Why Do Thais Buy So Much Gold?

[Kurtf]

On 1/9/2020 at 5:06 PM, MikeN said:

Yes, my SiL bought 2 baht of jewelry at New Year which went straight into her safe and will never be worn. So I am asking, why not buy gold bar instead ...the buy/sell spread on that is about one tenth of jewelry so much easier to make a profit. “No, always buy jewelry “ was the answer, no logical reasoning.

You expected logical reasoning from a Thai???? 5555555555555555555555555555555555555555

[Isaanbiker]

When I settled down here, a Thai friend told me to use all my cash to buy gold.

 

  Unfortunately, did I not listen and got a terrible deal from Bangkok bank.

 

They didn't tell me that I'd have gained 2.7 % interest when opening a joint account with my wife. I only received up to 0.7 %!!!!

 

  I found that out when most money spent, so I must have lost a lot of money through incompetent idiots at this bank.

 

 Regarding the gold, the biggest mistake not to use all my money and buy gold. I could have gotten one baht for 8.5 K.

 

Only one year later, it rose to almost 14 K, and that went on and on.

 

  Why do Thai people buy gold?

 

Because it's as good or roughly speaking, even better than money. 

Edited January 12, 2020 by Isaanbiker
Gold is better than iron.

[ThomasThBKK]

On 1/10/2020 at 11:43 AM, Brunolem said:

This is not specific to Thais... Indians and Chinese are big gold buyers... 

https://news.goldcore.com/ie/gold-blog/german-investors-now-worlds-largest-gold-buyers/?repeat=w3tc

 

And the germansss... i know no one back home who doesn't own a bit of gold. The german population owns 3x the amount of gold the government owns.

 

UK is also in the top list of gold buyers, so is china, turkey, india, russia...

 

Government distrust, distrust in banks etc is a very valid reason to have a gold safety net (and well like it or not - bitcoin). 

 

if you have decent savings, not having gold is a major mistake, it's an insurance against the collapse of the fraudulent fiat system.

[Guest]

19 hours ago, CG1 Blue said:

A Thai girl from my local area in Essex was telling me to get into the lending business for Thais. She said the Thais give you their gold as collateral, and you lend them say 75% of the gold value in cash. They pay 10% interest on the cash loan, and in many cases they end up cutting their losses and letting you keep / sell the gold. 

 

It's all a bit too cut throat for me, but those lenders must be raking it in! 

In THAILAND ... I would be quite surprised at this practice because Gold shops are everywhere, and the spread is really modest, especially for bar gold ... a bit higher for ornamental gold.  Meaning .. why would I settle for 75% and pay 10% interest ... when with very little effort, I could sell it ... use the funds ... and with luck ... just buy the same quantity back?  Almost a certainty it would not go up 10% (the interest payment) in that short period of time ... so ... perhaps "Essex" advice on a Thai forum ... "not so much??"

[fairbank]

Gold to me is a good investment , i've used it many times and its helped me , sometimes i gain on the invested , sometimes i lose a couple of baht 

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, fairbank said:

Gold to me is a good investment , i've used it many times and its helped me , sometimes i gain on the invested , sometimes i lose a couple of baht 

Bought a bunch of it a few years back ... up 10% ... like to have it in case the solid nitrogenous waste hits the oscillator.

[Brunolem]

35 minutes ago, bangkokequity said:

Bought a bunch of it a few years back ... up 10% ... like to have it in case the solid nitrogenous waste hits the oscillator.

And it is going to hit...everybody knows it, central banks included, which is why they are buying gold hands over fists...2018 was the largest gold buying spree since WWII, and 2019 is going to beat that...why would they do that if everything was peachy, as goes the official discourse?

 

 

[Dumbastheycome]

1 hour ago, bangkokequity said:

In THAILAND ... I would be quite surprised at this practice because Gold shops are everywhere, and the spread is really modest, especially for bar gold ... a bit higher for ornamental gold.  Meaning .. why would I settle for 75% and pay 10% interest ... when with very little effort, I could sell it ... use the funds ... and with luck ... just buy the same quantity back?  Almost a certainty it would not go up 10% (the interest payment) in that short period of time ... so ... perhaps "Essex" advice on a Thai forum ... "not so much??"

I have picked  up a  few items of  gold due to the original owner has borrowing against it from a gold  shop and eventually been unable to even pay the incremental interest. So rather than  forfeiting the gold I (via   my wife) have been given the loan slip and have bought back the items with the addition of the  current interest liability. Result is gold item at  much less than retail and a small satisfaction to the original owner in denying the gold shop a very profitable  resale. I have often wondered  how  many of the items on display have been circled through the same shop several times !

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, Dumbastheycome said:

I have picked  up a  few items of  gold due to the original owner has borrowing against it from a gold  shop and eventually been unable to even pay the incremental interest. So rather than  forfeiting the gold I (via   my wife) have been given the loan slip and have bought back the items with the addition of the  current interest liability. Result is gold item at  much less than retail and a small satisfaction to the original owner in denying the gold shop a very profitable  resale. I have often wondered  how  many of the items on display have been circled through the same shop several times !

You really have me wondering about the quality / gold content of these items ... so there are people in this world who are willing to take 75% of the current market value, pay interest, and then lose the whole lot?  Alrighty then!  Or ... could it be .. these ornamental chains are "all that glitters is not gold?'  The only place I get Gold is Hua Seng Heng .. recognized EVERYWHERE for purity and workmanship.  Anyway .. enjoy your stash of Gold ... interested to see if you can get the current rate at any Gold shop.  You may want to put that to the test?

[Dumbastheycome]

4 hours ago, bangkokequity said:

You really have me wondering about the quality / gold content of these items ... so there are people in this world who are willing to take 75% of the current market value, pay interest, and then lose the whole lot?  Alrighty then!  Or ... could it be .. these ornamental chains are "all that glitters is not gold?'  The only place I get Gold is Hua Seng Heng .. recognized EVERYWHERE for purity and workmanship.  Anyway .. enjoy your stash of Gold ... interested to see if you can get the current rate at any Gold shop.  You may want to put that to the test?

Have done so. Yes. Is  genuine. It is the purity  that is  of importance. The "workmanship" is  just retail market added  value. If and when I buy gold  as investment otherwise  I  buy  certificated "bar".

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Dumbastheycome said:

Have done so. Yes. Is  genuine. It is the purity  that is  of importance. The "workmanship" is  just retail market added  value. If and when I buy gold  as investment otherwise  I  buy  certificated "bar".

Same here .. chains for the wife .. bars for investing life.  It is amazing that a person would take something worth say ... 10,000 .. pawn it for 7,500 ... pay 10% on the loan (compounded daily??) ... when they could just get the 10,000 and move on!