The price of gold has skyrocketed, and the trap of high-priced recycling has emerged, and behind the recovery of 560 yuan/gram, "burn the gold into a lump, and then say that there is a problem"

Gold ornaments to be recycled. Dong Hongyan/photo

The price of gold has continued to rise, leaving many gold holders to choose to sell gold at high levels. Multi-party interviews with reporters learned that there are many gold recycling channels at present, and they are mixed. Some recycling stores reported to reporters a high price of 560 yuan/gram for gold recycling, but the standards for recycling inspection were unknown.

There are also many people who have fallen into the trap of "high-priced" recycling of gold. One interviewee told reporters that the gold in his hands was collected by the "high-priced" recyclers contacted on the Internet, "they burned the gold into a lump, and then said that there was a problem with the gold", and the final recovery price was much lower than the real-time gold price.

In this regard, industry insiders pointed out that many people who recycle gold at a "high price" on the Internet will say that the purity of gold is not enough, or they will do tricks on the gram weight when they actually recycle it. It is recommended to keep the transaction voucher in case of future rights protection, weigh yourself before selling, and carefully screen regular stores. At the same time, it calls on the industry to strengthen supervision, crack down on false quotations, "ghost scales", gold theft and other gold recycling "routines", and formulate stricter gold recycling processes and service procedures.

Is the recovery price of 560 yuan/gram a routine?

Gold prices maintained their upward momentum. Rongtong gold monitoring data show that on March 21, the international gold price exceeded 2,200 US dollars / ounce, hitting a record high, and on March 24, the international gold price remained at 2,165 US dollars / ounce, the domestic gold price was 512.6 yuan / gram, and the sales price of gold jewelry also exceeded 660 yuan / gram.

As the price of gold continues to rise, the gold recycling market is also very active, and many people want to take advantage of the high price of gold to sell gold. According to public reports, in early March, the amount of gold recovered from Shuibei in Shenzhen increased by about 20% compared with before the Spring Festival. At the same time, the reporter noticed that there are more traps in the gold recycling market, and the traps of "high-priced" recycling are the most common in the current environment.

Founded in 2000, Eluxe Network Technology is one of the earliest luxury recycling platforms in China, and has spread to 30 cities across the country. Today's gold recycling market price is 539 yuan/gram. On March 14, Zheng Yi (pseudonym), a staff member of the gold recycling online store, reported the high price of recycling to a reporter from the China Times.

However, Zheng Yi later told reporters that the specific pricing of gold recycling still needs to look at the purity and fineness of the item, and added that the recycling price that can only be recycled and sold as a finished product can reach 539 yuan/gram. On the same day, another online store quoted a gold recycling price of 560 yuan/gram to reporters.

Rongtong gold testing data shows that the domestic gold market price on March 14 was about 502 yuan / gram. In other words, the recycling quotations of the two gold recycling online stores are tens of yuan/gram higher than the market price.

Part of the web interface obtained by searching for "gold recycling" on Baidu

However, when asked by reporters about how to define the purity, fineness and whether gold can be re-sold, Zheng Yi was vague, only emphasizing that it depends on the physical condition, urging the gold jewelry to be brought to the store for testing by appraisers.

Zheng Yi also said that in addition to door-to-door recycling, gold jewelry can also be mailed to be recycled, "without going out to receive money." When asked how to deal with the loss without platform protection, Zheng Yi only promised, "It will definitely not be lost, and we will identify the customer with video surveillance throughout the process after receiving the item."

"My gold was taken by people who claimed a high price on the Internet, and they burned it into a lump and then said there was something wrong with it. An interviewee who wanted to sell gold lamented to a reporter from the China Times: "The last few grams of gold were only sold for 3,080 yuan, which is more than 300 yuan less than the recovery according to the market price." I can't believe the high-priced recycling on the Internet anymore, it feels like it's all a routine. ”

In an interview with a reporter from the China Times, Mr. Wang, who has been engaged in jewelry sales for many years, said that as far as I know, there are more routines for recycling gold on the Internet, and they will promise a high recycling price, but when they come to recycle, they will say that the purity of the gold is not enough, or they will do tricks on the gram weight.

Shopkeeper Wang believes that the best way to recycle gold is to find a regular offline store. We recycle gold offline without looking at the process, they are all recycled at the same price, the gold will be weighed, and then inspected, the general recycling price is about 5 yuan cheaper than the market price, in order to reserve profit margins. If the seller is worried that the store is fraudulent in grams, it is recommended to weigh it yourself before selling.

"In general, gold recovery in stores requires high-temperature burning, even if there are instruments to measure it. The shopkeeper also added that after the gold is burned, there will be no great loss. Even if the gold jewelry is worn for a long time, there will be dust and impurities on the surface, and the weight will only be slightly affected after burning, and there may be only a few tenths of a gram of gold per 100 grams.

How is the recycling industry regulated?

In fact, most gold jewelry stores have gold recycling business, but more stores have a certain threshold, and the recycling price is much lower than the door-to-door recycling price of online appointments.

Among them, on March 14, the staff of a store in Beijing Liuzhou Fu told reporters that the recycling price of gold jewelry is about 465 yuan / gram, which is about 40 yuan / gram cheaper than the market price The staff of a store in Beijing Lao Fengxiang said that the jewelry that has been purchased is not recycled at present, and can only be exchanged for the new; the staff of Beijing Caibai jewelry said that the recycling of gold jewelry requires customers to bring their ID cards, shopping vouchers, and bank cards to Caibai General Store for recycling, and the recycling price per gram is a few yuan handling fee on the basis of the real-time gold price, and other brands of jewelry are not recycled.

In addition to gold stores, the reporter noticed that second-hand goods trading platforms such as love recycling also have gold recycling business. According to the Aihuishou applet, gold jewelry recycling will charge a service fee of 4% per gram on the basis of the real-time gold price, and if the real-time gold price is 510 yuan/gram, a handling fee of 10.2 yuan per gram of gold will be charged. Xiamen Strait Gold & Jewellery Industrial Park Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Zijin Mining, also has an online gold recycling business, charging a 2.5% handling fee on the real-time gold price per gram of gold.

In the face of such a variety of quotations and recycling channels, how should consumers choose? Yuan Xixi, an investment and financing and foreign exchange trader, told the China Times reporter that consumers should ensure that they choose a formal and qualified gold recycler to avoid fraud. Consult a professional or check the relevant website for information, keep the purchase ticket or weigh it at home to determine the gram and fineness of the gold to prevent the price from being underpaid or the weight of the gold should be deducted, if the merchant's quotation is abnormally high, you should be wary of the possible behavior of the fine color and weight deduction.

Chen Zhenhui, a senior partner of Beijing Jingshi Law Firm, pointed out to the China Times reporter that when consumers choose the gold recycling industry, they can compare the quotations of recycling companies and choose companies with good reputation and good reputation for trading; Settlement methods and other terms, adhere to on-site inspection to ensure that the quantity and quality of the recovered gold are consistent with the actual situation, and keep the transaction vouchers in case of future rights protection.

In the era of self-media, the gold recycling market has attracted a group of video bloggers to spontaneously become "spoilers" of counterfeiting, and "Hurricane Brothers" is one of them. On January 28, 2024, the "Hurricane Brothers" posted a video on their online social platform about the use of "ghost names" to weigh and fake in Hangzhou gold recycling stores. In the video, the store owner weighed 15.57 grams of gold from 77.72 grams using a manipulation scale. After the "Hurricane Brothers" saw through the scam on the spot, they reported to the police and reported the relevant situation to the local market supervision bureau.

On January 29, 2024, the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Gongshu District, Hangzhou City, issued a notice on the relevant situation, stating that law enforcement officers rushed to the scene to investigate and found that the store could not issue the verification certificate of the electronic scale involved in the case, and after the identification of the technical institution, the electronic scale was unqualified and illegally modified, and the electronic scale was confiscated and the merchant was fined 22,000 yuan.

After all, the deterrent effect of some people's whistleblowing is limited, and if you want to solve the problem, you may still start with the industry. In terms of industry supervision, Chen Zhenhui suggested that supervision should be strengthened to crack down on illegal behaviors such as false quotations, "ghost scales", and gold theft; improve the industry self-discipline mechanism, establish a credit evaluation system, reward enterprises that operate in good faith, and punish enterprises that violate the rules; raise the industry access threshold, strengthen the qualification review and supervision and management of recycling enterprises; promote transparent transactions, disclose recycling prices and related expenses, and avoid disguised price reduction; strengthen consumer education and improve consumers' awareness and vigilance of the gold recycling industry.

In this regard, Yuan Xixi also said that it is recommended to formulate more stringent gold recycling processes and service procedures, including site and equipment requirements, operation specifications, etc., strengthen the supervision of the gold recycling industry, improve market standards, reduce gray area behavior, and supervise in the form of online and offline and technical support.

Editor-in-charge: Zhang Bei Editor-in-chief: Zhang Yuning