Anyone just see this "business" person just say that diamonds and

[Maraya1969]

gold were good investments? And they were talking about shopping for Christmas and about people buying luxury items, not the commodities market.

This is a stupid statement that is just not true, especially the gold part and the way she made it seem like buying gold jewelry is a good investment.

Take some gold to your local pawn shop and see how much you get compared to what the original price is.

The reason I am saying this is they sell gold on Fox on Beck and I was just wondering if this was a marketing plan.

[notadmblnd]

1. I was told that pawn shops have to be able to sell the items for 3X what they pay for it

So if you have something worth 500. that you want to sell, the most they'll give you is 125. That's if they think they can sell it for 500. If they think they can only sell it four 400. then they'll only give you a hundred.

[Mist]

2. I worked in a pawn shop years ago. Believe me, the mark-up on many jewelry items

was more than 3 times. For electronics, etc., the mark-up was 3. Even with what appears to be rampant gouging in the area of jewelry, pawn shop prices come in below regular jewelry stores.

On the gold thing--it's being marketed on progressive radio shows such as Thom Hartmann and Randi Rhodes also. It goes to the general zeitgeist of severe doubt in our debt-based economy.

Personally, I think buying silver sounds better than buying gold. Just because it's worth less, it will be more easily traded.

[struggle4progress]

3. Gold's a good investment if you need stuff to sew into the hems

of your clothing so you have something to barter when escaping from a war zone: you'll still take a big hit financially but it's portable and exchangeable

[HockeyMom]

7. The 1929 Crash

It worked for my Grandma then. She didn't like banks or stocks. My Grandpa invested all his money in stocks then. Grandma bought gold and silver coins and stashed them around the house. When Grandpa lost his job and all his money in stocks, they were able to survive on her stash of coins, and diamonds, she had hidden all around the house.

She did this to her dying day and told me long before she died where she kept all her money hidden around the house (under floorboards, behind drawers, etc.). Even my Mom didn't believe it, but we found all the money exactly where she said it would be.

[Monsoon]

4. The key is don't buy the gold they sell on fox

Get it from Rhodes and Hartmann because it's better.

[REP]

5. Not everybody sells their jewelry at pawn shops

If I were to sell any of my jewelry, I would not be selling it as scrap weight, which is what pawn brokers pay for any gold. There are better places to sell good pieces of jewelry and high-quality gem stones.

Tip: it's harder to sell engraved pieces, so it's best to limit that to wedding rings.

[Coyote_Bandit]

6. Quality jewelry

is a good investment. But you've got to know something about gemstones - and be able to recognize what does and does not make a particular stone a quality stone. You've also got to know a bit about metals and how to identify a well constructed piece of jewelry. Much of what is sold these days is not quality jewelry.

And, no, a quality piece of jewelry will not ever get a fair market price at a pawn shop or from a gold buyer. Take it to a qualified appraiser and put it up for sale in an appropriate venue where more sophisticated jewelry buyers trade.

[cbdo2007]

8. Were you born yesterday?

No offense, but the only people who would ever say "diamonds" are a good investment are people in the business of selling diamonds.

Gold may be a good investment, depending on your investment plan, but still usually the people saying it is a good investment are trying to sell you gold.

Stick with your 401K and you'll do much better than either of those in the long run.

[JNelson6563]

9. Mostly true.

I went long on gold not too long after Team Bush came in. I believe it was less than $400 oz at the time. We had near market crashes over the subsequent years but gold just kept going to the ridiculous levels of today. Not often does such an increase in value happen over this period of time. A once in a lifetime opportunity for sure. I wouldn't buy gold now though.

Julie

[Maraya1969]

11. I said that the person on Fox said diamonds are a good investment

I used to work in the commodities market many years ago and I remember watching people loose tens of thousands or more in a day betting on gold, silver, platinum and all the other commodities as well.

That is where I learned that when the economy is going strong the metals go down and visa versa. But we are talking about pure bullion not jewelry.

I wrote the OP in the mindset of "look at what bullshit Fox is doing now.

[formercia]

10. This article explains it well:

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1982/02/have-you-ever-tried-to-sell-a-diamond/4575/

The Atlantic Home
Sunday, January 16, 2011



February 1982 ATLANTIC MAGAZINE
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Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?

An unruly market may undo the work of a giant cartel and of an inspired, decades-long ad campaign
By Edward Jay Epstein

The diamond invention—the creation of the idea that diamonds are rare and valuable, and are essential signs of esteem—is a relatively recent development in the history of the diamond trade. Until the late nineteenth century, diamonds were found only in a few riverbeds in India and in the jungles of Brazil, and the entire world production of gem diamonds amounted to a few pounds a year. In 1870, however, huge diamond mines were discovered near the Orange River, in South Africa, where diamonds were soon being scooped out by the ton. Suddenly, the market was deluged with diamonds. The British financiers who had organized the South African mines quickly realized that their investment was endangered; diamonds had little intrinsic value—and their price depended almost entirely on their scarcity. The financiers feared that when new mines were developed in South Africa, diamonds would become at best only semiprecious gems.

The major investors in the diamond mines realized that they had no alternative but to merge their interests into a single entity that would be powerful enough to control production and perpetuate the illusion of scarcity of diamonds. The instrument they created, in 1888, was called De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd., incorporated in South Africa. As De Beers took control of all aspects of the world diamond trade, it assumed many forms. In London, it operated under the innocuous name of the Diamond Trading Company. In Israel, it was known as "The Syndicate." In Europe, it was called the "C.S.O." -- initials referring to the Central Selling Organization, which was an arm of the Diamond Trading Company. And in black Africa, it disguised its South African origins under subsidiaries with names like Diamond Development Corporation and Mining Services, Inc. At its height -- for most of this century -- it not only either directly owned or controlled all the diamond mines in southern Africa but also owned diamond trading companies in England, Portugal, Israel, Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland.

De Beers proved to be the most successful cartel arrangement in the annals of modern commerce. While other commodities, such as gold, silver, copper, rubber, and grains, fluctuated wildly in response to economic conditions, diamonds have continued, with few exceptions, to advance upward in price every year since the Depression. Indeed, the cartel seemed so superbly in control of prices -- and unassailable -- that, in the late 1970s, even speculators began buying diamonds as a guard against the vagaries of inflation and recession.

--snip--