How are you managing precious metal costs?

I find laboratories split on this issue. The one’s who offered a fixed price product in the past, find themselves forced to change that model to accommodate the ever changing alloy prices and stay profitable, while others who offered their products at labor plus alloy cost in the past, are turning to fixed pricing to attract those dentists who are accustomed to it. Many labs are marking up the products at far less than 25% profit margin, while others are just passing the cost through to their dentists. I find it interesting that laboratories are calling their customers with a price quote for the alloy on a case-by-case basis. The labs intention when making the call is to stir the doctor away from metal base restoration to a metal free restoration. Also, at the same time, to give the dentist heads up, so there are no surprises when they receive the invoice. I also see non-precious metal gaining some momentum, not much. I hope that helps with answering your question.