Latest news with #A&MPreciousMetals
New York Post
17-05-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Value of gold nearing all-time high, Americans are cashing in
We're in the middle of the Gold Rush 2.0. But this time folks aren't making money finding gold – they're making money selling it. With gold near an all-time high, selling for over $3,200 an ounce, folks are raiding their jewelry boxes and heading to pawn shops, jewelers and smelters to turn their little-worn necklaces, watches, bracelets and earrings into cold hard cash. 'Every day we have more customers just coming in, selling their gold, raiding their cabinets and stuff like that, looking for jewelry,' said Sabashden M. Hernandez, who works at family-owned A&M Precious Metals in Los Angeles' jewelry district. 'I have not seen anything like this. I've been in this business for about eight years and this is pretty crazy for me.' And at A&M, people are getting their money's worth. Because the price of gold is so high, customers are getting 99% of the gold's market value. The shop only takes a 1% cut. So how does A&M make a profit? Quantity. On a good day, Hernandez is buying over 400 ounces in gold – at 24k, that's over $1.2 million. 4 People are making money by selling and melting their gold, valued for over $3,200 an ounce. Getty Images 4 The price of gold is so high, customers are getting 99% of the metal's market value. Getty Images 'A couple years ago, we would have about seven to eight appointments a day. Now we're in a range of 15 to 20 customers a day,' said Hernandez. Hernandez says his shop acts as a middleman. The gold is melted down into gold bars, which are then sold to refiners. Refiners turn it into a form that jewelers can work with, getting back to storefronts in no time. And it's all done in a few block radius in downtown Los Angeles. Hernandez holds up a jar filled with gold pellets – the contents weigh exactly 1 kilogram. 'Jewelers here in the jewelry district grab this so they can make chains and stuff,' said Hernandez. 'The kilo nowadays is about $107,000.' Behind the front office is where the magic happens. Alberto Hernandez, Sabashden Hernandez's uncle, has been smelting gold for more than 20 years. Their smelter is able to hit 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit. But today it's running at around 2,000 degrees – roughly the melting point of gold. 4 Molten gold settles in a mold at A&M Precious Metals in the Jewelry District of Los Angeles. AP 4 'I have not seen anything like this,' Sabashden M. Hernandez, who works at A&M Precious Metals, said. 'I've been in this business for about eight years and this is pretty crazy for me.' dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images After the gold is weighed and assayed for quality, it's thrown in the smelter. In just a few minutes, and with the help of borax to filter out impurities, it's in molten form. It's then poured into a mold, cooled off in water, buffed and weighed. 'We smelted it down and we're going to send that off to the refiner. So that all we were doing was blending it up to make sure we get an even assay when we go to check it right now,' said Alberto Hernandez. The gold is checked for purity. Fourteen-karat gold is 58.3% pure, while 24-karat gold is 99.9% pure (the market price is based on 24-karat gold). After it's checked for purity, the customer walks away with the cash – often surprised by how much money they made. 'I have plenty of customers that say that they're waiting for gold to go up and now that it's over $3,000, it's perfect timing for them. So it's amazing to hear how long they've held on to it,' said Alberto Hernandez. Hernandez says business changes every day. When gold is up in the morning, they get more appointments. When it's down, it's a little slower. Sometimes customers bring in heirlooms and antiques worth more than their weight in gold. 'I tell them, 'You sure you want to really melt this down?'' said Hernandez. ''It's an antique,' and they just want to do it because they want the money right now because gold's hot.'
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Economic jitters and soaring gold prices create a frenzy for US jewelry merchants
LOS ANGELES (AP) — At the biggest jewelry center in the United States, Alberto Hernandez fired up his machine on a recent day and waited until it glowed bright orange inside before shoveling in an assortment of rings, earrings and necklaces weighing about as much as a bar of soap: just under 100 grams, or 3.2 troy ounces. Minutes later, the bubbling liquid metal was cooling in a rectangular cast the size of a woman's shoe. An X-ray machine determined it was 56.5% gold, making it worth $177,000 based on the price of gold that day. As gold prices soar to record highs during global economic jitters, hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of gold are circulating through the doors of St. Vincent Jewelry Center in downtown Los Angeles on any given day. Many of the center's 500 independent tenants, which include jewelers, gold refiners and assayers, say they have never seen such a surge in customers. 'Right now, we're seeing a lot of rappers and stuff melting their big pieces,' said Alberto's nephew, Sabashden Hernandez, who works at A&M Precious Metals. 'We're getting a lot of new customers who are just getting all of their grandfather's stuff, melting it down pretty much.' Gold's current rally comes as President Donald Trump issues ever-changing announcements on tariffs, roiling financial markets and threatening to reignite inflation. In response, people across the country are flocking to sell or melt down their old jewelry for quick cash, including middlemen like pawn shop owners. Others, thinking their money might be safer in gold than in the volatile stock market, are snapping it up just as fast. Los Angeles jeweler Olivia Kazanjian said people are even bringing in family heirlooms. 'They're melting things with their family's wedding dates and things from the 1800s,' Kazanjian said. She recently paid a client for a 14-karat gold woven bracelet with intricate blue enamel work that could be turned into a brooch. The customer walked away with $3,200 for the amount of gold contained in the piece measured in troy ounces, the standard for precious metals equivalent to 31 grams. But Kazanjian doesn't plan to melt the piece. The real artistic and historical value was a lot more, she said. 'It's just stunning … and you won't see that kind of craftsmanship again,' Kazanjian said, adding she has persuaded some customers to change their minds about melting items. 'It's a piece of history, and if you're lucky enough to inherit it, it's a piece of your family." Businesses on the sales side of the action, offering gold bars and other material, also are working hard to keep up with the frenzy. 'Stuff comes in and it goes right out,' said Edwin Feijoo, who owns Stefko Cash for Gold in Pennsylvania and receives shipments from customers across the U.S. looking to sell their gold. 'Everybody's busy right now.' Business hasn't been good for everyone, though. For some jewelers who source their products from places abroad like Italy, Turkey and China, the combination of high gold prices and added tariffs have cut into profit margins and hurt demand. 'Our profit margins are so razor thin here,' said Puzant Berberian, whose family founded V&P Jewelry inside St. Vincent in 1983. Berberian said he recently paid an extra $16,000 on a package from overseas. Customers also are feeling 'sticker shock' when they can't afford the things they used to. A chunky, 14-karat gold bracelet weighing about 10 grams (0.32 troy ounces) might have sold for around $600 last year, but now it's closer to $900, Berberian said. Some believe those trends could continue, both for consumers and businesses. Customers hoping to buy bullion 'think gold will go up' even more, according to Sam Nguyen, whose business, Newport Gold Post Inc., has bought and sold gold and other precious metals at St. Vincent for five years. While gold has cooled from its record high of $3,500 per troy ounce, Nguyen thinks it could reach $4,000 to $5,000 by year's end. Jeff Clark agrees. The founder of The Gold Advisor, which provides investment advice, said he wouldn't be surprised if gold prices continue rising since the metal is considered a haven for people to park their money when there is anxiety about a possible recession. 'History shows it has gone much higher in the past,' Clark said, referring to a frenzy in the 1970s when the average price of gold increased 17-fold amid double-digit inflation rates. 'If the fear and uncertainty continues in the general populace, the prices are going to keep going up.'
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Economic jitters and soaring gold prices create a frenzy for US jewelry merchants
LOS ANGELES (AP) — At the biggest jewelry center in the United States, Alberto Hernandez fired up his machine on a recent day and waited until it glowed bright orange inside before shoveling in an assortment of rings, earrings and necklaces weighing about as much as a bar of soap: just under 100 grams, or 3.2 troy ounces. Minutes later, the bubbling liquid metal was cooling in a rectangular cast the size of a woman's shoe. An X-ray machine determined it was 56.5% gold, making it worth $177,000 based on the price of gold that day. As gold prices soar to record highs during global economic jitters, hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of gold are circulating through the doors of St. Vincent Jewelry Center in downtown Los Angeles on any given day. Many of the center's 500 independent tenants, which include jewelers, gold refiners and assayers, say they have never seen such a surge in customers. 'Right now, we're seeing a lot of rappers and stuff melting their big pieces,' said Alberto's nephew, Sabashden Hernandez, who works at A&M Precious Metals. 'We're getting a lot of new customers who are just getting all of their grandfather's stuff, melting it down pretty much.' Gold's current rally comes as President Donald Trump issues ever-changing announcements on tariffs, roiling financial markets and threatening to reignite inflation. In response, people across the country are flocking to sell or melt down their old jewelry for quick cash, including middlemen like pawn shop owners. Others, thinking their money might be safer in gold than in the volatile stock market, are snapping it up just as fast. Los Angeles jeweler Olivia Kazanjian said people are even bringing in family heirlooms. 'They're melting things with their family's wedding dates and things from the 1800s,' Kazanjian said. She recently paid a client for a 14-karat gold woven bracelet with intricate blue enamel work that could be turned into a brooch. The customer walked away with $3,200 for the amount of gold contained in the piece measured in troy ounces, the standard for precious metals equivalent to 31 grams. But Kazanjian doesn't plan to melt the piece. The real artistic and historical value was a lot more, she said. 'It's just stunning … and you won't see that kind of craftsmanship again,' Kazanjian said, adding she has persuaded some customers to change their minds about melting items. 'It's a piece of history, and if you're lucky enough to inherit it, it's a piece of your family." Businesses on the sales side of the action, offering gold bars and other material, also are working hard to keep up with the frenzy. 'Stuff comes in and it goes right out,' said Edwin Feijoo, who owns Stefko Cash for Gold in Pennsylvania and receives shipments from customers across the U.S. looking to sell their gold. 'Everybody's busy right now.' Business hasn't been good for everyone, though. For some jewelers who source their products from places abroad like Italy, Turkey and China, the combination of high gold prices and added tariffs have cut into profit margins and hurt demand. 'Our profit margins are so razor thin here,' said Puzant Berberian, whose family founded V&P Jewelry inside St. Vincent in 1983. Berberian said he recently paid an extra $16,000 on a package from overseas. Customers also are feeling 'sticker shock' when they can't afford the things they used to. A chunky, 14-karat gold bracelet weighing about 10 grams (0.32 troy ounces) might have sold for around $600 last year, but now it's closer to $900, Berberian said. Some believe those trends could continue, both for consumers and businesses. Customers hoping to buy bullion 'think gold will go up' even more, according to Sam Nguyen, whose business, Newport Gold Post Inc., has bought and sold gold and other precious metals at St. Vincent for five years. While gold has cooled from its record high of $3,500 per troy ounce, Nguyen thinks it could reach $4,000 to $5,000 by year's end. Jeff Clark agrees. The founder of The Gold Advisor, which provides investment advice, said he wouldn't be surprised if gold prices continue rising since the metal is considered a haven for people to park their money when there is anxiety about a possible recession. 'History shows it has gone much higher in the past,' Clark said, referring to a frenzy in the 1970s when the average price of gold increased 17-fold amid double-digit inflation rates. 'If the fear and uncertainty continues in the general populace, the prices are going to keep going up.' Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Economic jitters and soaring gold prices create a frenzy for US jewelry merchants
LOS ANGELES (AP) — At the biggest jewelry center in the United States, Alberto Hernandez fired up his machine on a recent day and waited until it glowed bright orange inside before shoveling in an assortment of rings, earrings and necklaces weighing about as much as a bar of soap: just under 100 grams, or 3.2 troy ounces. Minutes later, the bubbling liquid metal was cooling in a rectangular cast the size of a woman's shoe. An X-ray machine determined it was 56.5% gold, making it worth $177,000 based on the price of gold that day. As gold prices soar to record highs during global economic jitters, hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of gold are circulating through the doors of St. Vincent Jewelry Center in downtown Los Angeles on any given day. Many of the center's 500 independent tenants, which include jewelers, gold refiners and assayers, say they have never seen such a surge in customers. 'Right now, we're seeing a lot of rappers and stuff melting their big pieces,' said Alberto's nephew, Sabashden Hernandez, who works at A&M Precious Metals. 'We're getting a lot of new customers who are just getting all of their grandfather's stuff, melting it down pretty much.' Gold's current rally comes as President Donald Trump issues ever-changing announcements on tariffs, roiling financial markets and threatening to reignite inflation. In response, people across the country are flocking to sell or melt down their old jewelry for quick cash, including middlemen like pawn shop owners. Others, thinking their money might be safer in gold than in the volatile stock market, are snapping it up just as fast. Los Angeles jeweler Olivia Kazanjian said people are even bringing in family heirlooms. 'They're melting things with their family's wedding dates and things from the 1800s,' Kazanjian said. She recently paid a client for a 14-karat gold woven bracelet with intricate blue enamel work that could be turned into a brooch. The customer walked away with $3,200 for the amount of gold contained in the piece measured in troy ounces, the standard for precious metals equivalent to 31 grams. But Kazanjian doesn't plan to melt the piece. The real artistic and historical value was a lot more, she said. 'It's just stunning … and you won't see that kind of craftsmanship again,' Kazanjian said, adding she has persuaded some customers to change their minds about melting items. 'It's a piece of history, and if you're lucky enough to inherit it, it's a piece of your family." Businesses on the sales side of the action, offering gold bars and other material, also are working hard to keep up with the frenzy. 'Stuff comes in and it goes right out,' said Edwin Feijoo, who owns Stefko Cash for Gold in Pennsylvania and receives shipments from customers across the U.S. looking to sell their gold. 'Everybody's busy right now.' Business hasn't been good for everyone, though. For some jewelers who source their products from places abroad like Italy, Turkey and China, the combination of high gold prices and added tariffs have cut into profit margins and hurt demand. 'Our profit margins are so razor thin here,' said Puzant Berberian, whose family founded V&P Jewelry inside St. Vincent in 1983. Berberian said he recently paid an extra $16,000 on a package from overseas. Customers also are feeling 'sticker shock' when they can't afford the things they used to. A chunky, 14-karat gold bracelet weighing about 10 grams (0.32 troy ounces) might have sold for around $600 last year, but now it's closer to $900, Berberian said. Some believe those trends could continue, both for consumers and businesses. Customers hoping to buy bullion 'think gold will go up' even more, according to Sam Nguyen, whose business, Newport Gold Post Inc., has bought and sold gold and other precious metals at St. Vincent for five years. While gold has cooled from its record high of $3,500 per troy ounce, Nguyen thinks it could reach $4,000 to $5,000 by year's end. Jeff Clark agrees. The founder of The Gold Advisor, which provides investment advice, said he wouldn't be surprised if gold prices continue rising since the metal is considered a haven for people to park their money when there is anxiety about a possible recession. 'History shows it has gone much higher in the past,' Clark said, referring to a frenzy in the 1970s when the average price of gold increased 17-fold amid double-digit inflation rates. 'If the fear and uncertainty continues in the general populace, the prices are going to keep going up.' Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Associated Press
11-05-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Economic jitters and soaring gold prices create a frenzy for US jewelry merchants
LOS ANGELES (AP) — At the biggest jewelry center in the United States, Alberto Hernandez fired up his machine on a recent day and waited until it glowed bright orange inside before shoveling in an assortment of rings, earrings and necklaces weighing about as much as a bar of soap: just under 100 grams, or 3.2 troy ounces. Minutes later, the bubbling liquid metal was cooling in a rectangular cast the size of a woman's shoe. An X-ray machine determined it was 56.5% gold, making it worth $177,000 based on the price of gold that day. As gold prices soar to record highs during global economic jitters, hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of gold are circulating through the doors of St. Vincent Jewelry Center in downtown Los Angeles on any given day. Many of the center's 500 independent tenants, which include jewelers, gold refiners and assayers, say they have never seen such a surge in customers. 'Right now, we're seeing a lot of rappers and stuff melting their big pieces,' said Alberto's nephew, Sabashden Hernandez, who works at A&M Precious Metals. 'We're getting a lot of new customers who are just getting all of their grandfather's stuff, melting it down pretty much.' Gold's current rally comes as President Donald Trump issues ever-changing announcements on tariffs, roiling financial markets and threatening to reignite inflation. In response, people across the country are flocking to sell or melt down their old jewelry for quick cash, including middlemen like pawn shop owners. Others, thinking their money might be safer in gold than in the volatile stock market, are snapping it up just as fast. Los Angeles jeweler Olivia Kazanjian said people are even bringing in family heirlooms. 'They're melting things with their family's wedding dates and things from the 1800s,' Kazanjian said. She recently paid a client for a 14-karat gold woven bracelet with intricate blue enamel work that could be turned into a brooch. The customer walked away with $3,200 for the amount of gold contained in the piece measured in troy ounces, the standard for precious metals equivalent to 31 grams. But Kazanjian doesn't plan to melt the piece. The real artistic and historical value was a lot more, she said. 'It's just stunning … and you won't see that kind of craftsmanship again,' Kazanjian said, adding she has persuaded some customers to change their minds about melting items. 'It's a piece of history, and if you're lucky enough to inherit it, it's a piece of your family.' Businesses on the sales side of the action, offering gold bars and other material, also are working hard to keep up with the frenzy. 'Stuff comes in and it goes right out,' said Edwin Feijoo, who owns Stefko Cash for Gold in Pennsylvania and receives shipments from customers across the U.S. looking to sell their gold. 'Everybody's busy right now.' Business hasn't been good for everyone, though. For some jewelers who source their products from places abroad like Italy, Turkey and China, the combination of high gold prices and added tariffs have cut into profit margins and hurt demand. 'Our profit margins are so razor thin here,' said Puzant Berberian, whose family founded V&P Jewelry inside St. Vincent in 1983. Berberian said he recently paid an extra $16,000 on a package from overseas. Customers also are feeling 'sticker shock' when they can't afford the things they used to. A chunky, 14-karat gold bracelet weighing about 10 grams (0.32 troy ounces) might have sold for around $600 last year, but now it's closer to $900, Berberian said. Some believe those trends could continue, both for consumers and businesses. Customers hoping to buy bullion 'think gold will go up' even more, according to Sam Nguyen, whose business, Newport Gold Post Inc., has bought and sold gold and other precious metals at St. Vincent for five years. While gold has cooled from its record high of $3,500 per troy ounce, Nguyen thinks it could reach $4,000 to $5,000 by year's end. Jeff Clark agrees. The founder of The Gold Advisor, which provides investment advice, said he wouldn't be surprised if gold prices continue rising since the metal is considered a haven for people to park their money when there is anxiety about a possible recession. 'History shows it has gone much higher in the past,' Clark said, referring to a frenzy in the 1970s when the average price of gold increased 17-fold amid double-digit inflation rates. 'If the fear and uncertainty continues in the general populace, the prices are going to keep going up.'
