Dharshini Raj
1 hour ago
Every Deepavali the gold shops start filling up around mid-October, and this year there is a jewellery warehouse sale running in KL from the 21st on top of the usual mall counters with their instant rebate gimmicks. I am after something simple — a chain and a pair of bangles for my mother — and I keep getting pulled in three directions. The warehouse sale has the biggest crowd and the loudest signage, but I cannot tell whether the savings are real or just sitting on an inflated tag. The neighbourhood goldsmith I have known for years never shouts about promotions, but he weighs the piece in front of you and will take it back later. Online has the widest choice and the worst experience if anything goes wrong with the finishing. So how does everyone here decide? Do you ask for the weight and the workmanship charge separately, do you check the hallmark before anything else, and has anyone actually managed to get a buy-back rate written down before paying? Also curious whether people buy their Deepavali pieces this early or wait for the last weekend. Every year I promise myself I will sort it out in October and every year I end up in a queue on the Friday before.
Replies (3)
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Weight first, design second. If the shop quotes you one lump sum and will not split the gold weight from the workmanship charge, that already tells you what kind of deal you are looking at.
My mother has bought from the same goldsmith in Brickfields for over twenty years, and it is not about the promo. He still remembers what she paid and takes the piece back at a fair rate whenever she wants to change the design.
Warehouse sales are fine for plain chains and bangles where the weight tells you almost everything. For anything with stones set into it, I want a shop I can walk back into next month without an argument.