LOS Angeles (AP) – In the largest jewelry center in the United States, Alberto Hernandez pulled his machine a recent day and waited for him to shine from bright orange inside before shoveling in an assortment of rings, earrings and necklaces weighing just as much as a soap bar: just under 100 grams, or 3.2 ounces.
A few minutes later, the bubbling liquid metal was cooling in a rectangular throwing the size of a woman’s shoe. An X-ray machine determined that it was 56.5% gold, which was worth $ 177,000 depending on the price of gold that day.
Like gold prices Home to save the tops During global economic assaults, hundreds of thousands of dollars in gold circulate through the doors of St. Vincent Jewelry Center in downtown Los Angeles every day.
Many of the 500 independent tenants of the center, who include jewelers, gold refiners and assayeurs, say they have never seen such a wave of customers.
“Right now, we are seeing a lot of rappers and things to melt their big songs,” said Alberto’s nephew, Sabashden Hernandez, who works at A & M Precious Metals. “We get a lot of new customers who simply get all the stuff from their grandfather, melt roughly.”
Gold Current rally is the president Donald Trump constantly evolving problems Ads on pricesfinancial market rotation and threatening Royal inflation.
In response, people from all over the country flock to sell or melt their old jewelry for fast money, including intermediaries such as wages loan owners. Others, thinking that their money could be safer in gold than on the Volatil stock market, the slap just as quickly.
Los Angeles’ jewelry, Olivia Kazanjian, said people even made family inheritances.
“They melt things with family’s wedding dates and things from the 1800s,” said Kazanjian.
She recently paid a client for a 14 -carat golden bracelet with a complex blue enamel work that could be transformed into a spit. The customer left with $ 3,200 for the amount of gold contained in the part measured in Troy ounces, the standard for precious metals equivalent to 31 grams.
But Kazanjian does not plan to melt the room. The true artistic and historical value was much more, she said.
“It’s simply magnificent … and you will not see this kind of know-how anymore,” said Kazanjian, adding that she had persuaded some customers to change her mind on the merger of articles. “It’s a piece of history, and if you have the chance to inherit it, it’s a piece of your family.”
Companies on the action side of action, offering golden bars and other materials, also work hard to follow the frenzy.
“Things come into play and it comes out,” said Edwin Feijoo, who owns Stefko Cash for Gold in Pennsylvania and receives shipments by customers from the United States who seek to sell their gold. “Everyone is busy right now.”
However, business has not been good for everyone.
For some jewelers who get their supplies in places abroad such as Italy, Turkey and China, the combination of high price of gold and additional prices has reduced the beneficiary and injured demand.
“Our beneficiary margins are so thin razor here,” said Puzant Berberian, whose family founded V & P Jewelry inside St. Vincent in 1983. Berberian said he had recently paid an additional $ 16,000 on a package abroad.
Customers also feel a “sticker shock” when they cannot afford the things they were before. A large 14 -carat gold bracelet weighing approximately 10 grams (0.32 ounces Troy) may have sold about $ 600 last year, but now it is closer to $ 900, said Berberian.
Some believe that these trends could continue, both for consumers and businesses.
Customers hoping to buy ingots “think that gold will increase” even more, according to Sam Nguyen, whose company, Newport Gold Post Inc., has bought and sold gold and other precious metals in St. Vincent for five years. While Gold has cooled from its record summit of $ 3,500 per ounce Troy, Nguyen thinks that it could reach $ 4,000 at $ 5,000 by the end of the year.
Jeff Clark agrees. The founder of the Gold Advisor, who provides investment advice, said that he would not be surprised if gold prices continue to climb because metal is considered a paradise for people to park their money when there is anxiety about a possible recession.
“History shows that it has increased much more in the past,” said Clark, referring to a frenzy in the 1970s when the average gold price has increased by 17 times in the midst of two -digit inflation rates. “If fear and uncertainty continue in the general population, prices will continue to increase.”
