Golden opportunity?
Go figure

By Diane Prokop
Times Staff Writer

Some golden oldies really shouldn’t see daylight again — especially big, square, yellow gold earrings circa 1980.
However, since the price of gold has risen from $400 to $900 an ounce in recent months, perhaps they still offer much more than sentimental value.
I figured it couldn’t hurt to find out. Without a chance of being caught dead wearing them, I decided those earrings were the perfect specimen to take to Sheldon Jewelers last week. The store, at 11000 Roosevelt Blvd. in the Boulevard Plaza shopping center, advertises that it buys old, unwanted, broken and damaged jewelry.
This blast from the past, along with a few odd earrings and an old ring, certainly fit that description.
Owner Sheldon Moskovitz agreed.
"That earring will never come back in style," he said. "Turn it into money, put it in the bank."
To calculate exactly how much money you’ll be able to deposit, you’ll need to do some math. Figure out how much the gold weighs, its karat weight, and the going rate for the currently hot commodity.
Moskovitz explained that while gold was selling at $900 an ounce last Wednesday, 14-karat gold is only 58.5 percent pure. (The rest is made up of alloys.) So that’s $900 an ounce times .585 = $526.50 per ounce. The envelope of old gold weighed 4.4 pennyweights. There are 20 pennyweights in a troy ounce and 12 ounces in a troy pound.
The 4.4-pennyweight items brought a grand total of $84, though the jeweler’s average gold purchase, he explained, ranges from $300 to $600.
According to Moskovitz, some folks bringing in small stashes of gold don’t realize it’s the alloy that is valuable and not the ornament itself, thus making them disappointed with the amount he offers.
There’s something else that people with visions of riches should keep in mind, Moskovitz noted. Just because they paid a certain amount for a piece of gold jewelry doesn’t mean it will be worth as much as, or more than, what they paid for it, he said.
The public started to become aware of the growing value of gold in October — about the same time that gasoline prices really started to spike, according to Moskovitz.
According to the Web site goldprice.org, the price of gold had risen from $648 an ounce in mid-August to about $750 by mid-October. On Jan. 2, gold surpassed $850, breaking the record set during the last gold rush in 1979-80.
Gold broke the $900 mark on Jan. 11.
Gold is often considered a safer commodity in unstable economic times, and in turn can cause a rise in demand. Some economists point toward that demand, a weak U.S. dollar, and rising oil prices as catalysts for the gold rush.
Moskovitz has been in business long enough to remember the last gold rush. That’s when gold soared from $150 an ounce to $850 an ounce.
"You literally had people in line selling gold, silverware," he recalled.
This time around, his customers initially were stopping in to sell old pieces. Now a lot of them are strangers who have seen his buying ad, or explain they’d heard the jeweler paid more for gold.
What are they bringing in?
"There’s plenty of ugly out there. We do so see a lot of wedding bands," Moskovitz said.
The jeweler also has talked people out of selling pieces they might not be ready to part with. However, Moskovitz suggests people should clean out their old jewelry boxes the same way they would clean their closets.
"If it’s laying in a drawer, get rid of it. When you clean out your closet, you get rid of the clothes. This will turn your jewelry into money," said the jeweler, who expects the trend in gold prices to continue for perhaps another two to four months. "There are not too many things that can do that — a house, car and jewelry. It gets you money. In today’s economy, use the money to buy something you need." ••
To check out the latest rate for gold, visit www.kitco.com/market
Reporter Diane Prokop can be reached at 215-354-3036 or dprokop@phillynews.com

You can do the math . . .

Measurements:
1 Troy Ounce (ozt.) = 31.103 Grams (g)
1 Pennyweight (dwt.) = 1.555 Grams (g)
15.432 Grains (gr.) = 1 Gram (g)
1 Grain (gr.) = .0648 Grams (g)

Please note when shopping or selling gold that g stands for gram and gr. is for grains.