Editor’s Note
This article explores the trend of young investors turning to small, playful gold products like “gold beans” as a novel form of micro-investment. While highlighting their appeal as low-barrier, tangible assets, it’s important to remember that all investments carry risk. The value of gold can fluctuate, and transaction costs for small quantities may be high. Readers should consider their financial goals and conduct thorough research before making any investment decisions.
In recent years, as a traditional high-quality safe-haven and value-preserving tool, gold has once again gained favor among investors. Among various physical gold products, gold beans weighing around 1 gram, beloved for their cute shape, low weight, and strong playfulness, have been pursued by many young people. In the market, “saving gold beans is equivalent to investing” has become a promotional slogan for many gold merchants.
In recent years, more and more young people like Maomao and Xiao Yan have started paying attention to gold. Among them, the saying “save one gold bean every month” is popular, meaning regularly purchasing gold weighing about 1 gram, treating it as hard currency savings, accumulating little into much. Compared to traditional gold jewelry or gold bars costing several thousand or tens of thousands of yuan, gold beans, with their small weight, low threshold, and strong playfulness, are increasingly pursued by young people.
Searching for “gold beans” on Xiaohongshu yields over 170,000 related notes. Some netizens place several gold beans in small bamboo-shaped transparent glass tubes as piggy banks; others exchange “bean-saving” experiences, claiming it “can force oneself to save money.”
As gold beans gain attention, “saving gold beans is equivalent to investing” has also become a promotional slogan for many gold merchants. Gold bean products searched on e-commerce platforms like Taobao and JD.com often carry keywords such as “collection,” “storage,” and “investment.” Merchants include both well-known jewelry brands focusing on gold jewelry with higher prices and gold wholesale stores with fewer product categories.
The main investment logic of gold is to utilize price fluctuations, buying low and selling high to obtain returns. However, Red Star Capital Bureau found through interviews that the purchase price of gold beans is higher than the base gold price, and the buyback price is lower than the base gold price. Unless the gold price rises significantly, investing in gold beans short-term is difficult to achieve profits.
Red Star Capital Bureau found that high prices per gram for gold beans are a common phenomenon. Taking Caibai Store as an example, on June 28, the post-discount price for a 5-gram investment gold bar was 2324 yuan, equivalent to 464.8 yuan/gram. However, the post-discount price for the best-selling gold beans in the store was 540 yuan/gram, 75.2 yuan/gram higher than the gold bar.
At the Shuibei merchant “Lingfeng Gold,” 1-gram gold beans have two selling prices: 454 yuan and 468 yuan (the latter comes with an appraisal certificate). However, purchasing the former requires adding 8 yuan shipping, equivalent to a minimum price per gram of 462 yuan for gold beans. Meanwhile, a 10-gram gold bar in the store sells for 4540 yuan, equivalent to 454 yuan/gram.
The more recent the purchase of gold beans, the more obvious the difference between purchase and buyback prices.
Red Star Capital Bureau consulted customer service and found that on June 27, the selling price for gold beans at Chow Tai Fook’s official flagship store was 520 yuan/gram, but the buyback price was 431 yuan/gram, meaning buying 1 gram would incur a loss of 89 yuan. Gold beans at Caibai’s official flagship store are designed in heart or ingot shapes, selling for 550 yuan/gram (540 yuan after discount), with a buyback price around 447 yuan, a difference exceeding 90 yuan, and only buyback of the same brand’s products.
Lan Chao indicated that investment gold bars generally reference the international gold price and are a common gold investment standard. Gold beans are physical gold or jewelry products launched by gold stores or merchants, often referencing the price of gold jewelry, sometimes with added brand value. Therefore, the selling price is often higher than the international gold price, belonging to a high-premium purchase.
China Economic Weekly once reported that the “take-off” of gold beans is related to Shuibei. As gold beans became a hit product, Shuibei merchants successfully broke the original off-season limits of gold. Taobao platform data shows that in 2021, only 3 Shuibei Taobao merchants were selling gold beans, but by 2022, almost all Shuibei merchants had listed gold beans.
Xiao Yan told Red Star Capital Bureau that due to the high premium of brand stores, he has been buying gold beans at a gold wholesale market in Shanghai, besides convenience and identification, “sometimes you can bargain.” Later, he gradually shifted to Shuibei Taobao stores. On June 28, the labeled prices for gold beans sold by several Shuibei stores Xiao Yan followed ranged from 450 to 490 yuan, but brand stores like Chow Tai Fook and Caibai had already risen to over 500 yuan.