"gold parties"

窮人賣金飾, 有錢人買金條, 金價何去何從 ？

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Americans strike gold by selling their jewelry at "gold parties" during deepening recession

Guests say getting together with friends in somebody's living room makes it a fun, social occasion, and feels more respectable than hocking their rings, necklaces and brooches at seedy pawn shops or selling them back to jewelry stores.

"It's terrific because it's a little bit intimidating to think about walking into a jewelry store, even though they may be heavily advertising it, and, you know, to someone that you don't know and turning over your valuables to them," said Pat Walsh, a 56-year-old retired store manager from Simsbury, Connecticut.

In front of the guests, Percival uses a jeweler's magnifying loupe to assess the gold, a digital meter to test whether it is real, and an electronic scale to weigh it.

At Podgorski's party, women laughed as they narrated stories behind their jewelry, which included gifts from ex-husbands and boyfriends who no longer inspired fond memories, 1960s cocktail rings that a man gave to his wife before they divorced, and a souvenir from a high school trip to Russia.

"Somebody at a party last week had a pre-engagement ring from her boyfriend before her husband, and her 14-year-old daughter wanted the ring, and she said, `If your father ever saw you with that ring on you, he'd kill me,' so she sold it," Percival said.

The gold-buying services typically are not interested in the jewelry itself. Instead, they sell the items to gold refiners to be melted down.

The gold party host and gold buyer generally get a 10 percent cut. Podgorski made $300 at her party, which she said she donated to a charity she runs that provides free prom dresses to high school girls who cannot afford one.

Alona Bloom, a 34-year-old mother of two and a teacher's assistant in Pittsburgh, recently sold old jewelry at a friend's gold party. Bloom thought she would leave with $100 but walked out with $700.

Now, she is now working to organize her own party to earn the 10 percent commission. She would like at least 10 sellers but has found just eight so far.

"A lot of people have already sold their gold," Bloom said.