Gold prices headed for steep drop?

by jaywhaley on September 29, 2010

I remember when I first started making jewelry in high school, it was 1968.  I considered buying some gold to cast with, but it was horribly expensive… $35 an ounce.  Now, in Sept. 2010, it just went over $1300 an ounce.  I won’t even pretend to understand the many reasons gold has been driven to this insane price.

Investors with a lot more understanding of financial markets than I have probably can figure out the many market forces that make gold and other precious metals rise and fall.   It’s just too bad that gold is such a critical material to us metalsmiths, and its price increases can really influence how ( or IF) we earn a living.

I really don’t know whether gold prices will just continue to go out of sight, or peak and head down into more realistic levels.  My local coin dealer, whom I buy my 24K gold from, thinks that the gold investors who have driven up the price of gold by buying up lots of it for speculation, are getting ready to sell off their gold and take their profits, realizing that gold is near the absolute top in value.  My dealer friend predicts gold to hit $1400 by Christmas, but to then plunge in price as investors sell off and the world gold supply increases.   I like that scenerio.

I’d like to see gold come back to, say, $500 an ounce, still expensive, but more affordable, compared to today’s prices.

I guess we have no choice but to stay on the gold roller coaster and try to hang on.  Cross your fingers that gold gets more affordable…and soon!

–Jay Whaley

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

Bentiron September 30, 2010 at 1:42 pm

Perhaps we should hope for economic recovery so that folk can start buying our finely crafted jewelry again and then we wouldn’t need to be so worried about the cost of our supplies. If the dollar rebounded we would all be better off and the metals market would stabilize. As it is now there is no stability with jobs, housing or the dollar.

Jeff Demand September 30, 2010 at 4:42 am

Jay,

We have no choice but to hang on. I do not understand investing in precious metals. The only time I tried I just broke even, the Hunts playing with silver did make a nice windfall for me but that was gross manipulation of the market. I make things out of the stuff, I don’t speculate. Buy and sell (with profit) for what it costs.

jeffD

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