JadeDragon wrote:Do jewellers typically buy gold bars to reshape? I noticed a local jeweller advertising the buy gold just yesterday. Are jewellers a good source for gold bars and coins in the secondary market?
Jewelers mostly buy scrap jewelry or take trade ins on jewelry as an additional revenue stream, but occasionally they come across some coins, bullion, etc, so it never hurts to ask. They are unlikely to put them on display though, you would have to ask.
Most jewelers do no actual jewelry production in house, they buy stuff from distributors just like most other retail outlets. Even the custom stuff is often outsourced. But occasionally you can find an actual craftsman out there. I share a single jewelry repair guy with at least 2 retail jewelry stores he visits each store a day or 2 per week and works on their projects...
Reshaping bars is not how jewelry is made in most cases, Could be done, yes absolutely, in fact if one wanted a custom gold blend its how one would do it in house, but generally the jeweler (referring to the tradesman who actually makes/repairs jewelry, not store clerk) would buy whats called "casting shot" and that would be 14k yellow, 14k rose, 14k white, and there are dozens of different formulations for each of those colors of gold in each karat purity, each alloy will have a slightly different color, or a slightly different melting point, malleability etc which characteristics might be more or less to the particular projects needs... Casting shot basically looks like bb's but not as perfectly round.
