Colorado residents found it easy to part with their valuables at a buying roadshow Wednesday — everything except their gold. The price of gold has risen almost 350 percent since 2000, although critics have warned that the commodity might be due for a correction.
Many sellers at the week-long buying roadshow hosted by Global Estate Merchandisers Co., known as GEMCo, said the current price was not high enough — not with print and television advertisements promising a future of skyrocketing prices. Gold traded around $1,231 an ounce on the spot market Wednesday.
Denver resident Hugo Quintana, 51, said now was as good a time as any to sell his collection of bracelets, rings, silver-plated flatware and small bronze sculptures. He has been unemployed for more than a year and needs the money.
But Quintana did not bring any gold along with his trove.
“It’ll be the last thing I get rid of,” he said. “Gold might go up, so I want to hold onto it as long as I can.”
After earning almost $245 for the small amount of silver he brought, however, Quintana had second thoughts.
He might return to the show at the Embassy Suites in southeast Denver on Saturday with some gold-plated jewelry, he said.
“If it were a different time — five, 10 years ago — I would not be satisfied” with the selling price, he said.
Whether they come bearing coins, jewelry or unique watches, many sellers are more aware of gold prices than they used to be, said Justin Travers, a group leader and appraiser for GEMCo.
“A couple of years ago when we started, I couldn’t tell you the spot price of gold,” Travers said. “Now, everybody knows it because it’s in the paper every day.”
Travers said his business does well in any economy because sellers part with valuables for personal as well as monetary reasons. Many older sellers visit when they find their children have little interest in their silverware or coin collections.
Several sellers interviewed Wednesday shared the expectation that gold still has more bullish days ahead.
One Aurora man turned down a $1,100 offer for a 19th-century gold coin because he expects the price of gold to rise even higher. He acknowledged that the seller’s market won’t last forever but said he would keep waiting for now.
“I wish I had gold and I’d bought it at $300,” said Bob Green, 60, a Littleton sporting-goods retailer. He came to trade old coins and other items.
Travers said he expects more sellers to step forward when the metal’s price slides.
“Whenever there’s a huge drop — it goes down $100 to $150 (an ounce) — by the end of the week, we’ll see a lot of them coming in,” he said.
Drew FitzGerald: 303-954-1381 or dfitzgerald@denverpost.com
