Why the sudden rise in buying gold?

Gold is being touted right now because of instability in the market. Whenever the US dollar goes down, gold goes up. That's because gold has an innate value, ie, its solid, you can hold it, and as far as we can see, people will always want it.

US dollars, on the other hand, are just a piece of paper saying that it is worth something. If you trust the US government, than you'll be happy with your dollar, but if you don't think the US will make it through the recession, or you think the balance of power in the world will shift, then you don't want to be holding US dollars when they become worthless.

Most of these answers look at your question from the buyer's viewpoint. Another reason you are seeing an increase in these ads is because people want to sell. So the increase in companies buying gold is driven by the fact that more people want - or need - to sell gold.

If you have hit a rough spot, financially speaking, you may be looking for just about ANY way to get a few extra dollars. A garage sale, eBay, Craigslist, whatever. The nice thing about gold is that the material itself has intrinsic value. So you can generally sell the gold itself, even when people aren't buying luxury items (e.g. high price jewelry).

To illustrate, let's say you have a big screen TV, but you need to pay the rent. Good luck trying to turn it into cash, since so many other people are in the same boat. Now let's consider the same TV - but this time it's broken. You can't sell that, and it doesn't even have much scrap value since it's just a bunch of wires or plastic. So it isn't much more than trash.

That isn't the case with gold jewelry. You might not be able to sell it as jewelry, since money is tight and people aren't buying. This is especially true if it's broken - one earring, a twisted chain or a bracelet with a broken clasp. As jewelry, it's trash. But if it is recycled, i.e. melted down, the gold extracted and fashioned into something else, the actual gold content has intrinsic value. Sometimes, a lot more than you might expect!

This is what my company does locally in Kansas City. We buy old, unwanted, out-of-style or unused gold and give the seller cash for whatever they may need. Every transaction has a story, but with this economic crisis, many of them boil down to the need to pay the bills. We then refine it and get it back into the gold supply. We aren't hoarding or stockpiling, we are providing a needed service, like the guy who recycles aluminum cans - albeit with a vastly more valuable resource!

However, and we make this clear to each seller, what we are buying is not jewelry - it's the gold in the jewelry. If they've paid $1000 for a bracelet, the vast majority of that price was for the workmanship that went into it. They are going to have a hard time recovering that. But if someone has old, broken or unwanted gold laying around, we help to get it back into the supply chain, and also can help them out financially to boot.

The simple answer is that gold, silver, and other commodities hold true value. The United States Government is spending trillions of dollars. To get this money the government is increasing the money supply by creating more money, what is often referred to as printing money. As more money is printed, the dollars you have are worth less. Gold prices will rise in this situation.

You are seeing dealers advertising to buy "old gold" from the public because they (the dealers) are expecting a big price increase anytime now. I agree. Both parties, Republican and Democrat, and the latest spokes-stooge for the ruling elite, Obama, are doing their best to ruin the country. (Why is another story -- look up New World Order.) Part of that ruin will be the destruction of the funny money -- monopoly money -- fiat U.S. Dollar. Gold has historically been a refuge for those fleeing from government (and/or central bank, e.g., Federal Reserve) issued money and credit instruments. EVERY government/banking issued "money" in history with no backing in reality (gold, silver, or some other commodity) has eventually gone WORTHLESS.