Sell Your Gold at the Shopping Mall

I was in Holland, Michigan over the weekend and went to the one shopping mall in town, Westshore Mall. If you know Holland, you know it. It has the JCPenney.

Otherwise, the interior stores were rather sparse. (But the mall was recently bought and an extensive rehab is planned which could explain the scarcity of stores.)

But one booth in an empty store caught my eye.

Two men were sitting at folding tables and buying gold.

And two women were selling.

They had scales and were giving out cash for necklaces, rings, earrings etc. Anything with gold in it.

I didn’t ask how much they were paying (I wish I had.) Gold is currently selling at $931 an ounce, but, of course, these dealers would have been buying for much, much less.

But still. If you can get a couple of hundred dollars for selling some gold necklaces you hardly wear, why not?

That’s the difference between gold and the dollar. Gold actually has real value and people are willing to pay for it. If you have gold, as has been true throughout all of history, you can barter it, sell it, or use it as leverage. There’s a reason the explorers came to the New World looking for the much rumored “city of gold.”

Is this a bullish sign for gold?

I don’t remember the last time gold dealers were buying gold in a shopping mall. But clearly, the high gas and food prices are taking a toll.

More on Southwest Michigan and its economy tomorrow.