What is the ruling on a jewelry factory selling to its affiliated stores, such that only the price of sold items is paid, and unsold items are returned?

If the stores belong to the factory, then there is an agency agreement between them for sales, whereby they give the factory the price of what they sold and return to it what was not sold.

However, if each of them has an independent financial entity, then either the stores take the gold from the factory on an agency basis for sale at a specific price, and anything in excess of that price is theirs, which is permissible.

But if the gold is taken on a purchase basis, the situation is not without two possibilities: 1. They actually purchase it and pay the price, but they stipulate the return of unsold items. This sale is valid, but the condition is void. 2. They conclude the sale but do not pay the price until after the gold is sold. This is void due to the condition of immediate exchange (taqabud) in gold transactions.

As for the second possibility, it is that they do not conclude the sale and make its completion contingent upon the sale of the gold. This is invalid because it is not permissible to make a sale contingent on a condition.