London gold dealers doing brisk business as price reaches all-time high

As the price of gold reaches all-time highs, with silver not far behind, London precious metals dealers are seeing more people becoming interested in doing business.

That means that grandma's necklace or grandpa's watch doesn't just have sentimental value; it also has more monetary value than ever before in history.

"We've been very, very busy because the necklace that I might have sold yesterday is worth a whole lot more money than it was," said Daniel Loewith, the owner of London Gold Buyer, which buys and sells gold and silver. 

"A lot of that 1970s heavy jewelry that people might have in the bottom of their jewelry cases are probably worth significantly more money than they paid for them in the 1970s because of the gold price where it is now." 

The price of gold tends to go up when people worry about the economy and the general state of the world — it also jumped at the start of the pandemic. Customers tend to want the comfort of physically holding something of value in their hand (or hiding it under their mattress) in an unstable climate.

"It doesn't look like the situation on the world stage is getting better anytime quickly, so I'm bullish on gold still. I believe that gold and silver are smart things to buy, and if you have none, I still think it's a good thing to have because ultimately, the purchasing power of the dollar is dropping," said Andy Greenham, the owner of Forest City Coins, which buys and sells collectibles such as coins, comic books and war medals as well as jewelry and other things made out of precious metals. 

Some of the people who come in to buy gold are doing so because they want to have it in case of a global calamity, said Greenham.

"I know it's doom and gloom, and it'll get you motivated to buy some precious metals, but I still think it's a good idea to have some. I don't want to give financial advice because that's not what I do, but if you ask me personally, I think gold will go up higher. But what goes up, must come down."

Loewith melts the metals he buys from dealers into gold bars, which eventually get sent to the Canadian Mint.

"My website changes every three seconds with live quotes of what gold is worth, but in the grand scheme of things, the price of gold is pretty constant," Loewith said. "I look at it like liquid real estate. It's portable wealth. You have to look at gold as wealth, not as money."

In the last year, Loewith has been buying significantly more than he's been selling, but that is starting to shift, he said. "Now we're having people buy a little more for themselves. We're still buying quite a large amount, but we're starting to sell it a bit more now."