Many of us purchase gold jewellery because – it feels great, our mother said so, it compliments the color of our skin, its a great possible investment, yaddy, yaddy yah. The reasons are as numerous as the wonderfully honest dealers who would sell you the jewellery.
Perhaps I shouldn’t skip too quickly over the “great investment theme” because it is somewhat important to know that “10 Carat gold” all the way up to “18 Carat gold” is not generally considered to be great investment material. It is simply not investment grade, hard assets even if your home insurance covers it in case of theft.
Some of us want to claim an investment while still flaunting the bling on our skin and there is nothing wrong with that so flaunt something a little or considerably better than 18 Carat in order to claim the investment angle. The trick, especially in North America and England, is – where does one buy 24K Gold?
Most jewellers who don’t sell stronger than 18 Carat gold are likely to inform you that there is no such thing in jewelry since its too soft for most applications. They are not altogether incorrect however from experience I can tell you that 22 Carat Gold necklaces of 110 grams have been known to support the pull of a 50 pound child.
I first started buying gold in the souks of the middle east. It was, at one time very cheap there. Later I frequented the gold souks of Dubai and the other middle east commercial centers. Genuine 24K stuff can be had there – not the 10K worthless stuff sold in england or the 14K **not-to-die-for* stuff sold as gold jewelry in Canada and the United States.
If truth be told, I thought I was buying 24, but the jewelry was usually only 97-98% pure, but hey, still better than the 14k fluff sold in North America.
Then I found them. These are massive jewelry stores on both the Hong Kong and Kowloon side. They sell amazing pearl, emerald and exquisitely carved gold pieces. We are told and shown paper that indicates that, the HK government certifies what they are selling, but a few of these tourists traps have all kinds of interesting motivational **deals** especially in Kowloon. Anyway, they have certificates claiming their 24 Carat Gold is 99.999% pure, but when I took their stuff to London, I was told that the purity was extremely good but a little more than 22 Carats.
When I took this material to a reputable goldsmith to melt down, he again informed me that the material was only 22 to 23 Carats Gold purity. I kept thinking about how embarrassing it would be to pull out one’s own little gold volume/weight measurement tool in one of those massive elite stores and proudly if not loudly proclaim that the pure piece they were trying to sell wasn’t truly pure at all – I am also imagining that one could expect a nice long talk with the local police for creating such a fine performance.
And I know someone else will post and tell me that they are from HK and the government certifies these big stores blah blah but I have purchased big items 4 times in 6 years and each time while trying to sell elsewhere in North America and the UK have been told similar bad news ( Even when I presented the govt stamped HK certificate|It made no difference to the buyers even when presented with the certificate of authenticity which comes with each piece purchased from HK ) Can authenticity certificates be faked? Certainly. Might certain shops fake them? I can’t say.
Lesson learned, when buying gold from a store don’t ever fully 100% trust your seller or your buyer because the value of the metal is so high, understand that if either of the two groups can sucker you for even 2-3% of the value, they will, they can and they won’t stop – irrespective of govt certifications blah blah blah.
The lesson to learn perhaps is when buying precious metals in the form of jewelry from a store don’t ever fully 100% trust your seller or your buyer because the value of the metal is so high, understand that if either of the two groups can sucker you for even 2-3% of the value, they will, they can and they won’t stop – irrespective of govt certifications blah blah blah.
If your goal is truly for investment and you have no real need to put on your bling then buy a regulated certifiable gold bar from a western based dealer who is very much liable in western courts and has both insurance and liability coverage.
If what you are looking to purchase is 14 Carat or below, ignore everything above since, 14 Carat is not investment quality anyway.
If you are in Hong Kong and not sure if you should buy. Don’t hesitate, just understand that very rarely ever will a street vendor sell you absolutely 24 Carats, even if he/she believes that is truly the gold carat. Haggle the price with the knowledge that you’re are probably getting substantially more than 22 Carats but is unlikely to be truly 24 Carats. Compare this to the North American or even UK experience where you are most likely being sold only 14 Carats.
Wear it, enjoy it, don’t lose it and have fun.
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