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.

Investigating Gold Buyers

San Diego’s most watched news station, KUSI News, has released a special consumer report on selling gold in San Diego County. Conducted by former CNN reporter Sasha Foo, the report reveals that there are both good and questionable gold buyers operating in San Diego.

The special report is titled “Selling your gold? Don’t get scammed!” and includes an interview with Sheryl Bilbry, a staff member of San Diego’s Better Business Bureau (BBB). She tells Sasha Foo that San Diegans need to be smart when selecting a gold buyer for their gold jewelry, since some gold buyers may have file folders full of customer complaints. Cash4Gold, for example, has earned itself a D- minus grade from the BBB.

Bilbry explains that Cash4Gold customers have complained that their gold never got to the company; that they were told that within 10 days they could get their gold back, but then Cash4Gold wouldn’t return it; and that Cash4Gold didn’t pay them as much money as they said they would for their gold. Bilbry adds that citizens can get cash for their gold jewelry in San Diego by “credible” companies. They just need to investigate who they are.

Selling used gold jewelry, gold bullion coins, and other gold objects has become a big business during the past year due to the recession. But Sasha Foo warns San Diegans not to let that “stampede for cash turn into fool’s gold.” To illustrate how “legitimate” gold buyers operate in San Diego, Ms. Foo interviews Carl Blackburn, the founder and co-owner of San Diego Jewelry Buyers (SDJB) and a jewelry industry veteran.

Blackburn explains to Foo how trustworthy gold buyers go about buying used gold rings, gold chains, and other gold jewelry, demonstrating how gold purity and weight is tested. He advises San Diegans to shy away from any gold buyer who guarantees they will beat the price of any other gold buyer, as well as anyone who does not make the customer feel totally comfortable with selling their gold. Blackburn also says that a “red flag” is when a customer calls a San Diego gold buyer for today’s gold price and the buyer doesn’t want give out the information.

SDJB’s website SanDiegoJewelryBuyers.com is filled with articles and tips that can help San Diegans make better selling decisions when selling their gold, diamonds, and fine watches.

To watch KUSI’s full special report on San Diego gold buyers, please go to: Selling Your Gold? Don’t Get Scammed!

Buying & Selling Gold Bullion Coins at San Diego Pawn Shops

If you ever come across some gold bullion coins at a San Diego pawn shop and are considering buying them, there are a few things that you should keep in mind:

Remember that gold prices fluctuate all the time, sometimes quite dramatically. So be sure to check the current day’s spot price. What is gold’s spot price? That’s the current market price for the precious metal. In contrast, a gold bullion coin’s “melt value” refers the value of the coin if it is melted down and sold.

If you plan on buying a fractional gold bullion coin (that is, a coin weighing less than one ounce) you can expect to pay a higher percentage over melt value than if you were buying a one ounce coin.

The folks at the Professional Numismatists Guild say that the average retail commission that a seller charges is 5-6%. So if it seems like the pawn shop from which you are thinking about buying a gold bullion coin is charging a higher commission than that, you can likely get a better deal elsewhere

Lastly, as a general rule of thumb, remember that Kruggerrand bullion coins are usually sold for less than the American Eagle and Canadian Maple Leaf bullion coins.

If you are really keen on buying gold bullion coins, your best bet may be to look up a San Diego ANA (American Numismatic Association) bullion dealer by clicking here.

###

People in San Diego often ask us just what the history of pawn shops is, where and how the whole business got started. For the curious, SDJB has now written: A Brief History of Pawn Shops.