WTVH-5 Story Published April 2, 2008

Jewelry stores see some major changes now that the price of gold is so high. Instead of coming in to buy, people are coming in to sell their jewelry. The price of gold has gone up by 200 percent in the last four years. For people who have a stash of gold in their jewelry box, that means a lot of cash.
We always knew gold was a precious metal but now it's extremely precious. The price of gold is going up steadily, and at local jewelry stores, people are rushing to get rid of it. Tom Marini from Jewelry on James says, "Right now because the price of gold is so high the majority of the business we're doing is buying gold, scrap gold."

Mariani says his customers at the Syracuse store pay attention to the news and are unloading their extra gold. It went from about $300 an ounce in 2002 to $900 an ounce Wednesday. Sharon Wells of Camillus, a customer, decided to take advantage of the trend. She says, "I had some little pieces of gold I no longer use. They've gotten damaged over the years and Tom graciously told me gold was at a pretty good price right now. So I thought why not trade it in and add to my bracelet."

"Jewelry on James" even put up a billboard to tell people about the rising price of gold. The billboard reads "Gold! Top dollar paid." And the word is definitely reaching a lot of people, who want to make use of their forgotten broken pieces of jewelry.