Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Weigookin74]

Has anyone bought gold here? Just wondering. If so, where did you go? I'm thinking the price will go up again.

[EZE]

Jongro 3-ga exit 1, various jewelry stores. They used to be foreigner friendly, but now it's mixed. In some stores, your money is as good as a Korean's, in other stores they won't sell to a foreigner at any price.

At Jongro 3-ga exit 7 out of the orange line, there's a shop that sells really great silver bars, especially 100g and kilos.

http://intergold.co.kr/main/shop.php?tp=11
http://intergold.co.kr/main/shop.php?tp=12

They have gold items too, but their silver is especially nice. They're really nice folks. Just inspect the items if you like your stuff in perfect condition. They sell some really cool stuff, as you can see on the website, but their quality control is lax on scratches. The centering varies on the handpoured 100g Year of the Horse ingots, but is good on everything else.

It's my favorite store, but the shops at exit 1 occasionally have something unique and cool. It can be heartbreaking to see something really awesome only to be told you can't buy it. It's surreal to be banned from legitimate shops based on race while geriatric prostitutes outside of the shops beg for your business. A pair of ladies in one of the shops said they can make custom gold bars, but I'm not sure how they would look or what they would cost. I personally like the Samsung bars with it stamped in Korean. To me, that's the ultimate gold souvenir of Korea (of anything I can actually afford on a hagwon salary). The silver at Intergold is the best silver, in my opinion...so many interesting designs.

Another thing you can do is go into jewelry stores anywhere and ask about it. For example, a jewelry store in the underground mall at Anyang station had a square Mitsubishi 37.5 g ingot a couple of years ago with some other ingots of the same size and shape underneath in a little flipbook. They would only let me see the one on the top, which had a big scratch. When I asked to see the ones underneath, they said they're all the same. I guess to a lot of these shops, they're focused solely on weight, and the brand or a scratch doesn't matter to them, but it can (and will) affect the resell value and demand when you resell it.

Good luck and have fun.

[Stan Rogers]

Banks sell it too. Its like cigarettes in Canada. It's out of sight under the counter but they do sell it. You have to ask. They do it by the oz.

[Weigookin74]

Really? It seems like the bank would be the easier option to make sure you're being sold real gold. It's over 1200 an ounce US. Can I just sell it back to the bank later when the price goes up? Any bank branch does this?

[Weigookin74]

Really? It seems like the bank would be the easier option to make sure you're being sold real gold. It's over 1200 an ounce US. Can I just sell it back to the bank later when the price goes up? Any bank branch does this?

[Fox]

Shinhan definitely sells gold. And at my local branch it's not even under the counter, they had display pieces out and were actively pushing it.

[crescent]

We bought some from Shinhan Bank. They include the re-sale service fee in the initial price. We bough in the late summer, and according to research at that time, it was undervalued. Even more so now.

[radcon]

[crescent]

[Weigookin74]

[crescent]

Total commission starts at 10% for a 10g purchase, and covers you when you decide to sell. With higher purchase amounts, commission % decreases.

[jdog2050]

Not only does Shinhan sell physical gold, they also have "gold accounts" that buy stock of gold companies and that's all--no money in the account.

My biggest regret was selling off my gold a few years ago to help my ex-GF pay rent for an apartment. Man that shit would have been worth a ton more just a year later.

[Weigookin74]