Gold for Scrap
Exchange house in the mall buys out rings and earrings for melting
Wedding rings, aunt’s earrings and grandma’s ring go for scrap. Young mothers and pensioners line up in front of off-hand gold market in one of the Sofia malls. The employees buy a gram of gold at 44 leva - 10 leva more than in pawn shops. Every week we melt jewellery scrap in 24 carat ingots, merchants explain. Part of the golden bars is sold in Bulgaria and the other part is exported.
There is a great demand for ingots in the banks, which offer to their clients gold as investment. The price of gold made an impressive 30% jump last year, but experts foresee new record of 1.500 dollars per troy ounce in this summer. However, financiers are warning that the precious metal rocketing price might turn out to be just another soap bubble.