Got gold? High prices benefiting buyers and sellers

Businesses around Barrie are seeing a demand in selling unused gold and silver.

Gold and silver have always been viewed as a premium commodity and with the stock market favouring the two metals there has been no better time to invest.

However, selling your unused gold and silver when the market is high has been a continuing trend, and businesses around Barrie are seeing a demand.

D.C Taylor in north Barrie said the market continues to inflate.

“Gold prices, I mean, they’re historic highs - they’ve maybe fluctuated a little bit even on a daily basis,” said David Taylor, manager of D.C Taylor. “They’re fluctuating five to 10 per cent in the course of a day.”

While increased prices might be good for the seller, Taylor said it’s important to educate customers on their prized possessions.

“Gold in its purest form is 24 karats, so we’ve been looking at lesser karat gold for clients that maybe can’t afford the higher karat,” said Taylor. “We’re selling a lot more sterling silver this year just with the price of gold the way it is.”

Barrie Gold Buyer said they are seeing an influx of people wanting to sell and invest in the gold and silver markets.

“We’ve seen record gold and silver prices, that’s causing a lot of people to come in and sell their old gold jewellery that they have,” said Jake, a sales representative at Barrie Gold Buyer. “It’s worth a lot more than they think, usually it’s worth almost three times more than it was just a couple of years ago.

It’s not just jewellery that is popular; bullion customers are seeing the benefits of the market.

“This bar here, this 100-ounce bar, only a couple of years ago was $2,500. Now it’s upwards of $10,000. So, we have people that have had that for a long time, and they want to sell,” said Jake. “Then there’s also people that think silver is going to go a lot higher due to industrial demand, and they want to hedge against inflation.”

Secondhand stores also see the effect of a surging market. Secondhand shops in Barrie say they have seen an increase in people wanting to sell their jewellery.

On the other hand, selling gold has become more difficult.

“It depends on how long ago they’ve bought their last, piece of jewelry, the difficulties on the heavier gold, you know, chains, bracelets, rings don’t have as much gold weight,” said Jeff who works at a pawn shop. “The higher the carat, the harder it is to sell because the pricing is so much higher.”

Due to the increase in prices, businesses have found a way to still make profits.

“We do a lot of scrapping and melting,” said Jeff. “We probably only retail about 10 per cent of what we’re buying right now because we can’t refurbish everything, so we’re only putting out what we think will sell.”

Jewelers remind people to get their jewelry appraised.

Gold has gone up almost double in the last year, so if you have a lot of gold sitting at home, it’s a really good idea to make sure that it’s appraised at the proper current values.

Taylor added it’s important to get an appraisal every five to ten years especially if insured to maintain its value.