Crazy Times in the Jewelry World
Posted on | October 2, 2008 | 2 Comments
The jewelry industry, like most other retail sectors, is really feeling the hit of this economy. Check out this article about the what the wealthy want to spend this Christmas. Nothing makes sense. Of course retail sales are pretty slow, but in this economy there is money to be made if you can lay out the cash and buy right. Our buying business is very brisk. Everyone wants to sell their stuff. Gold is trading pretty high right now so we’ve seen a lot of customers coming out of the woodworks selling large volumes of coins and bullion. Happy to buy that stuff and flip it right away. You would think that with the market down 350 today (and going down for weeks) that gold would shoot up. Well, today gold was down a big $34, almost 4%. Platinum is down to $970 an ounce – was at $2300 not too long ago. It’s unheard of that it’s almost at the same level as gold. The gold price is directly related to the strength of the dollar which is why it went down today, but I have never seen these types of swings in precious metals. How about silver, at $21 an ounce in March, now at $10.85. It is a wild time. OK, maybe it’s not that crazy – but here you go: