Making Charges In Gold : A Classic Overhyped Marketing Gimmick!

Seth Godin would have loved to point this in his book All marketers are liars. The case in point is the making charges in jewellery of any kind be it gold, diamond or semi-precious stones.

Making charges are what a consumer pays above the price of gold(on a certain day) for crafting the gold into jewellery. This varies from item(viz. bangles) to item(viz. chains) and from one jeweller to another. Usually the going rate starts upwards of Rs.60/gram.

Somehow for some marketers this parameter is the most important thing to consider when buying/evaluating gold from a retailer. You cant miss this fact especially on different radio channels where every other jeweller is trying to beat the competitor on just this parameter.

Infact so intense is the competition and so unmeasurable the delight of consumers that I recently came across a customer who boasted of Rs.10/gram of making charges from another jeweller.

Why has this parameter stolen the limelight when there are parameters more worthy to consider or highlight?

This stems from the basic instinct in humans: To get a good bargain for the deal at hand.

So whats wrong with that?
This takes me back to what said earlier. There are more than just one parameter to consider when buying gold. FInd out the return policy on your jewellery. You should ideally get a trial period of atleast a month beyond which expect to lose only making charges when you return your jewellery. The diamonds should be certified by reputed houses like GIA,EGL and IGI. The jewellery should be BIS hallmarked. It should indicate all the 5 signs BIS recommends.

On prompting more the customer pointed that his low making charges were on unhallmarked gold jewellery. Here rests my case.

Related Posts:
How to avoid the Low Making Charges Trap in Jewellery