market.
Maison Shifora · · 4 min read
Most jewellery is sold with a single number on the tag and very little explanation behind it. We work differently. On every Shifora piece you can see what the metal weighs, what that metal is worth today, what the craftsmanship costs and what the stones add. This article walks through each line, so you know exactly what you are paying for.
It starts with the market
Gold, platinum and silver are traded around the world every working day, and their prices are quoted in US dollars per troy ounce. A troy ounce is 31.1035 grams, slightly heavier than the ounce used in a kitchen. Our site reads the market price throughout the day and shows it at the top of every page, along with the change since yesterday.
Because we quote and sell in US dollars, a client in London, Dubai, Singapore or New York sees the same number we do. There is no hidden currency margin baked into the metal.
From ounce to gram, and from pure to alloy
Fine jewellery is rarely made from pure metal. Pure gold is too soft to hold a diamond securely for decades, so it is alloyed with small amounts of silver, copper, zinc or palladium. The purity tells you how much of the piece is the precious metal itself:
- 22KT gold is 91.6% gold
- 18KT gold is 75% gold
- 14KT gold is 58.5% gold
- Platinum 950 is 95% platinum
- 925 sterling silver is 92.5% silver
So the first step is simple arithmetic. We divide the market price per ounce by 31.1035 to get the price of one gram of pure metal, then multiply by the purity. That is the net rate per gram for your chosen metal. Our rates page shows it for every purity we offer, updated live.
Net weight and gross weight
Two weights appear on every product page:
- Net weight is the weight of the metal alone. This is the number that is multiplied by the metal rate.
- Gross weight is the weight of the finished piece, including diamonds, pearls or coloured stones.
A diamond solitaire might have a gross weight of 3.4 g and a net weight of 3.2 g, because the stone itself accounts for the difference. You only ever pay the metal rate on the metal.
The net weight also changes with your choices. Platinum is much denser than gold, so the same ring made in platinum weighs more than it does in 18KT gold, and silver weighs less. A larger ring size or a longer chain uses more metal too. When you change the metal or the size on a product page, the weights and the price update in front of you.
Making charge
Metal on its own is not jewellery. The making charge pays for the work of our karigars in Surat: casting, filing, setting each stone under the loupe, polishing and finishing. Depending on the piece we express it per gram, as a percentage of the metal value, or as a fixed amount for intricate work such as kundan setting. It is always shown as its own line.
Some pieces also carry a small, stated wastage allowance, which reflects the metal that is genuinely lost to filing and polishing during manufacture. Where it applies, it is included in the metal line rather than hidden.
Stones
Diamonds and coloured stones are priced individually, by their size and quality, and listed separately. Where a stone is certified, the report comes from IGI or GIA and travels with your piece.
Craftsmanship and service
The next line covers what it takes to run a house: design, quality control, hallmarking, certification, packaging, client care and our after-sales promises. We show it openly as Craftsmanship & service, rather than folding it invisibly into the other numbers.
Your price, locked
Add those lines together and you have the price of your piece. Because the metal portion follows the live market, the price you see today may differ slightly from yesterday's. The moment you place your order, that price is locked: it will not change while your piece is being made or shipped, whatever the market does next.
We believe a jewel meant to be kept for a lifetime should be bought with nothing hidden.
Reading a price breakup
Every product page has a "Price breakup" section. Choose your metal and size, open it, and you will see the net and gross weight, the rate per gram, the metal value, the making charge, any stones, and the craftsmanship line, all adding up to the final price in US dollars. If anything is unclear, write to us at info@shifora.in and we will walk you through it.
To see today's numbers for yourself, visit our live metal rates page.
