Gold Jewellery sell off in the west

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perthsilver

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Silver Stacker
http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/a...o-secure-high-gold-prices-20110717-1hjr9.html

Record high gold and silver prices are prompting West Australians to sacrifice their heirlooms, with antique jewellery being increasingly sold to refineries to be melted down and lost forever, rather than dealers.

The Perth Mint and a growing number of gold buying retailers are receiving an unprecedented amount of jewellery to be melted and reformed into bullion, in what some antique dealers fear is destroying culturally and historically valuable items.

Poor worldwide economic conditions have driven the spot price for gold to nearly $1500 per ounce at close of trading on Friday. Silver has shot up to about $35 per ounce.
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"In recent months we've been selling unprecedented amounts of silver bullion and we've also been buying back in a lot of gold jewellery because the price is quite high," Perth Mint spokeswoman Cathy Anza said.

"They're bringing their chains, earrings, everything that's hallmarked. We do see a lot of beautiful jewellery pieces coming through.

"The global financial crisis ... was one of the best periods that we've had. This would be on par."
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Read more: http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/a...gold-prices-20110717-1hjr9.html#ixzz1SQ4GySvi

That last comment was interesting.
 
I agree, rather sad if some of the pieces had historical significance or were early examples of australian art. :(
 
Thats not surprising to me.

I often attend Estate and Liquidation jewellery auctions here in Brisbane, and its unbelievable. It's more of a case of 'how low can we drop this' rather than a tradtional auction market. I've picked up heaps of really nice items, at way under spot in the past, and honestly, nothing is changing...

Very sad that beautiful historic pieces of jewellery are being melted by refiners and their subsidaries, but hey, thats business. :(
 
So this is an Australia with thing...

Would be interesting to see if this is global, and whether it has an effect on supply/demand fundamentals.
 
perthsilver said:
The Perth Mint and a growing number of gold buying retailers are receiving an unprecedented amount of jewellery to be melted and reformed into bullion, in what some antique dealers fear is destroying culturally and historically valuable items.
Click to expand...

So stop offering 60% less than spot and maybe people will start selling their pieces as jewellery rather than scrap metal.
 
Big A.D. said:
perthsilver said:
The Perth Mint and a growing number of gold buying retailers are receiving an unprecedented amount of jewellery to be melted and reformed into bullion, in what some antique dealers fear is destroying culturally and historically valuable items.
Click to expand...

So stop offering 60% less than spot and maybe people will start selling their pieces as jewellery rather than scrap metal.
Click to expand...
You'd think that antique dealers would be knocking at Perth mints doors offering them spot for all the jewelry they received. Win for both parties, PM get to sell gold at spot without the hassle of refining and the dealers get to buy jewelry at metal cost with free embedded labour. Chuck on a modest retail margin and the dealers could sell antique gold jewelry at prices that would undercut the new gold chains that sell at double spot price because labor is expensive these days.
Or they could just keep crying a river.
 
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