They've mined closets and jewelry boxes, gathering up coins, chains, charm bracelets and items handed down from mothers and grandmothers.
With gold and silver prices hitting all-time highs, some residents in the Pioneer Valley have decided to cash in.
This month, gold began commanding a price of more than $4,000 an ounce. And while the price of gold dropped from a high on Monday of more than $4,300 a troy ounce, many of those who deal in precious metals say the hype is boosting business.
About 25 years ago, gold cost less than $300 an ounce. Now, the price far exceeds what some paid 10-15 years ago for, say, a piece of jewelry.
"They're not surprised – they're shocked when they come in," Michael Sarkis, president of Springfield Jewelry and Diamond Exchange, said of people looking to sell their items. It can be a six- or seven-fold increase in price.
"Personally, I think it's going to go higher," Sarkis said. "But you never know."
While the exchange has seen a lot of people looking to cash in by selling, others want to invest, due to concerns about the state of the economy, he said. Gold is seen as a way to insulate against "hard economic times," Sarkis said, and globally there has been a high volume of trading.
This small gold bar was valued at $1,442 and the gold coin next to it was valued at $2,139 at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday. The price had changed by $3 in the time it took to take a picture. Oct. 22, 2025. (Douglas Hook / The Republican)Douglas Hook
A big factor? The Trump administration's efforts to impose tariffs on goods coming into the United States to encourage a resurgence of manufacturing.
"I don't think the tariffs are going away anytime soon," Sarkis said.
David Rosen, a team member at The Gold Trader in Springfield, said business has been brisk, with the interest in selling and buying influenced by headlines proclaiming recent moves in the metal's price.
The decision to sell, however, is a personal one, Rosen said. People may be trying to bring an investment to fruition, or may not want to keep precious metal in their house.
"It used to be very, very easy to determine when gold was going to go up," Rosen said, "if there was some sort of an international crisis or something crazy happened in the marketplace."
Now, other factors appear to be influencing the price, including market momentum, he said.
The price for gold surged in recent months. For instance, warehouse retailer Costco made headlines after it began selling gold bars in October 2023, moving hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of the metal.
"If you jumped on the Costco bandwagon a year and a half ago, you did great," Rosen said.
But when people come to him asking for his advice on investing in gold, Rosen said he tells them to first consult a financial advisor and to buy with an eye to holding the metal long-term.
Mark Kendall of The Gold Standard in Granby said his shop is "very, very actively buying." The number of customers interested in selling their gold has risen about 30% since spring. They include people looking to offload jewelry, perhaps owned by their mother or grandmother, as well as gold investors who bought coin years ago.
Beyond buying items based solely on the worth of the metal, Kendall said his shop focuses on antique jewelry.
"We do pay more for antique pieces that we can resell. That's our main goal, is to get items back into circulation if at all possible," Kendall said.
What has cooled these days, Kendall said, is the retail jewelry market, as common jewelry items have risen price. For instance, a gold ring that was once $200 may be worth $300-$400 if it is simply melted down.
"So you're losing out on a certain segment of population that either doesn't have the disposable income to buy it, or they're just priced out of the market in buying jewelry to adorn themselves," Kendall said.
Ki Nam, owner of the jewelry store Kim and Lee on Main Street in Springfield, said business has been "very, very slow." A sign outside his store advertised teeth and nameplates and gold repair.
He said his customers, largely middle- and low-income people, some reliant on Social Security and food stamps, purchased a lot of gold five or six years ago, many of them to wear and to sell if they needed the cash. Three years ago, many were selling. "I think they sold out," Nam said.
These days, Nam, who has operated the Main Street shop for four decades, has focused on the repair of fine jewelry and he's been trying to offer more gold-plated jewelry.
Meanwhile, Joey Furnari, owner of Furnari Jewelers, with a location in Chicopee and another in The Holyoke Mall at Ingleside, said this month is one of the busiest Octobers he's ever had.
People who had been holding on to old jewelry, wavering on whether to sell, are making the decision to part with the items.
Others are bringing in jewelry purchased decades ago – such as "old charm bracelets, that heavy, heavy gold ... popular during the '80s and '90s" – and using it to trade in for more modern, sleeker pieces, Furnari said.
"Since the beginning of time," Furnari said, "gold's been a valuable thing, since ancient Mesopotamia, you know? And it's the highest it's ever been now."
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