Kamal Ghorui
Bhubaneswar: Amid a surge in gold prices, old ornaments are helping buyers in the twin cities offset the cost of new purchases. Jewellers said persistently high gold prices since last year significantly impacted sales volumes and purchasing power, prompting consumers to increasingly opt for recycling old gold instead of buying new jewellery.Secretary of the Odisha Jewellers Association, Sourav Roy said on an average nearly 40% of gold jewellery sales now come through the recycling of old gold. “Customers are more cautious with their spending and are using old ornaments to manage rising prices,” he said.
After a record-breaking surge in gold prices, rates fell for 4 consecutive days from Jan 30 to Feb 2 before rising again on Feb 3 and 4 by nearly Rs 600 per gram each day. On Wednesday, the price of 24-carat gold was Rs 16,053 per gram, while the 22-carat variant was priced at Rs 14,715 per gram.“Even though gold prices are fluctuating, buying new gold is very expensive. While we purchased a few daily-wear pieces for my daughter’s wedding next month, we could afford the heavier jewellery only by exchanging my old and broken ornaments. This way, we ended up paying much less than we initially expected,” said Sasmita Rout, a resident of Nayapalli.The trend is equally visible in Cuttack’s traditional jewellery hubs. “Earlier, people bought gold outright for weddings. Now, almost every customer asks about the exchange value first,” said a jeweller at Nayasadak.To attract such buyers, jewellery outlets across Bhubaneswar and Cuttack are offering zero price and weight deduction on the exchange of old gold across both 22- and 24-carat categories. If the jewellery falls under the 916 hallmark category, no deduction is made. In the case of unhallmarked jewellery, the purity is tested, and customers are allowed to exchange the detected weight or more without paying making charges.At the same time, jewellers revised their gold purchase schemes, shifting the focus to zero making charges amid rising prices. Earlier, jewellers offered an 11+1 months investment scheme, under which consumers paid fixed monthly instalments for 11 months, while the jeweller contributed 1 month’s instalment in the 12th month. However, the scheme was discontinued as the cost of the additional instalment became unviable.“Currently, we are offering a zero making charge scheme where customers pay monthly instalments for 12 months and can then purchase gold without paying any making charges,” said Bansidhar Samal, a Bhubaneswar-based jeweller. Roy, however, added that demand for the revised scheme is not very encouraging. The making charge for 10 gm gold usually varies between 10% and 25%.
