Gold Fuels Pawn Shop Boom

KPLC TV News is reporting that the high price of gold has local pawn shops booming, as more people dig through their jewelry boxes for gold items they can trade or sell for cash. The Lake Charles news team interviewed a local pawn shop owner who says more customers are finding gold and pawn shops a great combination, especially since it’s hard to get fast cash from banks and other lending institutions.

“A lot people have single earrings, broken rings or necklaces that they’re not going to repair,” said the pawnbroker. “With the record price of gold now, a lot of times they’re pleasantly surprise with how much they can get for it.” He also advised customers to go local when you put your gold items on the market.

Many people are also mailing in their gold to companies who advertise frequently on television. Recently several of these businesses have come under intense scrutiny. New York Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) has even called for the Federal Trade Commission to look into one company’s “deceptive practices,” after hearing several complaints from sellers who say the company didn’t give them the promised price for their gold.

And all experts agree (including us at the San Diego Luxury Pawn Shop Report) that before selling or trading to any gold buyer, consumers should get several quotes from different brokers.

San Diego Buyer Predicts Strong Prices for Gold, Gold Jewelry, & Scrap Gold

Although the U.S. economy and the dollar remain on shaky ground, many analysts are predicting that one thing will remain strong during 2010: the price of gold. One of those analysts is Carl Blackburn, owner of San Diego Jewelry Buyers (SDJB). “In early December we saw the price of gold break the $1200 an ounce barrier, and ever since then it’s been fluctuating around the $1100 range,” says Blackburn. “The price is now starting to spike, and we may just see it breaking the $1200 mark again soon.” Read more

Pawn Shops See Business Spike for Diamonds & More

The Telegraph Herald Online and Reuters are reporting that all across America, pawn shops have seen spikes in their business due to tougher economic times. We here at the San Diego Luxury Pawn Shop Report would certainly concur with that report, especially when it comes to diamond jewelry and items made of gold or other precious metals. Read more

SDJB Opens Diamond, Jewelry, & Watch Vault for Christmas Holiday Shoppers

San Diego Jewelry Buyers (SDJB), California’s premier luxury pawnbroker of fine gold jewelry, diamonds, Swiss watches, and other luxury assets, has announced that it is opening up its vault for the holidays to help shoppers seeking extraordinary jewelry and gemstones. Read more

Why Gold Remains Hot

San Diego gold investors and gold sellers take note that Business Week has an excellent interview online with commodities guru Jim Rogers, creator of the Rogers International Commodities Index, wherein he talks about gold’s current popularity.

Here is an excerpt:

MARIA BARTIROMO

Gold, as you know, hit an all-time high today, with the Russian central bank buying bullion. How high can gold go?

JIM ROGERS

Well, I own gold and I have for a while. How high can it go? I fully expect it to be over a couple thousand dollars an ounce sometime in the next decade—I didn’t say the next month, I didn’t say the next year, I said the next decade—because paper money around the world is very suspect. But right now everybody’s bullish on it, so I don’t like to buy things when that’s happening. But I’m not selling under any circumstances.

What’s behind the runup? Has buying by the central banks changed the equation here? Or is this still a demand story?

Certainly a demand story because, as I said, everybody’s printing so much money and people around the world are worried about that. But you also have central banks, which five years ago were selling gold, now buying. So that’s a huge shift in the marketplace. Central banks are like lots of other people—they just follow the crowd. There are probably better commodities to buy than gold, but you can’t tell that to central banks because they’ve got gold on the brain.

To read more, go to: Why Gold is Glittering.

San Diego Luxury Pawnbroker Reaches Out Into New Affluent Markets

San Diego Jewelry Buyers (SDJB), California’s luxury pawnbroker and diamond buyer of choice, is extending its market reach with a new advertising campaign that targets high net-worth professionals in Rancho Santa Fe, Solana Beach, Carlsbad, Del Mar, La Jolla, and other affluent communities in the region Read more

The Buying & Selling Gold Frenzy

The Associated Press is reporting that gold’s remarkable run has implications far beyond smart investors. In New York’s diamond district, more people started showing up late last year to sell their gold, and the crush hasn’t let up Read more

The Year’s Biggest Watch Auction

Bloomberg is reporting that Christie’s International raised 19 million Swiss francs ($19 million) in the biggest watch auction this year. Included in the lots was a collection of 10 Patek Philippe watches for almost double the low estimate.

Nine of the top 10 lots were Patek Philippe, and one was Rolex, in the auction that took place in Geneva. Christie’s estimates the entire sale to raise 10 million francs to 15 million francs.

The most expensive timepiece was a Patek Philippe 18-carat gold watch with a calendar that adjusts for leap years, sold for 2.4 million francs to a Swiss museum, Christie’s said. The collection of Pateks sold for 5.8 million francs.

Watch auctions have been successful, reports Bloomberg, even as Swiss watchmakers suffer from the worst recession since the Great Depression. Rare pieces continue to attract more demand than newly made watches, as Swiss watch exports have dropped 26 percent in the first nine months of this year in value.

A Sotheby’s auction of timepieces in the same Swiss city on Nov. 15 raised 5.1 million francs, within the auctioneer’s estimated range of 4.15 million francs to 5.71 million francs.

In other watch news, the family that controls Porsche SE, the maker of the 911 sports car, is selling watches from its private collection at a charity auction in London today.
Ferdinand Alexander Porsche and his sons have entered 49 watches into a sale to be held by Bonhams on Dec. 2.

The group includes examples by Eterna, Porsche Design, Rolex, Panerai, Jaeger LeCoultre, Breitling and Omega, is expected to fetch 100,000 pounds. Proceeds will be donated to the oncology research department of the Robert Bosch Hospital, Stuttgart, Germany, said Bonhams.

San Diego Pawnbroker & Gold Buyer Reports Rise in Large Cash Loans

San Diego Jewelry Buyers (SDJB), the elite pawnbroker of San Diego County, has reported a steady increase in immediate cash loans on luxury collateral, such as fine jewelry, gold coins, rare timepieces, and large carat diamonds. According to Carl Blackburn, president of San Diego Jewelry Buyers, the rise in its large instant cash loans is due to a combination of factors: Read more

Swiss Watchmaker: Patek Philippe

The old company saying at watchmaker Patek Philippe is that “You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation.” And most “owners” of a Patek Philippe wristwatch would agree. The family-run watch company based in Geneva is truly in a class of its own. Established in 1839, the company has fashioned such highly sought after watch collections as Calatrava, Ellipse, Nautilus, Gondolo, Aquanaut, and Twenty~4.

Known worldwide for its complicated watches and its timeless elegant designs, Patek Philippe has been producing timepieces cherished by monarchs, popes, political leaders, and rulers since the reign of Queen Victoria. It all started in 1851, when Victoria acquired a key-wound Patek Philippe watch created in a pendant style during the Great Exhibition of London. Soon Patek Philippe was regularly supplying its watches to her Majesty and her consort, including one exclusive timepiece that was suspended from a diamond and enamel brooch to be worn pinned to the Queen’s clothing.

Victoria’s fascination with Patek Philippe quickly attracted the attention of all the royal courts of Europe. The Swiss company began creating timepieces for such notables as Pope Pius IX, Christian IX and Louise (the king and queen of Denmark), Victor-Emanuel III (king of Italy and Duke of Savoy), and Hussein Kamal (prince of Egypt in the period of 1914-1917).

For its 150th anniversary in 1989, Patek Philippe created one of the most complicated mechanical watches ever made, the Calibre 89. This amazing timepiece holds 33 complications, including the date of Easter, a thermometer, time of sunrise, equation of time, sidereal time, and many other indicators. 1,728 unique parts allow for sidereal time, a 2,800 star chart, and much more.

Today, vintage Patek Philippe wristwatches regularly command the highest prices at watch auctions around the globe, some selling for well over US $1 million. If you are lucky enough to be in the possession of a Patek Philippe watch take care of it very well for the next generation of your family. And should you ever decide to sell one be sure to go to an experieced watch buyer who understand the full worth of these mechanical works of art.

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