I recently went to a gold shop near my home to sell a 24K gold ring weighing one-tenth of a tael (1 tael = 37.5 grams or 1.2 ounces).

The shop owner’s daughter looked at the inside of the ring, where the store’s name was engraved, and paid me without even weighing it again. The only buyer I saw was a woman who came in as I was about to leave. She wanted to buy a small gold bracelet as a gift for a baby’s first-birthday celebration.

Local gold prices have fallen from a peak of more than VND190 million (US$7,213) per tael early this year to below VND150 million. They have been declining steadily in recent weeks, and it is still unclear where the bottom will be.

I bought my ring a few years ago when prices were still below VND100 million per tael, so I still made a profit by selling it now. On online forums discussing gold prices, I have seen quite a few people lamenting that their gold holdings have lost tens of millions of dong in value.

But the gold shop I usually visit, as well as many others nearby, seems remarkably quiet compared to the crowds and long lines of people that were the norm at 2 or 3 a.m. when prices were at their peak.

What I find hard to understand is that when gold prices were rising by the hour, people flocked to jewelers to buy gold. Yet now that prices have plunged, few seem interested in buying.

Are they waiting for prices to fall further? Or do they have no strategy other than simply following the crowd?

*This opinion was submitted by a reader and translated into English. Readers’ views are personal and do not necessarily match VnExpress’ viewpoints.