Cash-for-gold businesses become more popular in downturn

by Kate Perry
DemocratandChronicle.com

Andrew Ohar is ready to get his photography business up and running again. and he found the startup cash he needed in a jewelry box.

Ohar, 42 of Irondequoit sold five rings and a few necklaces and bracelets - all white gold - at a Marketplace mall kiosk and walked away with $1,100.

"I could use the money for other things rather than having this stuff sit around in a jewelry box, you know?" he said while waiting for the kiosk clerk to assess the value of his gold.

Moments later he was heading to Rowe Photo and Video to pick out a new zoom lens.

Ohar is among those hitting up cash-for-gold businesses and pawn shops over the last few months as the economy sours and the price of gold remains high. TV commercials for brick-and-mortar businesses now compete with those asking people to mail in their baubles, promising money in return.

Some people are even hosting gold parties where friends gather over snacks and wine while someone appraises the quality of their goods and hands out money. The gold is shipped to refineries where it is melted down and sold for repurposing.

The gold business is so good right now that Jake Cortazzo has opened nine mall stores in New York and Pennsylvania since Thanksgiving. The Marketplace location in Henrietta is his newest, and he hopes to expand into Eastview Mall in Victor and possibly The Mall at Greece Ridge.

Cortazzo, 38 of Scranton, Pa., said he has made about 3,000 transactions at his stores since opening the first in Middletown, Orange County.

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