As the price of gold continues to climb, it’s having a negative impact on at least one Hannibal jeweler.
“My inventory is worth more, but that’s only if you can sell it,” said Bobby Heiser, owner of Crescent Jewelry. “It’s just raised the prices of basic jewelry almost out of the common person’s reach.”
Heiser’s jewelry prices have lagged behind the cost of gold.
“I can’t sell them at the old prices,” he said. “I make sure that it covers my cost if it’s an item I have to replace, but other than that I don’t raise my prices.”
Lori Maddox, owner of Rags to Riches Pawn, says the rising price of gold has also impacted her business.
“Definitely. When I first started out in business 13 years ago gold was $300 an ounce and we were paying a certain amount for it. Today it was like $1,137 I believe so we’re paying more for it,” she said. “It’s definitely helped my business.”
The spike in the price of gold is unusual, according to Heiser.
“Usually gold is a real steady commodity. Fluctuations of $10 or $20 an ounce are real common. Usually it’s not what you see now,” he said. “I think it’s more a reflection on our economy than the value of gold. People don’t have much faith in the value of the dollar so they’re hedging their mistrust of the dollar by purchasing gold.”
Not everybody is looking to purchase gold.
“Now is a good time if you have old gold things you can’t wear any more to sell them,” said Heiser.
Crescent Jewelry is among the local businesses that will purchase gold.
“We’ve always purchased gold,” Heiser said, adding he encourages gold sellers to shop around in order to get the best price.
Maddox can’t believe that people will mail off the gold items they want to sell, rather than take them to a local business.
“People must be crazy to send in their jewelry and everything, and not even know what they’re going to get back out of it,” she said.
The Treasure Hunters Roadshow, which will be operating at the Hannibal Inn Express through Friday, is another potential outlet where people can sell their gold.
“A lot of our business is antiques and collectibles, and obviously gold and silver and those types of things have become very, very popular,” said Matthew Enright, vice president of media for THR & Associates. “With the economy the way it is right now, people are needing money for Christmas to buy for their kids. We’ve even seen people needing food to put on their table. We have people coming every single day that have mismatched ear rings, class rings and those types of things that have gold and they are selling them.”
Traditional jewelry are not the only gold items being cashed in.
“We get teeth every day. It’s not odd,” said Heiser. “We got a medal from the 1930 Olympics. It was somebody’s and they had no idea whose it was in their family. We get all kinds of neat things.”
“People don’t realize they can bring in a missing ear ring, or broken chain, or things like that. It doesn’t matter if it’s broken, if it’s gold, it’s gold,” said Maddox.
While gold is the hot item right now, Enright says other precious medals aren’t being turned away.
“The buzz is about, gold, gold, gold, with it at $1,100 an ounce,” he said. “Maybe 60 to 70 percent is gold and the rest is silver, sterling flatware, silverware sets, and then obviously coins.”
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As the price of gold continues to climb, it’s having a negative impact on at least one Hannibal jeweler.
“My inventory is worth more, but that’s only if you can sell it,” said Bobby Heiser, owner of Crescent Jewelry. “It’s just raised the prices of basic jewelry almost out of the common person’s reach.”
Heiser’s jewelry prices have lagged behind the cost of gold.
“I can’t sell them at the old prices,” he said. “I make sure that it covers my cost if it’s an item I have to replace, but other than that I don’t raise my prices.”
Lori Maddox, owner of Rags to Riches Pawn, says the rising price of gold has also impacted her business.
“Definitely. When I first started out in business 13 years ago gold was $300 an ounce and we were paying a certain amount for it. Today it was like $1,137 I believe so we’re paying more for it,” she said. “It’s definitely helped my business.”
The spike in the price of gold is unusual, according to Heiser.
“Usually gold is a real steady commodity. Fluctuations of $10 or $20 an ounce are real common. Usually it’s not what you see now,” he said. “I think it’s more a reflection on our economy than the value of gold. People don’t have much faith in the value of the dollar so they’re hedging their mistrust of the dollar by purchasing gold.”
Not everybody is looking to purchase gold.
“Now is a good time if you have old gold things you can’t wear any more to sell them,” said Heiser.
Crescent Jewelry is among the local businesses that will purchase gold.
“We’ve always purchased gold,” Heiser said, adding he encourages gold sellers to shop around in order to get the best price.
Maddox can’t believe that people will mail off the gold items they want to sell, rather than take them to a local business.
“People must be crazy to send in their jewelry and everything, and not even know what they’re going to get back out of it,” she said.
The Treasure Hunters Roadshow, which will be operating at the Hannibal Inn Express through Friday, is another potential outlet where people can sell their gold.
“A lot of our business is antiques and collectibles, and obviously gold and silver and those types of things have become very, very popular,” said Matthew Enright, vice president of media for THR & Associates. “With the economy the way it is right now, people are needing money for Christmas to buy for their kids. We’ve even seen people needing food to put on their table. We have people coming every single day that have mismatched ear rings, class rings and those types of things that have gold and they are selling them.”
Traditional jewelry are not the only gold items being cashed in.
“We get teeth every day. It’s not odd,” said Heiser. “We got a medal from the 1930 Olympics. It was somebody’s and they had no idea whose it was in their family. We get all kinds of neat things.”
“People don’t realize they can bring in a missing ear ring, or broken chain, or things like that. It doesn’t matter if it’s broken, if it’s gold, it’s gold,” said Maddox.
While gold is the hot item right now, Enright says other precious medals aren’t being turned away.
“The buzz is about, gold, gold, gold, with it at $1,100 an ounce,” he said. “Maybe 60 to 70 percent is gold and the rest is silver, sterling flatware, silverware sets, and then obviously coins.”
