Luxury Gifts Are Making A Comeback This Shopping Season But Whether You Buy At Tiffany’s Or From Your TV, Gold Is Just Gold

A home shopping channel sells a 14 karat gold necklace for $400. Tiffany’s sells an 18 karat gold choker for nearly $40,000.

Is Tiffany’s gold better than the kind you can buy from QVC, or Home Shopping Network, or Service Merchandise? Is that why it’s so expensive?

No, gold is gold, whether it comes in a limited edition piece sold by a top-of-the-line retailer or in necklaces sold by the thousands by a mass marketer, according to gold industry executives.

The difference in price comes from metallurgic, economic and design factors: How many karats of gold a piece of jewelry has, how much the piece weighs, how well it’s constructed, and how much gold a particular retailer buys and sells. Another factor is snob appeal - does the jewelry carry a label that drives up the cost?

“Gold jewelry can be bought at any price depending on quality and what you want to spend,” said Julie Livingston, a spokeswoman for the World Gold Council, a New York-based trade group.

One of the biggest factors is pricing gold is karatage - how much fine gold is in a piece. Fine gold, also known as pure gold, is 24 karats. Jewelry that is 18 karat is 75 percent fine gold, while 14 karat is 58.3 percent and 10 karat, the minimum karatage legally sold in the United States, is 41.6 percent.

Manufacturers are not required to place karatage imprints (the little 18K or 14K discernible on most gold jewelry) on their jewelry. But if they do, the law requires them to include a registered trademark as well, said Joel Windham, executive vice president of the Jewelers Vigilance Committee, a trade group also based in New York.

Jewelry that doesn’t have that trademark should raise a question in a shopper’s mind about whether it’s real gold, Windham said.

Consumers can be sure the gold jewelry they purchase is the real thing by buying from a retailer whose reputation they are sure of, Ms. Livingston said. Reputable retailers, whether they are local jewelers, department stores, home shopping channels, discount stores or catalogs will sell only real gold because their future business depends on it.

“They are dealing with so many millions of customers. They can’t afford to goof,” Ms. Livingston said.

A low price may reflect the fact a retailer has a big sales volume in gold. Retailers like QVC or Service Merchandise are able to sell gold at reduced prices in much the same way that Wal-Mart gives big discounts on household goods and Toys R Us marks down toys - they buy so much inventory that they’re able to command a better price from suppliers.

The fact also is that gold bullion, with prices currently hovering around $370 a troy ounce on world markets, is in plentiful supply and that brings prices down at the retail level.

Workmanship also affects price. Almost all jewelry is machine-made to some extent, but higher-priced pieces often have more hand work.

The quality of the construction is also a factor. “If you’re buying a herringbone chain, run your finger along it. If a lot of edges are rough,” the quality of the work may be poor, Ms. Livingston said. “If you want to spend only $19.99 on a bracelet, what can you expect,” she said. “It’s real (gold) but not the greatest quality (of construction) in the world.”

The holiday season is the biggest selling period for gold jewelry. “Most retailers do upwards of 65 percent or more (of their business) this time of year,” Ms. Livingston said.

But most of the gold jewelry that is bought in this country isn’t meant to be a gift for someone else - about 70 percent is bought by women for themselves, Ms. Livingston said.

Jewelry, like clothes, can be inexpensive or not depending on how upscale or not the retailer is. A piece bought at Tiffany, Gump’s in San Francisco or a Rodeo Drive boutique is likely to be more expensive than one with a similar amount of gold bought in a department store.

A designer label, like Elsa Peretti, Jean Schlumberger or Paloma Picasso will send the price tag into what seems like the stratosphere to many consumers. For others, it’s another affordable luxury.