To say this is the craziest time in the precious metals business is an understatement, said a Las Vegas gold and silver dealer.

“I’m just glad I lived long enough to see this, you know what I mean?” said Steve Gibson, owner of Sahara Gold & Silver Buyers. “I operated at $5 (per troy ounce) for silver for so many years, and now that I’m looking at $100 silver. I can’t even believe that.”

The Silver State is living up to its name as people flock to precious metals dealers and pawn shops to sell their unwanted jewelry and scrap metal or look to buy items to stockpile as the value is expected to keep rising.

The price of gold and silver is breaking records, with gold hitting $5,300 an ounce on global markets Wednesday. Silver hit $114 an ounce Wednesday, with little fluctuation from the beginning of the week.

During times of uncertainty, people often turn to precious metals, specifically gold and silver, as a good investment. With tensions in the Middle East, recent events in Venezuela and ongoing news surrounding Greenland, among others, people are doing just that.

“The worse the economy gets, the stronger the gold and silver is going to get,” said Gibson. “And, we don’t see the economy getting any better.”

‘Constant’ business

At Sahara Coin, owner Raymond Bryant said they have “been slammed” for three weeks straight as people look to sell their gold and silver at unheard of value. “What was a $15 (silver) bracelet is now a $115 bracelet,” he said.

Bryant said he has had more people looking to buy gold and sell silver.

“Oh, it’s constant,” he said. “From the minute we open, to the minute we close.”

At Archangel Coins, owner Christopher Shands said he has seen people attempting to trade in silver for gold, which is around a 50-to-1 ounce ratio of silver to gold.

“Anyone that’s thinking that they’re the only one selling, unfortunately, is not the case,” said Shands.

Because of the interest to sell, Archangel Coins has stopped buying all scrap metals.

Business has not just increased in Las Vegas, Shands said he has received calls from people east of the Mississippi looking to sell.

“We are selectively making sure that we service more of our local customers than worrying about people that are coming from other places,” said Shands.

Gibson said he has seen an uptick in business for around six months, as gold prices climbed over $4,000 an ounce. With the increase in customers comes an increase in stock.

“I’ve been doing this for over 40 years. I still have some metals that I bought over 30 years ago,” said Gibson. “Right now we’re in a situation where it’s going up so fast we don’t really care if we sell it or not.”

In this uncharted territory, with increased value and supply of gold and silver, dealers are facing issues on what do to with it all.

Uncharted territory

Gold and silver dealers make a profit in a multitude of ways.

For Gibson, he buys items at 95 percent value and sells for 5 percent over. At places like Archangel Coins, they use a numismatist value, with a focus on selling rare or collectible coins.

But both use refineries. Gold and silver dealers will often sell scrap metal to refineries for a profit. The refineries then melt down the metal into bars, or bullions, and sell to industrial manufacturers, jewelry makers, bullion dealers or even dental labs.

The higher the grade of metal, the higher the payout. But, that cash flow has recently stopped.

Right now, with the increased supply of metals, most refineries won’t take silver and payouts are delayed for gold, around four to six weeks, dealers say. Some have stopped all together.

“Several of them (refineries) have sent us letters this week saying that they’re no longer buying scrap gold,” said Gibson. “They stopped buying sterling silver scrap several months ago.”

Some local refineries include Elemetal, Las Vegas Precious Metal Refining and Williams Gold & Silver. All operate differently, some say they might start taking silver within the next week, others can take silver if sellers can match it with another metal, but most have no clear outlook.

“It’s just leading to a bit of a log jam, so to speak,” said Shands. “It’s uncharted territory.”

For dealers, there’s not much else to do other than to keep buying and selling.

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