Overview
- High gold prices in 2026 have pushed more households to consider using old jewellery as part-payment for new purchases to cut out-of-pocket costs.
- The exchange process works by testing an item’s purity, separating stones and non-gold parts, valuing the net gold at the day’s rate, and applying that value against the price of new jewellery.
- Consumer reluctance has long centered on trust, with worries about unfair purity judgments, hidden deductions, and opaque handling of stones or lac driving low uptake.
- Retail practices advertised by Tanishq aim to close the trust gap by keeping items in view during weighing and karatmeter testing, accepting 9KT–22KT pieces and items without bills, and aligning buying and exchange rates.
- Beyond household savings, recycling idle gold through transparent exchange can lower demand for freshly imported bullion and let families upgrade designs or shift into other jewellery categories using the value they already own.