Since the devastating recession of the American economy in the winter of ’07-’08, the battle cry of the average, hard-hit American has been “Cash for Gold!” This catchphrase is heard and seen everywhere and has become deeply ingrained in our subconscious. What advertisers tend to do, however, is to robotically repeat the same lines about gold being at record high prices without clearly explaining the reasons for this phenomenon and the future of this field. Stop right here if you trust the advice of money-hungry gold buyers who inform you about the precious metals field on a need-to-know basis. However, if you really would like to understand what you’re doing before you finally sell gold to bring extra cash flow into your finances, this article is for you.
Firstly, it’s vitally important to understand the relationship between the value of the dollar and precious metals like gold, platinum, and silver. Before we happily kept Benjamins in our wallet and passed solemn Washingtons to the guy behind the counter in Starbucks, the currency itself was actually valuable. Coins were made out of precious metals like gold and silver. The money itself actually had value. Today, our currency is made out of worthless paper. The money itself has no value; it rises and falls with the country’s economy. A scary reminder of the worthlessness of actual money is the Post-WWI depression in Germany. Money was hyper-inflated, and there are pictures of children building towers out of bills, a housewife burning money in a fireplace because it was cheaper than coal, and a man using bills as wallpaper. It is now easier to understand why during a down economy, people flock to items of tangible value, and why the price of gold and other precious metals, the symbol of wealth, rises sharply.
This phenomenon can clearly be seen when studying yearly graphs charting the fluctuation of gold prices from before the recession to the present. With the difference of the numbers, the same trend applies to platinum and silver prices. Since 2000, the price of gold had been slowly rising at an average of 50 to 100 dollars per ounce a year. At the beginning of 2007, the average price of an ounce of gold was $650. When the recession hit in the winter of that year, the price jumped 200 dollars to $850 an ounce in just a few months! During the dismal economy of 2008, the price of gold wildly fluctuated between $700 and $1000. While the value of the dollar stayed low in the years 2009 and 2010, the price of gold climbed steadily 200 dollars a year, ending at $1400 an ounce in 2010! Thankfully, since we’ve entered the year 2011, the economy has begun stabilizing. Correlating to the stabilizing value of the dollar, the price of gold has begun stabilizing; it has declined from $1400 to $1320 and then risen to $1440. Following this trend, when the economy continues to stabilize and the value of the dollar rises…. If you’ve been following, you understand that just as the price jumped when the dollar plunged, as the economy and the dollar rise the price of gold is about to plunge.
So how does this apply to the average small business owner? Gold, silver, and platinum really are at record high prices, and as history repeats itself, the next step is down. This is a great opportunity to make some serious fast cash. Old jewelry and heirlooms which have been collecting dust are worth a lot of money in the market right now. You can make big bucks from selling platinum, gold, and silver. Before selling, however, it’s important to ensure that you get the most cash for gold and that you’re dealing with honest precious metal buyers. Kitco.com is a resourceful website that has current selling prices and a host of information about the precious metals market. It’s also advisable to deal directly with online buyers rather than jewelry stores since they can offer more cash for gold as they cut out the middlemen and meltdown the metal themselves.
In conclusion, selling gold is a great way for anyone to obtain some extra cash. However, the time to act is now, before prices plunge and the boom of the precious metals market becomes a bust.