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WHAT IS A PRECIOUS STONE WORTH? 923
superior to the average run of gems in
each class and weight. He then will
figure on it in some such terms as this
(for, although these phrases and ideas
may not actually pass through his mind,
they will underlie the thoughts that do
make up his mental process) :
"This stone will work up into an
unusually beautiful cluster scarf-pin.
We sell about three such pieces a week
—and perhaps one in twelve of our customers
for that class of jewelry will pay
as much as seventy-five dollars extra for
the superiority in beauty this stone
would give such a cluster over one made
from the average grade of stuff in this
weight and class. So I could get rid of
this stone within a month or six weeks.
"Those two Brazilians I got from
Lewinsohn would go well with this. And
I'd need about three more; can get them
for about ninety dollars. Workmanship
and profit—hm—yes, I can make a profit
on this stone at ninety-five dollars."
And so he makes an offer of ninety
dollars to the wholesaler salesman.
Now that gentleman had been thinking
somewhat the same thoughts, only in
terms of "he can" instead of "I can", and
of a brooch instead of a cluster scarfpin.
Also he has been telling himself, "I'm
pretty sure Jacobs will give me eightyfive
for it, and he might well go to a
hundred. But then he might be loaded
up by now—Jackson had just about
what he wanted a few days ago—and no
one else will go to a hundred. If this
chap goes above eighty-five, I might
better close than pass him up and perhaps
have Jackson cut in while I'm skating
around." So when the offer of ninety
dollars comes, the salesman probably will
throw out a feeler for the hundred dollar
price, and then, depending upon his certainty
of his ability to sell Jacobs, his
fear of Jackson, and similar considerations,—and
also his guess as to whether
our friend, the buyer, will stand a
raise above ninety dollars—he will
decide either to close the deal, or go
on. Let us say he
closes, and follow )
the course of the deal from this point to
the end.
The buyer turns in the stone, and the
cluster is made up. Five weeks later
the cluster is sold—at the price the
buyer thought could be obtained for it.
Then the rub comes. If that purchaser
afterward finds that no one else would
pay him a price commensurate with what
he paid, he will be furious, and in so far
as his personal influence counts, the reputation
of the house selling him the
cluster goes down. If, however, he
finds that he can realize a commensurate
price, he is satisfied with his bargain—
and boosts. The growth of the house
from an ordinary business to a national
institution such as Tiffany's, depends
upon whether this silent influence
exerted by its customers is for good or
bad.
This process is sufficiently complicated
as I have stated it, and there is a lot
more to it. One of the determining factors
we used was minimum price of production
; but that depends, not only upon
working conditions, but changes in demand
which affect the number and grade
of stones that can be sold. The whole
process is far too involved for a short
article; values, in the long run, are
worked out by balancing up the million
and one elements which influence the
thousands of men directly concerned in
the business. Market prices of gems
represent an average of a million opin-