Thai Gold, the lowdown?

[Bmouthboyo]

Hi guys,

Just wanted to pick your brains really about Thai gold. I am after a pretty straight forward mens curb gold necklace, nothing too showy and a thin one for the mrs to hold a small pendent she has.

I see a lot of gold shops in places like MBK and most malls, they have big red signs with lots of gold hanging down behind the counters. They usually have prices in the windows wrote in wipe away marker. So I guess these are unto date selling and buying prices. Is this per ounce? Or gram?

Secondly if that is the price for a weight of gold, is all jewellery in the shop that price dependent on weight or does design add value like in the west etc? I assume it is all second hand?

Are these places trustworthy? Gold hallmarked? And is it valuable back in the west too?

I was in Chinatown the other week and one of these stores was absolutely packed while others nearby were quiet, so I assume they had good buy or sell prices? Is there a way to check if a store is good value, like against exchange prices?

Sorry for all the questions, just wanted to start finding out most sensible route.

[Upnotover]

The price (should be 18,700 today) is the gold price, changes according to the market. It is the price for 1 Baht of Gold, that is 15.24 grams of 96.5% gold. They add a bit, not a lot, for workmanship. This applies to the "gold shops", not jewelry shops where there is more workmanship involved and substantially higher mark up over the gold price.

[Suradit69]

There is already a thread running on pretty much the same topic:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/691495-how-to-buy-gold/#entry7204343

Prices can be checked here, but allow for a small surcharge per baht.

http://www.goldpricethai.com/

Supposedly exporting of the 23k gold is not allowed, but I'm not sure how well that's enforced.

Read through these two articles for more info:

http://www.goldbarsworldwide.com/PDF/NB_1_BarsFromThailand.pdf

http://gold.yabz.com/where_to_buy_gold.htm

Edited December 25, 2013 by Suradit69

[maderaroja]

There are also 1 Baht gold bars available and they sell for a different price than the jewelry.

[maderaroja]

Also, the Tahiland price for gold is set by the Thai Gold Traders Assn. and it is different from the world trading price.

[maderaroja]

Also, the Tahiland price for gold is set by the Thai Gold Traders Assn. and it is different from the world trading price.

[Suradit69]

Also, the Tahiland price for gold is set by the Thai Gold Traders Assn. and it is different from the world trading price.

Thai gold prices are set based on the world price. As you can see here they even reference NY prices.

1 baht of gold is 15.244 g (or about 14.7 g pure gold) or about 0.473 Troy ounces.

Right now the price in NY is $1204. Exchange rate is about $32.67 in NY

0.473 x 1204 x 32.67 = Baht 18,605.

According to their pricing (lower left of their chart below), they were using Baht 18,676 using New York prices.

[Suradit69]

There are also 1 Baht gold bars available and they sell for a different price than the jewelry.

There are many different gold bars available, mainly from 1 baht to 25 baht.

http://www.goldbarsworldwide.com/PDF/NB_1_BarsFromThailand.pdf

There's a slightly wider buy/sell spread on the price for jewelry or ornaments, but it's still priced the same as for bars, allowing for design costs.

[Naam]

Also, the Tahiland price for gold is set by the Thai Gold Traders Assn. and it is different from the world trading price.

it's not different at all but mirrors exactly the prevailing international price. the function of the Thai Gold Traders Ass. is to inform its members what an adequate price in Thailand is taking the USD THB exchange rate into consideration. both, price of gold as well as exchange rate, can fluctuate not only by the minute but by seconds.

[bitcoinbob]

go to thai futures exchange for most recent prices. http://www.tfex.co.th/tfex/dailyMarketReport.html?locale=en_US

[Upnotover]

All very interesting but the OP wants to buy a chain, not invest fortunes in gold bars.

Sent from my GT-I9500 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[Dimpys Dad]

Question please...if one wanted to buy gold to be converted back into Baht at a later date say for a currency storage, would the recommendation be to buy chain, bars or coins? Which will have the best return here in Thailand, or does it matter?

Thanks,

[paz]

Pound by pound, the best return is with bars. Some people like coins better, beause they think they are harder to counterfeit. However when you resell big bars to a shop where they don't know you. they may take time to assay it.

Before investing in gold, or anything else, do your research. You may hear that now is a good time to buy it, possibly it is, but perhaps not.

[Dimpys Dad]

The only reason I would prefer coins or even chains is that it can be sold back in small amounts more akin to currency. But bars seem more manageable for handling and storing. I am somewhat of a contrarian when I see news about buying and selling gold and I recently saw an article where the author was arguing forcefully against buying gold. Like stocks, I sometimes think the pundits are either behind the trading curve or trying to influence for whatever reason. Either way, I believe that gold is a safe investment at the moment and want to store my money in something I can convert back relatively quickly.

Thank you for the information.

[bluebluewater]

Because it is almost pure gold (24 karat) it is really way too soft to have as every day jewelry.

I would not want a piece bought in LOS as something to try to wear every day.

[mogandave]

For heavy chains and whatnot the near pure gold is fine and will hold up well. The only time it is an issue is with the lighter stuff.

[SGD]

Also, the Tahiland price for gold is set by the Thai Gold Traders Assn. and it is different from the world trading price.

it's not different at all but mirrors exactly the prevailing international price. the function of the Thai Gold Traders Ass. is to inform its members what an adequate price in Thailand is taking the USD THB exchange rate into consideration. both, price of gold as well as exchange rate, can fluctuate not only by the minute but by seconds.

Except the price you pay in the shops is not the market price at all.

When you buy they charge a percentage over the buy price and when you want to sell they use another factor to reduce their offer price below the bid.

Exactly what these calculations are or what formula they are based upon is not clear to me at the moment but you lose a few percentage on both sides of the transaction and this is apart from any workmanship fees.

[ajahnlau]

Because it is almost pure gold (24 karat) it is really way too soft to have as every day jewelry.

I would not want a piece bought in LOS as something to try to wear every day.

Have owned 2 rings for over 10yrs.Never a problem.Ride mc even.

[Naam]

Question please...if one wanted to buy gold to be converted back into Baht at a later date say for a currency storage, would the recommendation be to buy chain, bars or coins? Which will have the best return here in Thailand, or does it matter?

Thanks,

the answer is clearly "bars". jewelry is more expensive when bought and fetches a lower price when sold. coins hardly exist in Thailand.

[Naam]

Also, the Tahiland price for gold is set by the Thai Gold Traders Assn. and it is different from the world trading price.

it's not different at all but mirrors exactly the prevailing international price. the function of the Thai Gold Traders Ass. is to inform its members what an adequate price in Thailand is taking the USD THB exchange rate into consideration. both, price of gold as well as exchange rate, can fluctuate not only by the minute but by seconds.

Except the price you pay in the shops is not the market price at all.

When you buy they charge a percentage over the buy price and when you want to sell they use another factor to reduce their offer price below the bid.

Exactly what these calculations are or what formula they are based upon is not clear to me at the moment but you lose a few percentage on both sides of the transaction and this is apart from any workmanship fees.

there is no percentage as thai gold bars are since many years bought and sold by adding or deducting a fixed margin. as the gold price changed and still changes considerably that margin fluctuates a lot when expressed as percentage.

buying and selling jewelry is a different animal which i explained before.

[Naam]

Because it is almost pure gold (24 karat) it is really way too soft to have as every day jewelry.

I would not want a piece bought in LOS as something to try to wear every day.

Have owned 2 rings for over 10yrs.Never a problem.Ride mc even.

the "soft" fairy tale is quite boring and only spread by people who never owned 24k gold jewelry.

[Naam]

The only reason I would prefer coins or even chains is that it can be sold back in small amounts more akin to currency. But bars seem more manageable for handling and storing. I am somewhat of a contrarian when I see news about buying and selling gold and I recently saw an article where the author was arguing forcefully against buying gold. Like stocks, I sometimes think the pundits are either behind the trading curve or trying to influence for whatever reason. Either way, I believe that gold is a safe investment at the moment and want to store my money in something I can convert back relatively quickly.

Thank you for the information.

gold "bars" are available in tiny units down to 1 gram. there are no coins or jewelry available that small.

[ozyjon]

There are also 1 Baht gold bars available and they sell for a different price than the jewelry.

And coins

[ozyjon]

Question please...if one wanted to buy gold to be converted back into Baht at a later date say for a currency storage, would the recommendation be to buy chain, bars or coins? Which will have the best return here in Thailand, or does it matter?

Thanks,

I travel a lot and buy and sell gold and keep gold for the future, today i am selling all my gold because so much has been stolen, my mum (89 years old) has been held at knife point to steal her gold and the last chains i had to sell have also been stolen in Thailand so i have no intentions to buy gold any more, the cheapest place to buy gold is in India, should that interest you and if you buy a gold chain just remember many of my chains break when i sleep with them on, but can be repaired very easily, now i keep to a minimum because gold doesn't have the bling it used to, my girl sells the gold i buy her and banks the cash so i have stopped giving her any more. Good luck with that.

[Naam]

Question please...if one wanted to buy gold to be converted back into Baht at a later date say for a currency storage, would the recommendation be to buy chain, bars or coins? Which will have the best return here in Thailand, or does it matter?

Thanks,

I travel a lot and buy and sell gold and keep gold for the future, today i am selling all my gold because so much has been stolen, my mum (89 years old) has been held at knife point to steal her gold and the last chains i had to sell have also been stolen in Thailand so i have no intentions to buy gold any more, the cheapest place to buy gold is in India, should that interest you and if you buy a gold chain just remember many of my chains break when i sleep with them on, but can be repaired very easily, now i keep to a minimum because gold doesn't have the bling it used to, my girl sells the gold i buy her and banks the cash so i have stopped giving her any more. Good luck with that.

no fairy tales please! the cheapest place is not India because of an 18% tax on gold.

[pacceka]

I am curious. Does Thailand have a gold reserve? Is it stored at a local level distributed throughout the country? The shops acting as agents for the buying and selling?

[Honkytowner]

Gold bars offered for sale at Bangkok Bank are advertised as being 95% pure. That's generally considered too soft for Western-style jewellery (it scratches very easily), but is not pure enough for sale on international bullion markets, where .999 (99.9%) purity is the standard. Caveat emptor.

[Naam]

Gold bars offered for sale at Bangkok Bank are advertised as being 95% pure. That's generally considered too soft for Western-style jewellery (it scratches very easily), but is not pure enough for sale on international bullion markets, where .999 (99.9%) purity is the standard. Caveat emptor.

for the record: Thai Gold has a purity of 96.5% not 95%, correct is that the bars cannot be easily sold outside Asia. moreover, gold bars are usually bought not to produce western style jewelry but as an investment diversification.

[Bmouthboyo]

Thanks for all the advise guys, if a little more than I needed. I don't want to buy a treasure trove of gold bars for the future lol, just a mens curb necklace and a thin ladies one. From what I have understood then, the prices on the window are for a baht of gold which is about half an ounce? Is Thai gold good value or no different due to following exchange rate of gold etc?

Also do they sell 9ct etc in these gold shops?

Edited December 26, 2013 by Bmouthboyo

[paz]

I am curious. Does Thailand have a gold reserve? Is it stored at a local level distributed throughout the country? The shops acting as agents for the buying and selling?

Thailand as sovereign country has a gold reserve that belongs to the central bank.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_reserve

It may be stored in Thailand, or elsewhere.

The gold traded by shops is privately owned and has nothing to do with the above.