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Selling your 'Kitty Bling?' Call 555-1234 for current prices!
Posted on 03/21/2008 12:17:47 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
(Precious metals' value leads many to sell jewelry stashes)
(WI) At Greater Milwaukee Coin in Brookfield, Belinda Campanelli unloaded her husband's wedding band - from his first wife.
Cindy Stegeman said so long to a few old charms from an ex-beau who'd long ago lost his.
And at Derzon Coin Co. in West Allis, Helena Horich parted with the keepsake coins she's collected since emigrating from Poland 25 years ago.
The recent run-up in prices for gold and silver - even after a two-day free fall, gold closed Thursday at $920 an ounce - has Milwaukee-area residents digging through attics and raiding their safety deposit boxes, hoping to turn their precious metals into cold, hard cash.
For many, it is a lark, a quick way to make a little mad money.
But it is also a sign of these troubling times, of an economy so beleaguered that families are scrounging to pay their mortgages and put food on the table.
"Everything cost so expensive," said Horich, 75, of Milwaukee, who sold $135 in mostly silver coins Thursday at Derzon.
"Right now it's Easter time, and I have family. I need to buy food."
Commodities - from gold and silver to oil and grains - have long served as a hedge against inflation for investors in turbulent times, said Ken Evason, president of Jacobus Wealth Management in Wauwatosa. And, as with any investment, as money moves in, it pushes the value up.
Gold and silver started their latest ascent late last summer as fears mounted that the housing slump and credit-market losses would usher in a recession, according to Bloomberg News.
Since Aug. 16, gold rose 56% to a record $1003.85 an ounce on March 18. Silver saw an even steeper climb, rising 83% to $20.66 on March 5.
Although both have fallen with the latest round of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts - silver closed Thursday at $16.85 - they remain at levels not seen since the late 1970s and early 1980s.
"People are saying, 'Why do I own this stuff?' 'What am I doing with it when I have credit card bills, rising mortgage payments?' " Evason said.
That's meant a crush of customers at local businesses that buy and sell gold.
"It's been chaotic the last couple of weeks," said Rebecca Derzon, who has run the longtime West Allis shop since her husband, David, died in December.
"People are coming in with shoeboxes full of broken jewelry, dental fillings, coins, anything that looks like metal. One lady told me she took out her own (gold) filling.
"The last time I saw anything like this was in 1979-'80 when the Hunt brothers tried to corner the market in silver."
Making choices
The vast majority of Derzon's customers these days, she said, are elderly patrons who are barely scraping by - many of them Polish immigrants who lived through years of soaring inflation when they'd "go to the grocery store with a bushel basket full of money."
"A lot of these senior citizens have to choose between their prescriptions and food," she said. "It's sad to see them selling their personal stuff to help themselves."
The situation appeared less dire in Brookfield, where customers flocked to Greater Milwaukee Coin as soon as the doors opened at 10.
"A lot of days people have been waiting in line," said Dave Hunsicker, one of three buyers working the small room.
"Tuesday was so busy, we had to take the phone off the hook," said co-owner Russ Konig. "It was just unbelievable."
Campanelli, of Lisbon, came prepared, pulling out three plastic bags, each a jumble of gold chains, rings, bracelets and pins all separated by karat weight.
"It's a bunch of junk I don't use or need," she said. "A lot of it was my mom's, and she passed away five years ago.
"I could carry it around for a lifetime - and do what with it?"
At both businesses, each piece is examined to determine its karat weight, or gold content, and then weighed to calculate value.
Big expectations
It's not unusual for customers to think they'll reap more than they do.
"People hear $1,000 an ounce, but that's for pure gold, 24 karat," Konig said. "You almost never see that."
A 14 karat gold piece, for example, is only about 50% gold, he explained.
By the time you calculate for that, then add in a buyer's costs and profit, it might come in a little lower than expected.
Stegeman, of Pewaukee, who unloaded the old charms and a few 1980s-style necklaces, was more than happy with her haul Thursday. She left Brookfield with a check for $532.90 for a few pieces that fit in one hand.
And Linda Eaton of Delavan couldn't complain as she walked from Derzon's with a check for more than $3,000.
But Horich seemed to slump as the clerk told her that her silver coins would fetch just $135.
She paused and slipped a diamond ring off her finger.
"Can you tell me how much this is worth," she asked.
About $300, he told her. She said a quiet "thank you" and slid it back on her finger.
Horich said she has no intention of selling the ring. Still she worries how she will get by.
"I have only Social Security check," she said. "And I can't pay my property tax."
It’s Wisconsin...they need to sell them to pay their taxes...
Selling your 'Kitty Bling?' Call 555-1234 for current prices!
Well, that IS a valid point, LOL!
Why don’t people who bought homes they couldn’t afford, just take advantage of homes for sale by like situated people with less expensive homes. I bet they could work out something with the lenders.
“I have only Social Security check,” she said. “And I can’t pay my property tax.”
I witnessed a wonderful neighborhood ruined by greed in Milwaukee — lived there for 10 years and now live outside the county. My wife and I bought a home in Bay View, an established, stable neighborhood off the lake filled with long time homeowners and established family businesses. Then the tax man came. Between 2001 and 2004 my property went up more than 100% and the oldtimers left. It wasn’t gentrification that pushed the oldtimers out, it was property tax increases on “equity.” So they forced folks out of their homes by raising their fixed costs $200, $300, $400 a month. The neighborhood rapidly took on a transient flair and crime went up as the new owners, many first timers, kept saying “it’s not as bad as my old neighborhood.” Rapid increase in cost of living along with declining services, no responsive policing, failed schools, etc etc etc. Al the while the local politicians keep yammering about “green space” and maintaining the neighborhood feel as they nix developments that would at the very least push the tax base upwards.
Bay View home prices are down 20-30% in some parts, mostly because of the tax component of mortgage payments. People are still able to spend the same amount on monthly payments but now have to devote the $200-$300 a month that previously was reserved for principal and interest toward property tax increases.
This in my opinion is the one major untold story of the real estate market’s fall. $200 a month will buy you $31,000 of house at 6.5%, $300 will get you $45,000. Spending power stolen away from homebuyers, and equity owners by reckless municipal spending.
Chicken is still cheap. So are collard greens. Spring is here so dandelion salad is free.
When I start seeing the man with the bell and cart, calling to “bring out your dead,” I ain’t worried. Most of the economic problems will hit states run by liberals. Ain’t concerned about that either.
Chicken is still cheap. So are collard greens. Spring is here so dandelion salad is free.
When I start seeing the man with the bell and cart, calling to “bring out your dead,” I ain’t worried. Most of the economic problems will hit states run by liberals. Ain’t concerned about that either.
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