Gold glitters amid turmoil
EUGENE, Ore. -- An old watch with a broken band wasn't worth much to Rudi Wuennenberg, but he figured the gold in the watch had to be worth something.
"It had been laying around in the closet for 20 years and not working," he said.
Wuennenberg and Rae Nordell brought the watch in to Eugene Coin and Jewelry to find out what the gold would be worth.
"He watches the gold going up and down," Nordell said, "and said we better get it in here and take a look."
While the stock market has lost about 40 percent in the last year, gold is selling for $850 an ounce and trading within 15 percent of its highest price ever.
"When nothing else is worth anything, that's typically when gold is the most valuable," said Louis Grasso, a floor trader with Millennium Futures.
That's good news if you have gold to sell.
On a Friday afternoon, David Nelkin's Eugene Coin and Silver is packed with folks selling scrap gold, coins and old jewelry.
After 30 years in business, Nelkin said this is his best year yet for the shop.
"There's a lot of people interested in precious metal because of the world markets," said David Nelkin with Eugene Coin and Jewelry. "The only problem we're having is finding enough material to meet the demand."
Nelkin said people have to wait two to four weeks to buy investment gold right now. He is buying any scrap gold or unwanted jewelry, like Wuennenberg's watch.
"I sold him a coin a year ago for $700," Wennenberg said. "If I'd have save it, I would have sold it for $1,000.
"But," he added, "the money is in the bank earning interest."
