Buying and selling physical Gold Bars in Thailand

The gold price is peaking in almost all other currencies although still comparatively low to the Thai Baht due to the Thai Baht's strength.

You can go into a gold shop and get gold bars, although most smaller shops aren't that good with the selection of gold bars, but bigger shops are and have a good variety. 'HUA SENG HENG' is the most famous shop. There are plenty of shops down in Chinatown. Good news is that there is a new MRT station that goes right near there, called MRT Wat Mangkon station. The shopping mall gold shops are good too, especially if you need gold bars designed and packaged nicely, but the fees may be a little higher.

Gold bars are denominated in either Baht or Saleung

1 Baht gold bar = approx 15.244 grams 0.47295236 troy ounce (mass). The gold purity is 96.5% so you will get about 14.71046 grams of gold per Baht.

You can check for the price of 1 baht here: https://www.goldtraders.or.th/

Gold shops will generally display this on a TV billboard or written at the front of the shop.

A saleung is worth 0.25 (gold) Baht. This can also be purchased if you would like a smaller gold bar. 1 saleung gold bar is quarter of a Baht gold bar, a 2 saleung bar is worth 0.5 (gold) Baht and a 3 saleung bar is worth 0.75 (gold).

Here is a current spot price at the gold trader's website.

23850 is the sell price if you sell your gold bars back to the shop
23950 is the price they charge you.

Hua Seng Heng is the most renowned gold brand in Thailand I recommend you go to their shop in Chinatown. The gold bar section is at the far right hand corner of the shop.

So if you buy at say Hua Seng Heng, and you want to buy 1 baht, it will cost 23950 + 150 craftsmanship fee and then if you buy 2 baht bar it will be 23950 x 2 + 250 craftsmanship fee. But the fee will depend on the design and size of the gold bar. If it is a basic cast with no design and no logo, the craftsmanship fee is cheaper.

There are no craftsmanship fees for the 5 baht gold bar for the basic cast if you can go for that you save some money on the fees, you would only pay THB 23,950 x 5 = 119,750 THB.

When selling, if you wanna sell gold bars or jewellery from one shop to another shop or different brand, then you sell at the lower price you see there, 23,422 baht. So its better to buy and sell from the same shop as there's only 100 baht different between the buying and selling price, minus the craftsmanship fee, you won't be able to claim that back.

It might be tough to sell your Thai bars outside of Thailand, your luck would vary wildly as it's only 96.5% purity in Thailand and would need to be recast to other local practices.

You can only get the 100% pure gold if it's 1 kg or more which is at least 1,500,000 Baht at today's prices - Probably worth it if you have the money and are roaming around internationally.

You MUST bring your ID or passport with you; which is government law.

I know they normally only deal with cash, no bank transfers or promptpay or whatever, or at least I haven't seen it yet. I asked them last January and they said cash only.

My next blog could be about Bitcoin in Thailand too, who knows, I'll see how I feel.

I recommend www.bitkub.com who do offer a pretty straight forward sign up process for experienced crypto users. The website is reliable and fast, the fastest I've ever used.