Advertisement
Her husband, Kary Kilmer, lit a propane torch and blasted the crucible and a fabricating mold clamped in the middle of a small cement block arena. Bucheit sprinkled flux into the crucible, igniting bigger flames.
 |
She poured the bubbling, silvery liquid into the mold. When cooled, it formed a round pellet of silver the size of a baby’s thumb that can be stretched in a rolling machine and shaped in draw plates to make new forms of jewelry.
Because of skyrocketing prices of gold, silver and other precious metals, trade-in business is booming for local pawn shops, coin collectors and jewelry designers such as Bucheit and Kilmer, who own Crown Trout Jewelers.
“With prices this high, people have gold necklaces and gold rings that they don’t use and they’re getting double for them,” said Jeff Stingl, Mainstream Firearms and Marine manager. “That’s the first thing that goes up in a bad economy. It’s safe, always has been.”
Stingl said it’s the highest precious metal prices he’s seen in 18 years of pawn business.
Gold has nearly tripled in price since 2003, setting a record high of more than $1,000 an ounce in March. Platinum more than tripled and silver traded at about $17 an ounce Friday — quadruple the price from five years ago.
It’s fueled by survivalist investors alarmed by the weak U.S. economy and dollar, international conflicts, a tumultuous oil market and fear of a global warming pandemic, local experts say.
“Everything is in the right place: The Iraq War, stock market performance, the low value of the dollar and oil prices,” said Jim Anderson, Morgan’s Jewelers owner for 30 years.
What’s happening with the precious metal exchange market now isn’t much different from the Great Depression, said Gene Ziebell, a
66-year-old hobby coin collector from Winona.
His 87-year-old mother went through the Depression and told him how she worked two years — 50 cents a day — to save $100 in the bank. Inflation was terrible, paper money wasn’t backed by gold and people panicked. When Ziebell’s mother went to take her money out, the bank handed her $10.03.
Many people lost trust in banks and the U.S. dollar, Ziebell said. They turned to internationally recognized silver and gold.
“That’s what’s driving the price up now is the foreign investors and all these guys who are multimillionaires — they’re holding on to it,” Ziebell said.
The higher gold and silver prices are another pocket-pincher for jewelry stores and would-be jewelry buyers.
While it takes a fair amount of gold to add up to “serious” money, Holtan’s Jewelry and Gifts owner Quinn Holtan said a 14-karat gold wedding band now costs $75 to $100 more on average.
“There’s a lot of discussions amongst jewelers, and customers are coming in all the time and talking about it and wondering if things should be updated in appraisals, and if now is the time to buy wedding bands,” Anderson said.
To buy or not to buy may be debated, but jewelers agree it’s a good time to sell scrap gold.
Crown Trout Jewelers takes in silver and gold to defray the costs of custom work. Kilmer and Bucheit test and weigh the old gold and silver jewelry and use the current market price for in-store credit.
“It’s been a lot lately,” Kilmer said. “It’s a good impetus, because people may not have considered a custom design before.”
Recently, a couple exchanged a 1978 24-karat gold coin Krugerrand from South Africa to help pay for custom-made wedding rings.
Recycling scrap isn’t new for Kilmer or Bucheit. They’ve been doing it for about five years to increase awareness of metal mining’s effect on the environment.
“We deal with a very sophisticated consumer,” Bucheit said. “They pre-shop and good ethics is good business. A whole generation of people getting married isn’t using gold or diamonds.”
Contact reporter Amber Dulek at amber.dulek@lee.net or 507-453-3513.
