When we founded Gold Lab, we wanted to solve a concrete problem: in the gold trade, the seller never knows what their gold is really worth.
When you bring a ring to a shop, the dealer weighs it on a scale. He glances at a sheet of paper, thinks for a moment and names a price. You wonder: "Is that the right price?" You don't know. There's no reference point. The market price isn't shown. The margin is hidden.
That's the industry's established way of working. We wanted to do the opposite.
What "radical" means
There is a lot of talk about transparency. Most companies use the word in their marketing materials but only mean that they share some information. A few figures. A few processes.
Radical transparency means we hide nothing.
No percentage calculations left unspecified. No margins the customer can't see. No rules applied differently to different customers. Everything is public, documented and verifiable.
It is radical because it eliminates the possibility of doing business on the basis that one party knows more than the other.
In practice, radical transparency means five things
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Spot price visible in real time
Gold's world market price is updated in real time on the markets in London, Zurich and New York. We use the LBMA price as our source — the price at which industrial buyers trade in London. This number is always displayed on our homepage. You don't need us to check what your gold is worth right now. You can also compare our calculation against any other source.
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Fees specified to the euro
Our service fee is €39.75. It is broken down into two parts: postage €24.75 and assessment €15.00. Our refining fee is 8.9 percent. It covers melting the gold, refining it to 99.99% purity and logistics to industrial buyers. No handling fees, administrative charges or hidden margins. What you see on the pricing page is our complete fee structure.
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A receipt where everything is traceable
When we assess your gold we document every step: the measurement date, weight in grams to thousandths precision, purity in carats, the assessment method used (XRF X-ray analysis or acid test), the spot price on the day and the full calculation. You receive this information on the receipt at the point of sale. You can compare it with any other gold dealer's offer — the numbers speak for themselves.
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The assessment is recorded on video
Every gold assessment in the laboratory is filmed. You can request to view the recording at any time. Instead of simply having to trust us, you can see for yourself how the weight was measured and the purity determined. In future we plan to take this even further: a public livestream where anyone can follow the assessment in real time. If a viewer spots an error, they receive a reward.
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The same formula for everyone
World market price × weight × purity, minus refining fee, minus service fee. That is the formula we apply to every transaction. No negotiation. No VIP pricing. The final result depends only on the gold you have — not on who you are or how well you can negotiate.
Why we do it this way
The gold trade is an industry that is thousands of years old. Its traditions run deep. One of those traditions is asymmetry: often the buyer knows more than the seller, and that gives rise to transactions conducted at the seller's expense.
We believe this can change. The same transparency that already applies across many other industries belongs in the gold trade too.
When everything is visible, the customer does not need to trust us blindly. They can check, compare and verify. Trust is built by the fact that they don't need to trust us.
It is a slower way to build a business. Quick wins don't fit our model. But we believe it is the only way to build a gold trading company that endures over time — and that we ourselves can present with a clear conscience.
In closing
Radical transparency is not a marketing trick. It is a way of building the business.
If we do something that cannot withstand public scrutiny, we don't do it at all. If we make a promise, we show how the promise is kept. And if we ever fall short — that too is reported, not concealed.
That is Gold Lab. Welcome as a customer.