by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
It’s true that “all that glitters isn’t gold” but with the spot price for the precious metal hovering above the $900 an ounce mark, even a little gold is worth real money.
Many people have discovered their old, unworn and unwanted gold jewelry can be easily tuned into cash. It’s not just companies advertising on television to entice people into filling an envelope with jewelry and mailing it off for the company to make an offer on its worth; local jewelry stores are also buying gold every day.
“With gold more than $900 an ounce, what would you expect?” said Juan Gonzalez, owner of Hemming Plaza Jewelers. “If you bought a piece of jewelry five years ago at a reasonable price it could now be worth more than you paid for it.”
The current high value of gold is bringing out sellers from all areas and all walks of life who are interested in turning something that’s been sitting in a jewelry box into cash.
“Some of our customers are selling gold because they need the money. People who have money are selling broken pieces or single earrings,” said Gonzalez.
In addition to buying gold from people who bring it to the store, Gonzalez also goes out into the community for “gold parties.” People invite their friends and neighbors to bring gold to sell and after the jewelry is evaluated for golf content, Gonzalez makes an offer based on the weight of the piece and the amount of pure gold contained in it. Gold jewelry is not made of pure gold. To make jewelry durable other metals are added to create an alloy. The most common type of genuine gold jewelry is 14 karat, which contains about 50 percent pure gold.
“It’s like a Tupperware party,” said Gonzalez. “When the party is finished I give the host 10 percent of what I bought in cash. If it’s a church or nonprofit organization, I give them a 25 percent premium.”
The parties have become popular to the point Gonzalez said he bought about $2 million worth of gold in the past year from people who wanted the money instead of their jewelry.
Liam Barnett, the fourth generation at Barnett Jewelers, is also spending quite a bit of time at gold parties. He’s tapped into the office building market and the number of parties he attends to buy gold has grown every month.
“We started last August and we did four parties that month. In June we did 52 parties,” he said.
Barnett and Gonzalez carry more than a magnifying glass and a scale with them to the parties. They also have a supply of forms that must be filled out for each purchase.
“We call it the gold rush. It’s off the chain,” said Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Detective Carl Graham, who is part of a team that specializes in pawn shops and the laws governing secondhand dealers, which is how buying gold jewelry from individuals is classified by law.
“If you walk into a store to sell your gold, the buyer is required to fill out a state form and then hold the gold for 15 days. Flea markets and garage sales are exempt from those requirements,” said Graham, who added there are currently about 65 secondhand dealers buying gold in Duval County and most dealers are following the law.
He also said most of the gold buying activity is from people who are selling jewelry they’ve had for years.
“It’s a great opportunity during the recession,” said Graham.
Like Gonzalez, Barnett sells most of the the gold he buys to refiners who melt the jewelry and then resell the gold to companies who use it to manufacture electronic components like computers, for example.
“We scrap 99 percent of it but every once in a while we’ll get a piece that’s just too nice to melt or we know one of our clients would be interested in it,” said Barnett. “We have a display in the store with jewelry we call ‘Previously Loved.’ It has become one of our most popular cases.”
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