Navajo Pearls – Why are the heavier beads less expensive?

Good morning Paula,

I am interested in your Navajo Pearl necklaces. I was wondering why the Lilian Yazzie 16-10 mm graduated necklace (BD757) costs $345 @68 grams while her 20 inch 9mm necklace @55grams costs over $100 more (priced at $460)?  Lori

Navajo Sterling Silver Beads by Lily Yazzie
Graduated 10mm – 16mm
Stamped; Adjustable; 68 grams; $345

Navajo Sterling Silver Beads by Lily Yazzie
Stamped; 9mm; 20″; 55 grams
$460

Hi Lori,

Good question and not the first time someone has asked.

Our prices are really dictated by what the artist asks for at item and it will be based on WHEN we bought an item.

So some items we purchased 3 years ago will be less expensive than the same or an even “lesser” (weight) item item today based on the silver price.

The only time we raise prices is when we go to replenish our supply of a certain item and the artist has raised their price since the last time we purchased from them.

We like to leave items at their “old prices” so people can find bargains. You’ll see what I mean if you visit either the silver or stone bracelet pages – you will see some bracelets between $100 and $200 that we bought several years ago and we’ve left them at their old price. On the same group page you will see similar bracelets priced over $100 more – those are the ones we bought this year !!

Thanks for the question and I hope you find some Navajo Pearls you like!!

 Paula

What is this Cracked Turquoise Pendant Worth?

Hi Paula,

I have a turquoise pendant that I was wondering what it might be
worth and who the designer might be.  There is no hallmark that I can
find; as you can see there’s a pretty large crack in the stone.
Jay

Hi Jay,

We don’t do appraisals from photos. We only do appraisals if someone sends items to us that they want to sell.

What I can tell you about this item is this:

Although it was once a pretty pendant, I doubt that it was Native American made as it doesn’t have any characteristics that I am familiar with and has several characteristics that are not Native American.

925 indicates that the metal portion is sterling silver.

I have no idea what the smaller gemstones are – addition of such stones, whether real or imitation, is not characteristic of Native American silversmiths. If you think the item did have value at one time, you might want to take it to a jeweler to have the stones tested.

The crack in the turquoise depreciates the value of the item to about 10% of its undamaged value. And whether that is real turquoise could only be determined on physical inspection.

We occasional get items like this is estate collections. Since the item can not be authenticated and is damaged, what we do is put them in with a group of other sterling silver items in our Bargain Barn as a lot.

I invite other readers to add their comments if they recognize something in the pendant that would be helpful to Jay.

Antiques Roadshow says eBay effect has flooded collectibles market

A recent article in Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine (May 2011)

“What’s Hot at the Antiques Roadshow”

has some interesting information related to vintage Native American jewelry. Here’s a quote:

“Call it the eBay effect. Once-scarce items now flood the online auction sites, tipping the scales of supply and demand and diluting values. Throw in the impact of the economic downturn — during which some folks desperately scoured their attics and basements in search of anything to sell that could help them pay their bills — and the result is a perfect storm: a decline in prices for most collectibles and antiques.”

The value of an item is not only determined by its appraised material value but also its history, or provenance. That is the story behind who obtained the item, how, when and where and any other interesting details associated with the piece. When someone asks me to help them identify and value their piece, I always ask them for the back story.

When we first purchase or obtain something, all the details are fresh in our mind and we think we will always remember the story but pull that same bracelet out 15 years later and the details might be somewhat fuzzy. That’s why it is best to write some key info such as date, price, artist’s name, where obtained and so on on a piece of paper and store it with the item. Or keep a notebook with such info. It will come in handy and could increase the value of your piece.

Read my related post.

The Great American Sell Off of Possessions including Jewelry

Our Annual Native American Jewelry Buying Trip Reveals……..

We just got back from our annual spring buying trip where we seek out the new and beautiful items made by Native American artists in the southwest US.

Here is what we found. No surprise here. Because the prices of silver and gold are higher, the price of Native American jewelry is higher.

But you might not know this. Small things like earrings, pins and light bracelets are just not being made, so are not available.

Medium weight pieces are not as readily available as last year and those that are cost 1 1/2 to 2 times what they did last  year this time. The same item we might have purchased last year at 65 grams for $150 looks pretty much the same but now weighs only 52 grams and costs $225.

Heavy, quality pieces are available and they are where it seems artists are focusing their time.

So we have begun listing the treasures.

Visit our NEW page to see the latest and greatest !!

Silver Price Affects Production of Native American Sterling Silver Bracelets

Many of you have written the last several months, hoping to find those nice heavy sterling silver Navajo bracelets for yourselves and for those on your Christmas list.

So this article is a further answer to all of you – and those of you searching for bracelets such as these.

Classic Navajo Sterling Silver Twist Bracelet by the Tahe Family

Twist bracelets such as the one above weigh in at 65-105 grams depending on the size and thickness.

Because of the high and rising price of silver, these bracelets simply are not being made. The bracelets we have listed on our Sterling Silver Twist Bracelet page might be the last ones we are able to get for quite a while.

Here’s another example. We purchased this 74 gram bracelet in 2008 when silver was $14.99 an ounce. It’s retail price at the time of our purchase was $225. We sold it today for that price and yet today silver is trading at $30 an ounce.  If we could get this bracelet from the artist today, it would likely cost $400 or more.

Sterling Silver Bear Storyteller Bracelet by Richard Singer, Navajo

Horsekeeping has a policy of not raising prices when silver goes up. We keep the prices as they were when we purchased the items. However, the next time we purchase sterling silver items (probably May 2011) such as Sterling Silver Bracelets, Sterling Silver Beads AKA Navajo Pearls and so on, the prices will likely be much higher or the items will not even be available.

To read more about silver prices, here is my post from October 2010

How the Silver Price Affects the Cost and Availability of Native American Jewelry

Sterling Silver Navajo Pearls by Larry Pinto, Navajo

Enjoy browsing through our inventory at “old silver prices” !!!

How the Silver Price Affects the Cost and Availability of Native American Jewelry

This article is aimed at explaining Native American jewelry prices for the buyer, investor, reseller. Read on.

UPDATE APRIL 20, 2011 SILVER IS NOW AT $45.60 SO READ THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE WITH THAT IN MIND. ARE WE HEADED FOR THAT ALL-TIME HIGH PRICE?

October 29, 2010 silver closed at $24.75 an ounce, a 30 year high.

January 7, 2011 silver opened at $30.50

How does the price of silver relate to cost and availability of Native American jewelry?

What are historical silver prices?

Well, first let’s look at historical silver prices.

Year                Price per ounce in US $ – Year Average
1940                $    .35
1950                $    .80
1960                $    .91
1970                $  1.64
1977                $  4.71
1978                $  5.93
1979                $21.79
1980                $16.39
1985                $  5.89
1990                $  4.07
2000                $  4.95
2002                $  4.60
2004                $  6.67
2005                $  7.31
2006                $11.55
2007                $13.38
2008                $14.99
2009                $14.67
2010                $18.61 average up to 10-30-2010

and on 10-29-10         $24.75

and it continues to rise. Opened January 6, 2011 at $30.50

April 20, 2011 $46.50

For live silver prices go to Kitco and refresh the screen as needed.

34 Year History of Silver Prices in US Dollars per Ounce

If you notice in the above graph, there was a huge blip in 1979-1980 (that’s the big spike toward the left side of the graph). Up until 1978, silver had been trading for less than $5 per ounce. Then in 1979, industrial silver demand became greater than available silver reserves, so silver prices began to rise. In the last quarter of  1979, it was selling for between $15-$25 per ounce. A combination of factors including some futures exchanges liquidating their position, fabrication of future silver demands, and the Hunt brothers (of Texas) trying to corner the silver market resulted in silver hitting an (artificially inflated = bubble) all-time high of  $48.70 per ounce on January 17, 1980.

Supply and Demand Affects Price

Then on Silver Thursday, March 27, 1980, silver dropped 50% in just four days causing panic in the commodities and futures exchanges. Silver prices continued to drop through the early 1980s until it was trading near its pre-bubble price of $5 per ounce by about 1985.

What a Wild Ride !!!

That’s why the Native American jewelry that was produced in the 1970’s at $1.64 per ounce silver was a great buy and appreciated in value during the 1980s.

But there was a Native American Jewelry bubble that paralleled the silver price bubble. As silver prices stabilized, so did the over-inflated Native American jewelry prices. Many people who purchased NA jewelry items in the early 1980s really paid top dollar for the items and the value of the items depreciated with each passing day – in terms of the value of the SILVER content, but not necessarily in terms of quality or work or historical value.

So when someone contacts me and says he paid $2000 for his wife’s squash blossom necklace in 1980, I’m thinking he paid top dollar. Had he purchased it in 1978 or 1985, it might have cost $500. Just something to chew on.

In the last 10 years, silver prices have increased steadily every year. Each spring since 2000, (spring is when we purchase our NA items for the year), we’ve had to pay steadily more. This past year (spring 2010) we paid approximately three times what we paid in 2000 for comparable items.

How high are silver prices headed? Some project that silver is headed to $175 an ounce or even higher. I have no idea but I know in my limited experience on this planet and in this business, silver keeps going higher and resources are limited.

Here is an interesting perspective on that if you are into that sort of thing.

$2,500 Gold Could Easily Result in $178.50 Silver – Here’s Why!

What does the high price of silver mean for Native American jewelry?

Expect to pay more, lots more. Here’s why.

First from the artists’ standpoint.

Artists purchase materials on an as needed basis. They take the materials home, do the work and hope to sell the items quickly. Many artists don’t have the capital to tie up in items that sit around. They need a fairly fast turnaround. So often they don’t even make items until they know there will be a buyer for them. The biggest Indian Market season is spring to summer.

When a Native American silver bracelet artist goes to purchase sterling stock, you can bet that he or she is going to wince at the latest price hike. AND even if they can afford to buy the silver stock, they are going to have to charge much more for their pieces and hope to move them even faster than usual. That’s why almost nobody is making any NA sterling silver jewelry right now.

BUT price is only ONE way things change. Here is what we have also noticed. Selection of sterling silver items becomes narrower.

The small items are no longer being made as they simply are not profitable – the cost of materials would require the retail price to be out of the entry level buyer – the person who is buying their first piece of NA jewelry. That means, the small pendants, earrings, and other small pieces are just not available.

The very heavy items that are solid sterling silver like the very thick Classic Twist bracelets are either not available at all or are extremely high priced.

The silver bead makers, who already spend so much time crafting each bead, now must also charge very high prices for materials. So silver bead makers typically quit producing when silver is high as they don’t feel there will be a market for their work because they will have to price it so high. Over the last few years we have found fewer and fewer Navajo Pearls available.

We do find that there are more stone necklaces available such as heishi and fetish necklaces, more inlay pieces that require minimal sterling silver for the backing, and more buckskin items. Native American artists are adaptable and ingenious, so if silver is too high, they will make other items.

But there is a silver lining in this tale. When we saw silver prices really start to climb earlier this year, we purchased all of the beads that the artists had in stock from early 2010 when the price per ounce was hovering around $18.

So we now have a large group of Navajo Pearls in all sizes, shapes and lengths that don’t appear on our website. It will take me a while to get caught up with some other things, before I get to listing those, so in the meantime, if there is a particular length of Navajo Pearls you are looking for, drop me a note using the email feature in the right hand column. (See ASK PAULA A QUESTION)

A note about our pricing. If you have ever shopped our website, you know that there might be one bracelet that is lower priced than another similar one. That is because the first bracelet might be from a buying trip in 2004 or 2005 when silver was well under $10 per ounce.

As silver prices have risen, we have not raised the prices of the items we have already listed. Here’s how we think. We purchase an item at a certain price and are happy to sell that item for a certain price. We want to make a living, not a killing. We like our customers to find these bargains mixed in with the new things we list at (eek!) the higher silver prices.

However, we DO raise prices in certain situations like this one. We bought 10 silver bracelets from an artist in 2006 for $105 retail each and when we were down to 2 left and contacted him to restock that bracelet in 2009, he wanted $220 retail each. Therefore, we had to raise the price on that bracelet !!

So prowl around our site, look for those bargains and let me know if you are looking for some Navajo Pearls that aren’t on our site because I just might have them in the box next to my desk !!