It’s Good As Gold

“Everything is golden!” There are terms or metaphors that contain the word gold, and that word lets another person know all is well or it’s all good. And just like my title implies, “good as gold” now more than ever has an even more meaningful connotation. So, if you happen to possess a lot of gold right now, you would be “exceptionally golden”! 

I can’t think of a single person on this planet who would not be in awe holding a 20 ounce bar of pure gold in one’s hands, unless you have just crawled out from under a coral rock and swam to Resident’s Beach from one of the ten thousand islands (This includes some very naïve folks who enter my establishment and can’t understand why my heavy gold chains and bracelets are so expensive). Meanwhile back on planet earth, the rest of us with better than a second-grade school education are witnessing the price of gold at all-time highs.

 You’re darn right it’s expensive! For those that still don’t understand the concept, fine jewelry is made from gold or platinum, therefore when a precious metal such as gold skyrockets up in price so does the jewelry it’s made of. 

When I was a young man, gold was only $35 an ounce (Yes, I said $35.) It’s close to $2,000 now (This makes sense to most of us, unfortunately not to the many I encounter on any given day!)  It’s the same price everywhere in the world. That includes Teaneck, New Jersey, Marco Island Florida, Munich, Germany and Timbuktu, Mali (Had to look that place up!) One of the first things I learned in Business class 101 in the 10th grade was… (Surprise - I only had a grade school education too!)  

Number One Rule…don’t sell your product for less than you paid for it! 

When I hear someone tell me they can get new gold jewelry cheaper than the current market price, I laugh out loud. Okay, it’s not impossible, like if it “fell off a truck” so to say, meaning it was acquired by unscrupulous means. For example, why would any island gas station sell regular gas for $1.25 a gallon right now? 

My favorite one is “I got a cousin who knows a guy in the jewelry district!” From what I have seen that “deal” never goes well!

It just doesn’t make good business sense for someone to sell it cheaper than what it will cost to replace it at the current market price.

I now have a forced dilemma as do other jewelers. The merchandise in my cases I’m currently selling is based at a much lower gold price (pre-Ukrainian invasion prices). Some jewelers have already re-ticketed to increase the price of their merchandise. I refused to do this but once sold, a replacement will cost me considerably more money, especially if gold goes over two thousand an ounce. I will have no choice because the price of new jewelry will be higher and that affects even the cost repairs 

I have sale items that I dropped the price to move it and to get new merchandise. No jeweler is going to sell it below what they paid or especially the scrap price. And let’s not leave out that you can sometimes get a deal on “jewelry pre-loved and worn out by the previous person” at the local pawn shops. That’s always a hit or miss thing.

Now on to the it’s too good to be true department. I have a couple of acquaintances who approached me claiming they have friends in foreign countries who own gold mines and they can procure hundreds of ounces for prices far below the current market prices??? And I should invest in this nonsense with them? I have yet to see a single gram, from both dudes, let alone an ounce! Another one of those illegal pyramid scams, no doubt. 

I predict (don’t hold me to my thought here, I said gold would never go above $1000 years ago!) that if and when the major issues that are currently plaguing us subside or the powers that be hopefully find peace, gold will decrease in price like it always does. It won’t plummet but go back to where it was before all this madness occurred. 

A so-called “Wall Street metals expert” predicted gold hitting $5,000 an ounce in the near future. If that happens, I’ll lose more than 99% of my clientele. The result of that will instill me into selling every gram of gold jewelry I possess. That includes sweeping the gold dust out of every corner and off my workshop floors and selling it all at the highest scrap price in history. I will welcome an earlier than planned time to retire. I’ll then bid a sincere arrivederci and a warm “adios amigo” to the jewelry biz and “Hola, Mallorca, Espana!” There I will live like royalty every six months and become an American beach bird my remaining years on the shores of the Mediterranean, sipping on the world’s finest sangria’s.

Richard Alan is a designer/goldsmith and owner of the Harbor Goldsmith, Marco’s go-to jeweler since 1994. He welcomes your questions about All That Glitters, www.harborgoldsmith.com.