Staff Photos by Allison Kwesell
Rick Davis, the owner of Rick Davis’ Gold and Diamonds, examines a 1935 U.S. dollar silver certificate. Mr. Davis says that at one time the dollar was supposed to be worth one silver dollar. But, today, that would mean about $10 in silver. Mr. Davis says he’d buy back the silver certificate for $3 as a collectors item only.

GOLD PRICE MOVES
Since April 2006, the spot bullion price has risen 29 percent, data shows.
* Oct. 3, 2008 — $828.00
* April 30, 2008 — $871.00
* Oct. 31, 2007 — $789.50
* April 30, 2007 — $677.50
* Oct. 31, 2006 — $603.75
* April 28, 2006 — $644.00
Source: Onlygold.com

Lamar Lake of Ringgold, Ga., sat patiently in the showroom of Rick Davis’ Gold and Diamonds for his number to be called. His quest: To sell an old wedding band while the price of gold is high.

“I just want to get rid of it,” Mr. Lake said.

Dealers say there’s a new kind of gold rush going on as precious metal prices rise and the economy staggers. Some cash-strapped consumers are selling off jewelry and gems to make monthly ends meet.

“Sure, people are selling because they need the money,” Rick Davis, owner of Gold and Diamonds on Brainerd Road. “People have gotten into their jewelry boxes and are finding old gold and diamonds, knowing that prices for gold are higher now than they’ve been in a while.”

The price of gold over the last five years has risen from a low of $368.70 per ounce to a high of $1,002.80 per ounce, according to goldprice.org.

The line typically begins around 9:30 a.m. each weekday at Mr. Davis’ Brainerd Road store. By the time he opens at 10 a.m., the line of customers waiting to sell gold, silver, diamonds, coins and other items of value sometimes is 25 people long.

Louis Brody, owner of Brody Jewelers in Rossville, said he is seeing a marked increase in the number of people coming in to sell their old gold, platinum, diamonds and a lot of old estate jewelry, which is the store’s main focus.

“People are strapped right now,” Mr. Brody said.

People are bringing their grandparents’ old jewelry in and leaving with cash in hand, he said.

Does it bother them to sell their family jewels?

“No, they need the money,” Mr. Brody said.

Mr. Davis, who has been in the gold-buying business for about 30 years, said most people in the business have been in it long enough to see the “second boom of a lifetime.”

He remembers gold was $35 an ounce in the early 1960s when the federal government deregulated the ownership of it, he said. By the 1970s, the price per ounce was $75, and it reached more than $800 per ounce by early 1980. Then, in three days, it dropped to $408 per ounce, he said.

“I waited 29 years for another boom,” Mr. Davis said.

Comments