Record Price for Gold Has a Ripple Effect

The record high price of gold is being felt in jewelry stores, dentists' offices, banks and other businesses throughout the Farmington Valley and central Connecticut.

Customers are trading in jewelry, investors are asking about adding gold to their portfolios and dental patients are weighing the costs of gold amalgams. At $1,500 an ounce, gold is simply more precious than ever. 

“Two years ago I was charging $18 for a little clasp for a bracelet or necklace,” said Mato Latin, owner of Matco Jewelry in Granby.  “Today I have to charge $48 for the same item.” 

In Collinsville, jewelry designer Carol Ackerman of Carol & Company said she has been busy with customers bringing in gold to  sell outright, to be repaired or to be incorporated into other designs. Some people pay for the custom work by bringing in more gold.

“Sometimes I end up owing them money,” Ackerman said.

Gold prices have been rising gradually for a few years now, she said, and that has brought changes in her work, which is sold to retailers around the country. She's using more open, lighter designs that incorporate other materials. 

“You’ll see that in many collections,” she said.

Bob La Perla of La Perla Fine Jewelers in West Hartford has also seen customers trading in old jewelry and using the money to upgrade. “They get nearly the full value of the gold and they get a new piece of jewelry,” he said. “They are buying a new style, a new look, but using the value of the metal as it has appreciated over the years.”

At Franklin Jewelers in Farmington, people aren't just bringing in gold."We’re also buying lots of silver. Compared to gold silver rose 85 percent and gold only 27 percent," owner Geno Avenoso said.

The managers of two shops that exchange cash for gold in West Hartford — Good Ole Tom's in Bishops Corner and Fast Eddy on Sedgwick Road — said they had seen a steady rise in interest among gold buyers and sellers this year.

"Absolutely, there has been an increase in interest," said Keith Druckenmiller, manager and one of the owners of Fast Eddy's West Hartford location. He said he has been seeing more activity from both sellers, who are betting that this is the peak, and buyers, who think the price of gold will continue to increase.

Investors are also wondering where gold prices are going, and financial advisors are hearing from them. 

“It’s certainly coming up in conversation a lot more on the investment side,”  said Peter Sepelak, assistant branch manager at Simsbury Bank in Granby and an advisor with SBT Investment Service. But he said he hasn't seen the talk translate into a noticeable shift toward investments in gold.

Robert S. Thompson, president of Sage Financial Design in Simsbury, said clients have been asking about gold, wondering if prices are close to a peak. But he advises them to broaden their thinking to other precious metals, some of which have seen bigger gains than gold has.

“We prefer special mineral mining issues, which takes in much more than just gold or silver,” Thompson said. “Silver has been our play for some time."

Buying gold is not optional for Jim Hansen, owner of Hansen Dental Laboratory in Farmington, who makes gold alloy crowns for area dentists.

 “I just pass the price on to the doctor, who passes it on to the patient but it does hurt me because I have to keep it in inventory,” he said.

Patients must make their own decisions. Hannah Kaizer, assistant at Murray Kaizer Dental in Farmington, said a few female patients insist on gold. “Mostly people don’t want to pay for gold, though," she said. "It’s just a lot more money and other metals are just as strong.”

The high value of gold is also attracting the interest of thieves. Jewelry store robberies don't seem to be on the rise, but residential burglaries have seen a considerable increase in the past year, according to James Strillacci, West Hartford police chief and legislative representative for the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association.

“We are seeing an increase in home burglaries and particularly daytime burglaries when people aren’t at home,” he said. “These are cases where the victims are often people close to the burglars and they are entering to take precious metals such as gold, which they then sell at area pawn shops and precious metal dealerships.”

“We get regular reports from pawn dealers to see who is selling what,” Strillacci said. “In cases where sales can be connected to theft victims, detectives are moving forward to make arrests and bring cases to a close.”

Patch editors Jeff Brush, John Fitts, Kaitlin McCallum, Stephanie Riefe, Susan Schoenberger and Jason Vallee, and writer Lindsay Fetzner contributed to this article.