Gold-dealing business booms

By SHELBY SCHROEDER

Tupperware parties are making way for gold-selling gatherings.

The changing value of the dollar may be at the heart of fluctuating gold prices, and increased marketing to consumers willing to sell their gold for cash.

MarketWatch, a Dow Jones finance and investment analyst, said Tuesday that after its peak at $1,000 an ounce in March, gold prices are dropping again. This came with news that the dollar was again on the rise.

Meanwhile, advertisements seeking gold have maintained a presence in area newspapers and television. Ads boast buyers willing to take old jewelry and coins off clients’ hands for top dollar.

Buyers, like George Beshara, owner of the jewelry store Gold Exchange on Market Street, said the business of purchasing gold has dramatically increased since Christmas. He pointed to the weakened dollar for the growing interest in gold.

Beshara is one of many buyers in Youngstown who pay for new, old, and even broken jewelry. He has two competitors directly down Market Street.

One of them, Tom Bartholomew, owner of Tele-Gold Jewelers, has been buying gold for 27 years. He said he’s seen a slight slowdown in the last two weeks as gold prices have sank below $870 per ounce. Still, business is good.

“We’ve always had customers,” said Bartholomew. “But never like this.”

He said people are selling their jewelry for a variety of reasons: an item is irreparable, an earring is missing from a pair, or that heavy jewelry is losing popularity lately. But mostly, he said, people need cash and the rate is still good.

When a seller comes to Bartholomew with gold, he inspects it rigorously to be sure of its worth. He looks for markings and color and will sometimes submit the jewelry to acid tests and density checks for accuracy. Based on the market rate that day, he’ll hand over cash on the spot.

Buyers like Joe Speziale, manager of Boardman Coin, Jewelry and Estate Buyers, also on Market Street, said customers coming in with fake or gold-plated jewelry are becoming more frequent. Stamps indicating the karat can be falsified, giving more weight to authenticity tests.

While his business is like many others, Bartholomew said the trend of lengthy advertisements by competitors shouldn’t be the basis for buyer reputations. “The biggest ads aren’t the top buyers,” said Bartholomew, who has been in business since 1980.

Melissa Padisak of the Better Business Bureau of Mahoning Valley said there are other details consumers should be aware of when selling their golden goods.

She said the trend of dealers setting up in hotel rooms is one to avoid. Two days after opening up shop, buyers will disappear, leaving consumers short-changed.

Illegal operations like these can take place anywhere, according to Bartholomew, who has even encountered a pizza shop that purchased gold.

Area gold dealers are on the lookout for a growing operation that is both positive and legal: gold parties.

A group of women gather at a home in what resembles a Tupperware party, but with their unwanted jewelry and a gold buyer. Cashing out their belongings, the women make selling their gold a night-long event, sometimes treating themselves to champagne and dinner.

Gold parties “are in Detroit and Chicago, and we’ll be seeing them here soon,” Beshara said.

Bartholomew called the boom in gold-selling an “overreaction,” and said he expects sales to continue drop. But Speziale spoke optimistically about sales in the coming weeks.

“People are just getting on the bandwagon and going in their jewelry boxes,” he said.