""It's been absolutely chaotic," Oshri Reuven is saying. He's an owner of Global Gold & Silver, which trades in precious metals on 45th Street. In mid-October, those commodities reached record prices, topping $4,300 per troy ounce for gold and $54 for silver. (In January, they were about $2,600 and $30.) "People are definitely searching in their valuables and bringing in everything," he says."
""Some people are uncomfortable with the volume," he admits, and "the larger companies buying from them are putting on the brakes a little bit." For a smaller operator like Reuven, that could theoretically be a problem. Some of his neighbors, he tells me, have been offering 70 percent of spot to hedge against a dip. But he's okay, at least for now. "We're more diversified: We have watches and name-brand jewelry, so one department is not going to make or break the business.""
Oshri Reuven owns Global Gold & Silver on 45th Street, where mid-October gold topped $4,300 per troy ounce and silver reached $54, compared with about $2,600 and $30 in January. Customers bring in jewelry and valuables, with lines at Manhattan Gold & Silver snaking up stairs. Transactions are fast: items are weighed to the hundredth of a gram, tested on a touchstone with acid to determine karat, and payouts are typically electronic or small cash. Global pays about 90 percent of spot. Larger buyers have slowed amid volume concerns; some dealers offer 70 percent of spot. Reuven says business is roughly 30 percent above normal; diversification into watches and name-brand jewelry helps.
Read at Curbed
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