Buyers, sellers seek gold, prices up 400 percent

The price of gold has increased by more than 400 percent from what it was 10 years ago.

Because of this fact, many people have searched their homes for old or unused jewelry, coins and other gold items to be sold for cash.

The price of gold per ounce Tuesday was $1338.93, while 10 years ago it was $266.70 per ounce, according to www.goldprice.org.

Jeweler Dan Osborne from Williams Jewelry, Inc. in downtown Bloomington said he attributes this spike in price to a rise in oil prices.

The price began to rise exponentially at the end of 2007, according to a graph on www.goldprice.org.

Williams Jewelry will take almost anything that has gold in it.

Antiques, flatware or earrings are all options, though they cannot take gold leaf, which is what can be found on the edges of book pages, because it is too thin to be sold and reused. Besides gold leaf, just about everything made of gold is taken.

“I’ve seen some gold teeth that people have brought in before,” Osborne said.

The authenticity of the gold is determined by an acid-test system where the rate at which an acid dissolves a gold streak shows whether or not it is authentic.

Osborne said a necklace was brought into the store in the last few months marked as 14 karat gold.

Both the necklace owner and jeweler were shocked to find out that the necklace did not pass the acid test.

The necklace was determined to be a fake, therefore it was worthless.

The necklace remains in the store as a reminder of what a fake can look like, Osborne said.

But jewelry stores are not the only places where gold can be sold for cash.

Travelling companies will often come to cities where they will buy people’s gold, though depending on the company, it may be safer to sell to a local jeweler. 
 
Osborne said he once read of people who sold their gold to someone at a weekend expo.

Everyone whose gold was purchased received a check that bounced the following day.

“I wouldn’t sell to anything that’s not going to be there tomorrow,” he said.

Still, there are plenty of reliable gold buyers travelling the country, including the International Coin Collectors Association, which will be in Bloomington from today to Saturday at the Holiday Inn on North Kinser Pike.

Since May 2009, 99.99 percent of the checks written have cleared, according to information from the ICCA. The ICCA travels the U.S., usually with several shows going at once throughout the country.

The ICCA buys not only gold and silver, but also antiques, sports memorabilia, firearms and comics, among other valuable items.

There were not many prospective sellers at the event Tuesday due to the weather, though ICCA event tour manager Paul Draper said on a normal day they will see 60 to 100 people.

Draper said he occasionally comes across rare antiques or coins and often they are items with values unknown to the seller.

Two weeks ago a greeting card signed by Elvis Presley was bought by his group for $1,200.

Draper has also come across bayonets from the Civil War and World War I and a full array of Nazi artifacts such as coins, helmets and flags.

Draper said he recently met someone who brought in several coins for sale. Among them were two foreign coins from about 400 C.E. The owner ended up receiving $20,000 for them.

“They were very excited about all the extra cash in their pocket,” Draper said.