In Broad Ripple, home of trendy salons, galleries, boutiques, bars, and restaurants, a new business has opened: In a little bungalow just down from Naked Tchopstix restaurant is yet another one of those "We Buy Gold" joints. You can't miss it, because every morning this past week, with slush in the streets and temps in the teens, somebody has been standing in the left lane right out front holding a "We Buy Gold" sign.
Meanwhile, if you don't want to drive down College Avenue to do it, maybe you could just have a gold party at your house!
Green shoots, my hind leg.
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Hi, I just found your site today from survivalblog.com and love your wit. I am getting a new handgun and my carry concealed permit here in MI. What do you think of the Taurus PT58 .380? I like that you can have one in the chamber with it cocked and still have the safety on. I am thinking shoulder holster too. Happy New Year.
Fine public service opportunity for you, Tam: Stand out in front with a sign telling the peasants they should be hoarding gold, not selling it.
Seems weird.
There's always been a pawnshop or two in the Metro area where I'm living now...but the billboards and ads about businesses willing to buy gold seem to have multiplied and intensified over the past couple of years.
I'll have to check out the local "trendy/hip" suburb to see if the gold-buyers have settled in there yet.
Yeah, hoard, not sell. The reasons for the rise in the price of gold are still valid. There's certainly nothing mysterious about it, for those who've been paying attention to what TPTB have been doing to the US dollar.
Art
I have a rule of thumb that if someone has to advertise to get me to make a transaction then it's probably not in my best interest (or else I'd already be doing it). There are plenty of exceptions, but it's a good starting place.
Also, can we get a remedial program in place for those who think gold and silver are fiat money?
Buy low, sell high; that's all. Gold and silver stood at plus or minus $300 and $5 per ounce respectively for decades; the melt value of 14K was $5 gram then, now it's $20.
So a bit of comparison shopping among the plethora of niche competitors should return $15-$18 to the reverse consumer selling her old stuff. Legitimate dealers record and screen their purchases through the local CLEO and hold the goods for a clearance period (15 days in Fla) so their margin has to reflect the risk of a market drop.
Those who choose to hand over their loot at a "party" after a few glasses of champagne, toss it into an envelope and send it off into the wild blue yonder for an unknown (and disappointing) return, or line up for a hotel hustler, simply result in the beneficiary of the B.L.S.H. credo being someone other than them. The ultimate refinery price that dealers can get is a constant that follows the world market; the price paid to individual sellers (just like the price paid individual buyers at retail) varies with the dealer and seller involved and the context of the transaction. Some "dealers" will pay less than half of what the refiner pays them, and others with a good reputation and sense of fair dealing will pay more.
And in addition to usually paying at the high end for melt gold, those with a storefront business selling vintage jewelry absolutely will pay a premium for finely done pieces and good diamonds; anybody giving away their diamonds and Tiffany pieces for melt value is welcome to leave me their phone number.
Buy low, sell high. There's two participants in each of those transactions; to some degree and with some thought, it's your choice as to which end you're on.
BTW, nothing new here. Exactly three decades ago, same thing, and i was there. The the Carter adminstration was winding down, with all that that implies. The world was worried sick about the health and future of the American giant, so they bought gold and ran up the price. What, could they be worried about us again? Where are you Ronnie?
AT
AT,
I'm not necessarily accusing these of being scam operations, or telling people that they shouldn't sell their gold. People should buy and sell as they wish and caveat emptor, baby.
What I'm saying in this post is that a bungalow in one of the trendiest entertainment/shopping areas in the city being leased by a scrap gold buyer is not an indication of good economic times.
That is all.
Barbie,
I've always had a soft spot for the Taurus "mini-Berettas" in .380 because they're so very cute. :)
They seem to run okay, but they're a bit bulky for what they are, and their long-term durability is a little questionable.
Just a few months ago, you took your broken, gold chains to the (singular) local pawn shop if you wanted to unload them. So things went here in the sticks, anyway.
Now, though, there are at least two shops devoted solely to buying your broken chains and other PM jewelry. That's on top of the billboards and bench ads everywhere in the area now (advertising gold-buying Web sites).
Economic recovery? Not out here, y'all - we're one of Texas' poorer counties, so we're one of the first in the region to see the effects of a bad economy. Sadly, we're also one of the last to recover from even the not-too-terrible recessions of the 1980s and 1990s.
When we tell you that it's looking good here in the sticks, it'll be old news to many of you. In the meantime, it sure sucks out here - for what it's worth.
"What I'm saying in this post is that a bungalow in one of the trendiest entertainment/shopping areas in the city being leased by a scrap gold buyer is not an indication of good economic times."
I think my last paragraph referencing 1980 indicates agreement with that well enough, Tam.
AT
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