5 Things You Must Never Forget Before Buying Gold

Indian have a strong liking for gold and the demand for the yellow metal registers a sharp surge during wedding and festival seasons. Indians invest in gold especially during festival time as it is considered auspicious to buy the precious metal. When we buy gold, it serves twin purposes i.e. it can be used as an investment and as a fashion accessory.

Recently, a woman named Tanuja Singh narrated her ordeal of buying gold without checking the reputation of the jeweler. She had purchased gold jewellery for her wedding in the year 2013 from the local jeweler based in Ghaziabad. After a few years she thought of selling it back to the same shop from where she bought as she had developed a good familiarity with the owner of the jewellery shop. However, to her surprise, he flatly refused to take back the jewellery.

It is significant to purchase gold jewellery after carrying out some important checks given below:

1. Jewellery Shop

You will come across scores of jewellery shops at every nook and corner in India. You may risk purchasing gold from small jewellery shop as chances are strong that they may sell you impure gold. It is always ideal to visit a renowned jeweler because chances of purchasing impure gold lessens considerably. Also, a recognized jeweler provides guarantee card of your purchases.

2. Check Purity Of Gold

It is one of the most significant steps that you should always check. It is important to check the purity of gold and the simplest way to look for the purity is to check its hallmarking. The hallmarked jewellery piece conveys you the official proportion of the yellow metal. It is worth mentioning that Bureau of Indian Standards or BIS is the accredition agency that certifies and hallmark gold jewellery. Jewellery containing hallmark will come with a number attached to it along with BIS stamp. The jewellery also contains jeweller's identification mark and year of hallmark. You also must look for letter K that stands for Karat and conveys the percentage of purity. For example, in case the jewellery item says 22k, it implies 91.6% purity (gold content percentage) or 916. To understand the authenticity of jewellery it is significant to look for hallmark.

3. Verify Price Of Gold Jewellery

This is yet another significant step that you must not overlook. A jeweler shop decides the gold price on the basis of purity of gold. Gold prices vary everyday keeping in line with market price. Jeweller shops will highlight the daily bullion rates at their shop for customers. You must check the bullion price and then calculate the prices as per the purity. For instance the price of 24K gold will differ from price of 22K gold. 24K gold is expensive than 22K gold. If you purchase a 22K gold jewellery, you need to pay accordingly.
The renowned jeweler store highlights the bullion rates properly but local jeweler may forgo these details. Therefore, you must verify the price before visiting a jeweler shop.

4. Making Charges

Jewellery shop charge their customers the making charges of a jewellery piece. Making charges are the labour chages and jewellery shops often pass on these charges to customers. Making charges may vary from 5% to as high as 30%. Machine-made jewellery do not involve much labour cost and available at low making charges but jeweler pieces with intricate designs may carry higher making charges. You should always bargain on the making charges.

5. Check Weight of Gold Jewellery

It is highly significant to check the weight of the gold before buying the items. When you purchase a studded gold item, many jeweler often add the studded items cost to gold jewellery thus making them heavier. It is because jeweler weigh the piece in its totality which implies that you may end up paying for gold that is not actually there. If possible, try to avoid purchasing studded gold jewellery. It is because you may find it difficult to check the purity of studded stones.