God love ya Jeremy, triple key! The consumer public has the idea that triple key is the jeweler's standard markup, well it ain't. Wish it was. Depends on the item, of course, but mostly that is simply a myth.
Without becoming too personal, my markup is generally 50%, that is buy for a dollar sell for two so at 2.00 my profit is 50% not 100%. Can't do that in diamonds, not anymore, hell, 20% to maybe 35% on larger stones...Thats the reason why mom and pop jewelers are in trouble, to much competition, the internet is killing them!
I buy in Asia, Africa, S. America, so my markup on gems can be higher, I sell also to jewelers, but so are my costs. Go mainly for quality, rare stones are rare and therefore gotta go get em! Pearls, same deal. Actually with freshwater, if you don't mark them up no one will buy them. If they are too cheap you can't sell them. Thats the paradox, used to be before the market discovered them.