Foreign buyers demanded the goods at gunpoint, and domestic gold chains took over the European and American hip-hop circles

After the overseas sales of spittoons, spicy strips and ghost money, I thought the world couldn’t get any more magical, but the cruelty of reality is that it always ruthlessly destroys my cognition.

Yes, Chinese products are popular again. This time the popular product is the big gold chain from Yiwu. It is okay that it is exported overseas, but according to sellers' estimates, the big gold chains produced in Yiwu, China, have a market share of 10% to 20% in the United States.

Our impression of Northeastern people as "wearing big gold chains, small gold watches, and eating three barbecue meals a day" is already very exaggerated, but what we didn't expect is that foreigners are even more exaggerated than we can imagine: some are armed to the teeth, and some even ask the store to make the necklace 60 mm thick.

In Europe and the United States, the big gold chain enthusiasts are either gangsters, rappers , or gangster rappers. Consumers mainly come from places with a strong hip-hop atmosphere, such as the UK, France, and Brazil in South America. These people's concept is to equip themselves with not only big gold chains and small gold watches, but also braces, anklets, waist chains, and nameplates on shoes. But the most accepted products are necklaces, watches, and earrings.

In the public's impression, people who play hip-hop and are involved in gangs are never short of money, and this is indeed the case. Not to mention those trendy brand clothes, even a complete set of hip-hop equipment will cost at least a thousand dollars. A less complete set of equipment generally costs around 200 to 1,000 US dollars. This is just the price on AliExpress. It is even more expensive in local physical stores in the United States.

The top two sellers of hip-hop products on AliExpress not only sell on AliExpress, but also supply to offline stores in the United States. Because hip-hop jewelry from China is cheaper and better made, it is also very popular in the local market. Some people even blocked the store with guns and threatened the owner that they would smash the store if they couldn’t get the goods. The owner had no choice but to contact the Chinese sellers: “If the goods don’t arrive, I’m done!”

Before he started selling hip-hop jewelry, the seller was selling women’s jewelry. One day, he saw a product called gold braces on the Internet. Sensing a business opportunity, he immediately opened a new store on AliExpress specializing in hip-hop jewelry.

There are not many stores selling hip-hop products on AliExpress. After opening the store, the seller put a full set of hip-hop jewelry on the shelves. The first product was pure gold-plated braces. After one month of launch, hundreds of orders were sold and it quickly became a hit. Later, the seller added large gold chains, Cuban chains, pendants, watches, rings and other products. Because these accessories take a long time to make, the seller is used to hoarding goods or processing them into semi-finished products first.

In fact, this is not the first time that Chinese gold chains have gone abroad. A few years ago, a Chinese woman opened a jewelry store called "Popular Jewelry" in New York. Because many hip-hop singers came to the store to buy gold jewelry, it became a check-in destination in the hip-hop circle. The hip-hop circle even gave this Chinese woman a resounding title: "A$AP Eva."

(Photo source: Popular Jewelry official website)

At that time, Chinese aunties’ gold shops not only sold gold jewelry, but also made customized diamond gold teeth, gun jewelry, and basketball-themed jewelry. They even promoted new rappers on the store’s Facebook or Instagram, thus monopolizing the golden glory of the American hip-hop circle for thirty years.

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