Gold Update — Pawnshop Report

Here’s an update from a pawnbroker.  Many people get rid of their scrap gold at pawnbrokers, and business is rather brisk, he says …

With the Coin & Bullion business, I can fill you in….
TODAY, alone, we bought 6-7K worth of SCRAP GOLD JEWELRY..
It’s been ‘averaging’ 12-13K a week with my biggest week
pushing 35K a few weeks ago….for years, downtown, we were
lucky to SEE 4-5K worth of scrap gold in a month…of coors,
the higher Gold prices add to the value and certainly bring
out stuff from dusty jewelry boxes, no doubt, BUT, this is
still a steady dis-hoarding by Joe6Pak and his bride(s)….

My biggest seller today, by the way, was liquidating about
4K worth of stuff that hubby had bought her maybe twenty
years ago when they lived in Boulder….HE recently got the
ax from his department at a large company here (accounting
dept., by the way), but was trying to “get liquid” so they
could move BACK to Boulder where his brother had a position
for him in his small company.

SCRAP & CRAP are “flowing” into the Coin Shops…I’m fairly
certainly 50% of the over-55 folks definitely HAVE at least
40-50 damned Proof and Mint Sets that have sat idle for
years in their closets and they’re all making a concerted
effort to DUMP that crap on us the past 6 months!!! arrrgh!!!

Flatware sets, misc. collector spoons, foreign coin hoards,
pocket watches — you name it, it’s comin’ out of the
woodwork as folks try to FREE UP MONEY…many are recently
UNemployed from what they tell us, others have had their
HOURS cut back severely and need cash….

The SELLERS far outnumber the buyers right now, and the
bullion folks have STOPPED BOTH for the time being…few
seller or buyers…they’re all waiting to SEE what’s next.

Today’s must-read …

Ten principles for a Black Swan-proof world

1. What is fragile should break early while it is still small. Nothing should ever become too big to fail. Evolution in economic life helps those with the maximum amount of hidden risks – and hence the most fragile – become the biggest.

2. No socialisation of losses and privatisation of gains. Whatever may need to be bailed out should be nationalised; whatever does not need a bail-out should be free, small and risk-bearing. We have managed to combine the worst of capitalism and socialism. In France in the 1980s, the socialists took over the banks. In the US in the 2000s, the banks took over the government. This is surreal.

Read the rest at: http://tinyurl.com/cjuzga

IN OTHER NEWS

China’s gold sales to see zero growth in 2009  The volume of gold sales in China in 2009 is estimated to be the same as that of last year, due to the global financial crisis, the Shanghai Daily reported, citing Albert Cheng, managing director of the World Gold Council Far East.

Abu Dhabi gold sales decline 20% in Q1  Member of the Abu Dhabi Gold and Jewellery Group, Tushar Patni, said that retail gold sales volume in Abu Dhabi dropped 20 percent in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the corresponding period a year earlier, due to increased prices and slowing demand, Reuters reportedPatni said that retailers in Abu Dhabi sold about 4,500kg of gold in the first quarter this year, with people tightening their spending. In terms of value, the emirate’s first quarter sales dropped about 7 percent on the year to $122.5 million.            

Canada set to outperform Canada’s stock market could well outperform the rest of the world over the next year because of an improvement in resource stocks, a gradual rise in the Canadian dollar and low interest rates, said Derek Holt, the vice president, economics, at Scotia Capital.

Glut of Goods Is Easing  The reductions in many cases represent an easing of record recent stockpiles of everything from automobiles to aluminum. On Tuesday, big aluminum company Alcoa Inc. reported a $497 million loss for the first quarter, hit by falling aluminum prices and sales. But it also said its inventories as of March 31 were 15% below Dec. 31 levels.

Energy Prices May Rise on `Slingshot’ Effect After Credit Chills Drilling The credit crunch will keep U.S. oil and gas producers from ramping up exploration they do through drillers such as Nabors Industries Ltd., setting the stage for shortages and surging prices when demand recovers.

Pemex May Squeeze Extra 3 Billion Barrels in Output From Cantarell Field Petroleos Mexicanos, the state oil company, may recover an extra 3 billion barrels from its Cantarell field, or 20 percent more than planned, by using a technology that extracts hard-to-reach crude.

XX Sean’s note — I’ll believe Mexico can boost oil production when I see it.

Copper’s Declining Demand Pushes Prices 21% Lower Copper, this year’s best industrial- metal investment, may become the worst in the second quarter as demand slumps the most in three decades. Known as the commodity with an economics Ph.D., copper risks losing its reputation as an industrial barometer because prices rose 40 percent by April 3, the best start to a year since at least 1986, just as the global economy contracted for the first time since World War II, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Prices rose as China, the largest user, agreed to stockpile as much as 400,000 metric tons, based on Macquarie Group Ltd. estimates, enough to fill 18 Olympic swimming pools.

Electricity Grid in U.S. Penetrated by Spies Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials. The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, these officials said, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls. The intruders haven’t sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure, but officials warned they could try during a crisis or war.

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