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| Jiangsu Man Turns Rare Bai Lu Gold Poster into Nugget (Photo: Sohu) |
What started as a lucky win quickly turned into a classic lesson in value versus perception. A man in Jiangsu, China, has gone viral after melting down a limited-edition gold poster featuring actress Bai Lu, only to realise too late that he had destroyed something far more valuable than the gold itself.
The poster was part of an ultra-rare collaboration between Bai Lu and Amuxi, a well-known yoghurt brand in China.
Marked clearly as “999 pure gold 10g,” only ten copies of the poster were ever released nationwide, making it one of the rarest celebrity promotional items currently circulating.
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After winning the poster through a promotional draw, the man decided to confirm its authenticity before making any decisions. A spectrometer test showed the gold content was genuine.
Confident in his logic, he removed the printed surface layer and melted the poster down, producing a gold nugget weighing 9.93 grams. The slight loss was considered normal during melting.
At current gold prices, the nugget was valued at roughly 10,000 yuan, or about USD 1,400. From a purely material standpoint, the man believed he had secured a safe and tangible profit.
But that confidence didn’t last long.
Collectors and fans were quick to point out that the intact poster’s resale value on the secondary market was estimated at around 40,000 yuan, with some listings even pushing beyond that figure.
While higher prices between 50,000 and 100,000 yuan circulated online, no verified transactions backed those claims. Still, even conservative estimates showed that melting the poster wiped out around 30,000 yuan in potential value.The reaction online was swift and brutal, but also revealing.
Some netizens agreed with the man’s thinking, arguing that physical gold feels safer and easier to understand.
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Others, particularly collectors, stressed that rarity and emotional attachment often outweigh raw material value, especially when celebrity branding is involved.
Once melted, the poster’s identity as a limited collectible was gone forever. Ironically, by destroying one of the ten posters, the remaining nine instantly became even rarer, potentially driving their prices higher.
There was, however, one unintended outcome. The melting process confirmed that the poster contained nearly the full promised gold weight, effectively validating the brand’s claims.
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Amuxi quickly leaned into the attention, launching a new promotional giveaway and highlighting that its gold posters come with official certification, turning the mishap into a marketing win.
The episode has since become a textbook example of how modern pricing works across different markets. Material value is straightforward. Collectible value, however, depends on rarity, fandom, and emotional appeal — factors that can’t be measured on a scale.
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As one widely shared comment put it, “People rarely make money from things outside their understanding. For someone who isn’t even a fan, winning such a rare prize and melting it really is a waste.”
In this case, gold was gold — but the poster was worth far more