If you watched the Super Bowl last week, you probably saw the ad with Ed McMahon and MC Hammer – both known as men sometimes in bad need of ready cash – touting a company called Cash4Gold. According to a recent article in Newsday, the Florida-based company spends millions each month on advertising on the Web and the airwaves to convince folks to mail in their gold jewelry, coins, medallions, or trophies to get cash back in a flash. What Ed and MC didn’t mention is something that the company’s Web site does: Customers may get more at their local gold dealer.

In other words, Newsday reports something that we have been telling our readers for a long time. That is, many local dealers provide substantially better buying offers for gold. And that if you are concerned about getting the best price for your gold (or for anything else you want to sell) information and comparative shopping are your best defense.

The Newsday article cites Amit Verma of Nassau Gold Buyers, in Hicksville and Rockville Centre. She says that gold sellers should go to several dealers to convince themselves that offers are competitive, and “get referrals from people who are happy with how they are treated.”

Murray Gordon of Whitman Coin & Jewelry in Melville, a store that buys gold jewelry and gold collectibles and which has a pawnbroking section as well, also confirms the fact that mail-in companies could easily pay less than what the gold could get elsewhere.”Believe it or not, a few earrings can add up to a hundred pennyweights, which can be worth $1,500, $1,800, depending on the quality of the gold,” said Mr. Gordon.

So San Diego gold jewelry sellers don’t forget to call around to your local gold buyers or drop by their shop before deciding who you are going to sell your gold to.

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It certainly is obvious that selling used gold is becoming a hot trend in San Diego and around the country. For further evidence about the selling gold for cash trend, read this interesting article: More Folks Turning Gold Jewelry into Cash.

Steve Ellis, a manager of RAB Gold Strategy, is reporting for Yahoo News that the US Federal Reserve has flooded the market with liquidity by more than doubling its balance sheet in less than six months. This means it may be unable or unwilling to withdraw it in time for fear of precipitating a secondary relapse in economic activity. Meanwhile other central bankers are predicted to face intense pressures to “support” their domestic economy by weakening the currency, leading to competitive currency devaluations.

What does this mean for the San Diego gold seller or buyer? It means that the race to the bottom in fiat currencies has begun and hard assets, particularly gold and silver, should be the primary beneficiaries. According to Ellis, gold is a prime candidate to become a “mania asset” once its demand becomes mainly financially driven as opposed to gold jewelry and/or industrial demand driven where its upside may be capped by “sticker shock”.

Once the psychologically significant $1,000 an ounce gold price is broken convincingly, the speed of the move beyond that level could accelerate sharply, says Ellis. One precondition for a mania is there must be uncertainty about how the asset is properly valued which allows “new era” thinking to take hold. This is very true for gold.

How high can gold ultimately go? Ellis says to look at in terms of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. A Dow Jones Industrial Average/gold ratio of 2:1 would be a good sign the bull market in gold is getting well underway, as happened in 1932 and 1980. Getting to the 2:1 ratio again doesn’t mean the Dow must decline significantly from here; more likely gold prices surge and the Dow stays range-bound but volatile. Investors are looking for good risk/reward investments.

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In the end, it is always guess-work whether gold will become a mania asset. But if we look at the price of gold lately things certainly seem to be falling on the side of mania: Gold Prices Jump to 7 Month High.

This Week’s Gold Seller Question:

What is a good price for dental gold scraps by the gram?

Answer From: San Diego Jewelry Buyers

Depending on the gold purity of your dental scraps, we would be paying you roughly between $10.00 and $20.00 per gram. Let me explain how that works: Dental gold scraps can vary in actual karat rating (gold purity) from between 40% gold content all the way up to as high as 80%. So, for example, if gold is trading on the market at $900 per troy ounce, and your scraps tested at 40% gold purity, then we would be paying you $9.83 per gram. If your scraps tested at 80% gold purity, then we would be paying you $19.67. These figures are calculated at 85% of gold’s current trading price, to leave room for operating and refining costs, and to cover risk of gold prices taking a sudden drop. These figures are based on the assumption that you have only a small quantity of gold (less than one ounce), but in case you have a lot of dental gold we sometimes pay higher for larger quantities.

We tell customers that the best thing to do is come into our office so that we can test the karat rating of their dental gold scraps, and let us make them an offer. There is no obligation to sell to us, and we offer this service free of charge. We’re available any time from 9:00 AM till 4:00 PM Monday through Friday, no appointment necessary. Our office is located at 861 Sixth Avenue (between E Street and F Street), in the Jewelers Exchange Building, downtown San Diego (in the Gaslamp District). We’re at the far right corner of the ground floor, suite number 125. Please ask for Carl Blackburn. You may call ahead if you’d like, to let us know what time you’ll be coming in, our telephone number is (619) 236-9603.

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Here at the San Diego Luxury Pawn Shop Report we are always looking for unusal news stories that jewelry lovers might be intrigued or surprised by. Here’s a good item: Lesotho Unearths 478 Carat Diamond!