December 21: Second to China, India has the biggest collective repository of gold, with Indians owning a mammoth 26,000 tons of gold worth $1000 billion. We store gold not just as a symbol of legacy that’s passed on from one generation to another but also as a trusted, stable, and resilient asset which will always be able to bail us out during a rainy day. It is a key asset which the average Indian looks at in the face of financial distress or for raising capital.
At this moment of truth, getting the full value of your old gold becomes extremely important. But going to your jeweller with an intent to encash your old gold is not going to get you the full value of your gold as the jeweller’s first instinct will always be to exchange your old gold jewellery for new jewellery and make a killing with inflated making charges. At the same time, the sundry fly by night operators erode the value of your old gold jewellery by up to 10% on each transaction; some via an unscientific testing process like a touchstone, and rest through multiple hidden charges. To put it in context, for a transaction that ideally should help you raise Rs 500,000 by selling old gold jewellery, you can lose up to Rs 50,000 to unscrupulous, unregulated players in the market. It is important to trust a brand that has the right institutional accreditations and govt authorization.
Here’s a guide for you to help you extract the full value for your old gold jewellery and get the highest value for your investment.:
1. Don’t be misled by Gold Rate
A lot of gold buying establishments try to attract people by suggesting higher than market gold rates, but where the customer loses out is the valuation of the gold, i.e. how much gold content your jewellery actually has. This process gets compromised by archaic processes like a touchstone or by machines that are not calibrated to the fullest extent. At MMTC-PAMP, the purity of your gold is checked and verified by highly skilled staff working with the most advanced XRF technology, which helps you evaluate the full gold content without losing any value.
2. Multi-level authentication process
Stores using the touchstone method rub the gold ornament with a stone that leaves a mark/ streak on the stone, and then the gold streak is treated with acids of known strength to observe the change in colour to arrive at a gold value (karatage) of the ornament. This is a dated practice and can result in a loss of value of up to 3%-5% for the customer. For example, you can lose up to Rs 10,000 for a transaction of Rs 200,000.
Reputed and BIS certified organisations like MMTC-PAMP have certified engineers and assayers deployed in their stores who help customers test their jewellery’s purity via highly calibrated XRF machines, which ensures that there is no variability and subjectivity in measuring the value of gold. This helps customers get higher payouts on account of unlocking higher gold value in their jewellery.
3. Transparent Process
A lot of gold buyers will try to do the evaluation behind the counter, and the result they will arrive at via touchstone or any local machine will never be directly visible to you. At MMTC-PAMP, the testing process is visible to the customer via live CCTV feed to ensure complete transparency. The certified assayers weigh your gold jewellery or gold coins in their original form and then weigh again after melting – all tracked live by the customers. Once the gold is melted and cooled, the next level involves cleaning by pickling and then rinsing again in deionized water. If the gold has any stones or precious gems, it is removed before the start of the process.
4. Software-verified proof and instant money transfer
At MMTC-PAMP, the final software-generated verification receipt from the XRF machine has all the important details – right from the purity grade and actual content of gold to the final amount payable to the customer. This amount is then instantly transferred to the customer’s bank account, so there’s no room for any hidden fee or fund mismanagement.
5. Full valuation of MMTC-PAMP products
MMTC-PAMP offers 100% assured buyback for their own products. If your MMTC-PAMP gold coin or bar is encased in the secure, tamper-proof certicard packaging, you can take it to the brand’s retail outlet to get full value on the day’s gold rate without any value deduction. You just have to pay a flat fee of up to Rs 500 for the transaction as a processing fee. ZERO deduction on your gold investments! You can walk into any of the 12 MMTC-PAMP outlets spread across 11 cities in India to get a seamless experience. The retail outlets are present in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Vizag, Vishakhapatnam, Ludhiana, Thrissur, and Ahmedabad.
Divya Agarwal
