Brent and Carla Capper are caught up in today’s gold rush.
“It’s been unbelievable,” said Brent of the number of people who have brought scrap gold and silver to their store, Capper Jewelry, 4 N. Washington Ave., to capitalize on high prices for the precious metals.
“We’ve been buying scrap since we got the store in 1995 and I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.
Gold prices have soared the past two years, reaching nearly $1,400 an ounce earlier this month. For comparison’s sake, in October 2000, gold was $255 an ounce.
Silver was $23 an ounce Wednesday.
Much of the jewelry being sold truly fits the “scrap” category, Carla said. “Most of it is stuff that people haven’t worn for some time or pieces that have broken chains or stones missing and are too costly to fix. Some people are bringing in things they haven’t worn in 15 years and using the money to get a wedding ring or some other piece of jewelry repaired.”
The Cappers base their purchase price of gold on the London second day fixed price each morning. It was $1,339 Wednesday. Weight and karat are taken into consideration. Karat designation measures gold purity, with 24k being 100 percent gold.
Those who bring scrap to Capper Jewelry are re-quired to have photo identification. The information is copied onto the back of a form they must complete.
“We give Iola police and the Allen County sheriff’s office a copy of every transaction,” Carla said.
Scrap is kept in the store long enough to make sure the transaction was legitimate before most is sent to a smelter in Kansas City for refining. Some, too nice to melt, is kept and resold as estate jewelry.
Economists say the dramatic increase in the price of gold generally has oc-curred because of the worldwide recession and a weak U.S. dollar, which have prompted purchase of gold as an investment.
JOANN BUTLER, at Jones Jewelry, 5 N. Jefferson Ave., also is busy.
“I’m doing a lot of repair work,” said Butler, who has been at the store 42 years, first as an employee and now as owner.
Part of the surge in jewelry repair, Jones thinks, is because quality isn’t what it was years ago, with most modern jewelry being made outside of the United States.
“Someone came in the store and asked if I had anything made in the U.S.,” she said. “Not much. Bulova was the last to make watches in the U.S. That company was sold to the Japanese two years ago.”
Jones added that sales of new jewelry has been slow.
“I hope things turn around by Christmas and people start to buy more jewelry,” she said, but with gold prices so high, she doesn’t hold much hope for that occurring.
“When I started here gold was $35 an ounce,” Butler said. “I thought it was terrible when it got to $600 to $800 and I never would have believed $1,300.”
Prices have risen so much that the restocking price for individual pieces now is twice the former retail price, she said.
While gold has slipped from customers’ favor, silver has taken its place.
“A lot of people come in and tell me they want to spend $100 for a gift,” she said. “Before they’d look at gold — now it’s silver. They can get a nice set — a necklace and pendant with earrings — for $100. With gold it’s going to cost $400 or $500.”
Diamonds, as always, are popular. Their prices have increased, but not nearly as dramatically as gold, Butler said.
The Cappers have a similar take on jewelry merchandising, although they mentioned increased popularity of alternative metals, such as titanium and Damascus steel.
“People also like mokume,” which is jewelry made of layered metals with a swirled pattern, Carla said.
