At 3:00 p.m. this afternoon, at Saigon Jewelry Company (SJC) in Ho Chi Minh City, there were more than a dozen customers waiting for their turn to buy or sell SJC gold bars or 99.99 gold rings.

Notably, instead of having to register online to buy SJC gold bars like in the past, today, customers will dial a number and wait for their turn to make a transaction.

Customers buy gold at SJC.jpg
Customers buy gold at Saigon Jewelry Company (SJC). Photo: Quoc Hai

SJC transaction staff said customers can buy "unlimited quantity" of SJC gold bars. As for gold rings, each person can buy a maximum of 5 taels.

"Yesterday, customers could buy up to 10 taels of gold rings, but today they can only buy 5 taels," said an employee here.

According to records, the price of gold bars at SJC at 3:00 p.m. this afternoon decreased by 100,000 VND per tael for buying and 400,000 VND for selling compared to the weekend. The difference between buying and selling prices has now widened to 3.5 million VND/tael, with the transaction price at 81.9-85.4 million VND/tael (buying - selling).

The price of gold rings is 81.8-84.3 million VND/tael (buy - sell), down 200 thousand VND/tael for buying and 600 thousand VND for selling.

SJC gold bar price at PNJ, DOJI is also listed similarly at SJC.

Gold shops limit the number of sales per customer.

Meanwhile, in some other gold shops, there has been a situation of limiting the quantity sold.

At Mi Hong store (Binh Thanh district, Ho Chi Minh City), the listed price of SJC gold bars is 82.8-85.4 million VND/tael (buy - sell). The price of gold rings is 82.5 million VND/tael for buying and 84.5 million VND/tael for selling. According to observations, the number of people wanting to buy is somewhat higher.

In the morning, each customer can buy 1-2 taels of gold rings and 1 tael of gold bars. For customers who want to sell gold, the store still buys as usual. However, in the early afternoon, the store started limiting each customer to only buying 1 tael of gold rings. Staff refused to sell if customers wanted to buy 2 taels or more.

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Gold prices continue to fall, Mi Hong store limits sales of gold rings. Photo: Quoc Hai

Many times, this gold shop temporarily runs out of plain gold rings, and almost all of its gold bars. This gold shop does not accept deposits in advance, so customers who want to buy gold have to wait in line, "at the drop of a hat".

“I lined up to buy 2 taels when I saw the gold price was dropping, but they only allowed me to sell 1 tael. Tomorrow, if the price remains the same or is not too different, I will line up to buy more,” said Mr. Tran Thanh Hau (Binh Thanh District).

The owner of a gold shop on Bui Huu Nghia Street also confirmed that after people rushed to sell on November 7, from yesterday afternoon until now, the price of gold has dropped to a low level, so many people have taken the opportunity to buy.

"The amount of gold we collected on November 7 has been and is being sold again, but currently only limited to 1 person/1 tael of gold ring" - this person said.

Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Huu Huan - Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics said that the characteristic of the Vietnamese gold market is that there are no centralized and transparent gold exchanges, instead there are mainly gold shops. Therefore, the buying and selling prices are determined by the gold shops. This will create "market makers", and people buying and selling gold are only the ones accepting, not deciding the price.

Mr. Huan said that seeing the gold price go down and rushing to sell, and seeing the price go up and buying is a common mentality of many people.

“We hear that gold prices are increasing, but we forget that when we buy, we are buying at the gold shop’s selling price, and when we sell, we are selling at their buying price. Therefore, if we buy gold as a way to diversify our assets, there is no problem, but if we buy it to wait for the price to increase, we should be careful,” Mr. Huan noted.

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