WESTON, Fla. – After a turbulent stretch on Wall Street has further increased the value of gold, many people with old jewelry are selling items for quick cash.
"There's a lot of things that are precious. There's gold, silver and platinum," said Michael Gusky, founder of Goldfellow in Weston.
These days, especially, precious means pricey, with gold at more than $1,800 an ounce.
Gusky and the company's president, Steve Hansen, have decades of experience in the gold buying business, which they said is booming.
"In the past few weeks, business has tripled from what we saw maybe a year ago," Hansen told Local 10's Jen Herrera .
People selling their commodities for cash are why there was a wait in the store's lobby and a stack of deliveries in the warehouse recently.
Herrera brought in some of her own stash to see how much it was worth, including two high school rings and six other pieces, mostly charms. The jewelry was all 10-karat or 14-karat gold. The gold was throughly inspected and tested, and after a few minutes, Herrera find out the old handful of stuff is worth $997.48.
"(It) takes so little gold to reach $1,000 in today's gold market," said Gusky.
The crew took another men's class ring similar to to Advantage Pawn in West Park to compare prices. Just like at Goldfellow, the store said the 10-karat ring is worth more than $300.
"So I'm giving you $325. When I sell this, the profit I make is $30. It's just how tough the market is. I have to be competitive," said Adrian Owens, manager of Advantage Pawn.
Anyone selling their gold needs to do their homework: Know the value of gold that day, the weight and karat of the gold, and they should pocket at least 60 to 80 percent of what the gold is worth. Owens offered another tip:
"Shop around. Go to a couple of places and get some prices," he said.
Herrera brought the ring inside two other stores without the camera. Morningstar's on Hollywood Boulevard said it would pay $230, and Value Pawn, just down the street, said it could do somewhere between $125 and $140.