18K gold jewelry is actually more expensive than full gold

Author: Joe Crawford

Many consumers who have bought jewelry have a question, why is K gold more expensive than full gold? As we all known, the full gold is 24K gold, the gold content is more than 99.9%, the popular 18K gold in China, the gold content is only 75%, literally K gold should be cheaper than the full gold? The answer is not necessarily. It depends on the specific brands and styles for analysis.

In addition to the material value, K gold is also given more artistic value. Two pieces of the same weight of cheap jewelry websites, K gold may be several times or even dozens of times higher than the price of gold. For example, Cartier, BVLGARI and other world first-line jewelry brands, K gold products are far higher than the price of gold.

K gold's "K" is the writing of the term "Karat". The complete notation is this: Karat gold. According to international standards, K gold is divided into 24 types, namely 1K to 24K. However, the types of K gold used as jewelry are not enough, and the jewelry materials used in countries around the world are not less than 8K. In this way, there are actually 17 types of K gold that are actually counted as jewelry.

Why K gold is so great?

K gold has high hardness, low toughness, high brightness, and is not easy to be deformed and worn. More ideas can be made in design, and there are many styles to choose from, but the price is relatively low. And the full gold is too soft, and the complicated design can't be done. K gold is mainly at the cost of design, that is, labor costs, these hidden costs, and ultimately will be reflected in the retail price. In addition, due to its hardness and wear resistance, it can fix the diamond more firmly. Unlike the gold, it is easy to be deformed, so the inlaid jewelry and the diamond cheap promise ringsall like to use K gold. In Europe, people prefer K-gold jewelry, 9K, 14K and other low-K gold, because the design of K-gold jewelry is more beautiful, stylish and changeable.

The gold texture is too soft, can not withstand too delicate processing, mostly used to do traditional styles, such as dragon and phoenix bracelets, large cheapname necklace, large pendants and other styles are not easy to be deformed and damaged; and K gold has to go through more than ten processes, therefore, finished product work delicate, refreshing, with a strong inner light, and gorgeous. Of course, K gold's labor costs will be higher than ordinary gold.

Due to the advantages of design and craftsmanship, it produced jewels with large size and varied styles. The decorative effect is very good, but the weight is light, the unit price is slightly lower, and the cost performance is higher. It is more and more popular among fashionable women. All the K gold jewellery in the lot are marked with grams, but they are all sold at a price.

In fact, it seems that the profit margin of the angel wing necklace industry is surprisingly low. Gold and platinum have global prices, and their main profit is jewelry processing fees. At present, the simple style of the gold jewelry factory is more than ten yuan per gram, and the simple style of K gold is tens of yuan per gram. "The capital cost of gold materials is very high. On average, the gross profit margin is only 3%-5%.

In the retail sector, although the price is much higher than the factory, the cost of store rent, decoration, labor, promotion, tax rate and so on has risen. Gold is a rigid demand. As a kind of easy-going type, every retail brand hopes to attract a large number of customers with low prices, so the price war is extremely fierce, and then earn profits through K gold. This is also the retail channel, gold is priced by weight, K gold jewelry is a price. If the profit of K-gold of the jewelry retail brand is as low as that of gold, then the jewelry brand can't pay the high rent on the first floor of the mall.

K gold color is very varied, can meet the needs of customers who like different colors according to different formulas, fashion and highlight personality, simple and not monotonous. According to Japan's well-known cheap necklaces magazine "Gemstone Four Seasons", there are 450 kinds of gold in 2013, and there are 20 kinds of commonly used ones. For example, there are 6 kinds in 14K: red, red yellow, deep yellow, light yellow, dark yellow, greenish yellow; there are 5 kinds in 18K: red, reddish, yellow, light yellow, dark yellow. Everyone can choose different K gold colors and styles according to their skin color, age and hair color. The choice is very large.

How to calculate the gold content of K gold?

The gold with 100% gold is called 24K gold. The relationship between K number and gold content is 1K=4.1666%. According to this formula: the gold content of 18K gold is 75%, the gold content of 14K gold is 50%, the gold content of 9K gold is 37.5%, 24K gold is often considered as pure gold, it becomes "100%", but the actual gold content is 99.99%, which is 23.988K

The difference between 18K gold and full gold

The 18K gold commonly found in the market is mainly K white, K yellow and rose gold. Ingredients are gold alloys that are smelted together with other precious metals. Among them, the percentage of gold is more than 75%. This kind of alloy can not be marked with the Au999 logo. It can only be printed with K gold and purity according to its purity. The 18K color K gold can only be marked with "G18K" and "AU750".