Locals Sell Off Gold for GreenBY TOM EMBREY: STAFF WRITERFor seven years, Jim Simmons has panned the rivers and streams of Moore County and North Carolina for gold.
As members of the Gold Prospectors of America, Simmons and his friend and business partner Jim Jones seek gold as a hobby.
"It is a treasure hunt for us," Simmons said. "It's something you enjoy doing. We find a little (gold) dust but not enough to eat off of or pay the bills."
Some in Moore County, who are feeling a financial crunch -- or who are just looking for some extra spending money -- are rushing to area pawn shops to cash in their gold.
The price of
gold, which reached a high value of more than $1,000 an ounce, has fluctuated greatly in the past few weeks, but is currently selling for about $900 an ounce.
D.J. Cornell, an assistant manager at Jim's Loans Guns & Gold in Southern Pines, said business has been brisk for six months. She expects it to continue to be strong, especially if gold reaches anticipated highs.
"A lot of people are waiting on it to hit $1,500 an ounce," Cornell said. "They are just sitting back and waiting. Right now we get a lot of calls asking us where is gold at today."
Since October, Cornell said her Southern Pines shop has seen plenty of coins, new jewelry, and scrap gold, and even some items she'd soon forget.
"I remember the most disgusting thing someone brought in," Cornell said.
She said a man came in one day and asked her if they buy "these" and pointed to his mouth and his golden grill, or jewelry worn over the teeth.
"He reaches in his mouth, and before I realized what he was doing, he drops them (gold teeth) in my hand," Cornell said.
Startled, Cornell screamed, but composed herself quickly and asked the customer to "get those disgusting, slobber-covered thing out of my hand."
Simmons, who works with City Pawn in Southern Pines and co-owns Jim's Gems and Gold with Jones, said his shop is not buying more gold than usual.
"We just have to pay more than we usually do," Simmons said.
Simmons said most of what is coming in is scrap gold -- broken or otherwise damaged pieces.
"People say to me 'I paid $500 for that,' and they expect me to give them $500," he said. "They don't understand I'm not going to give them that, because the metal is not there."
He likened buying scrap gold to buying scrap metal.
"If you buy a $20,000 car and then wrap it around a pole, how much is the scrap man going to give you for it -- not $20,000," Simmons said.
He said that waiting to sell gold in hopes that the price will rise can be a big gamble.
"A lot of people try to hit the high market," Simmons said. "If you wait and wait, you can lose your position on it."
Simmons cashes in the gold he buys as quickly as possible.
Cornell, who monitors prices constantly, takes a different approach.
"I'm like everybody else waiting for the price to go up to $1,500 (per ounce)," she said.
Contact Tom Embrey at 693-2473 or by e-mail at tembrey@thepilot.com.
