Gold prices reach record high amid economic uncertainty, southern Colorado takes notice
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - The owner of Hallenbeck Coin Gallery says they've had a line out the door for weeks. It's not just sellers; people are buying gold and silver too, despite gold breaking the $4,000 mark for the first time ever.
Today gold closed at $4,359.40 and silver at $51.38. Year-to-date, that's a more than 70% increase for silver and more than 60% increase for gold.
That's been a big reason for the long lines seen at the Hallenbeck Coin Gallery along Nevada.
Many customers in line told KRDO13 that they need the money, and what better time to sell than now?
"The prices are higher than they have been for as long as I've known. If I had known what I know today, I would have saved it all for today," Desiree told KRDO13 while waiting in line to sell gold.
"It's hard to feed the family. It's hard to do anything. Everything's very expensive."
Others said they were selling precious metals to help a family member who's fallen on hard times or fix their car.
"I just bought some silver from a guy that was, he was furloughed, and he needs to pay his rent. So he's come in and sell some of his silver. He hates to do it, but he's making good money at the same time," said Tom Hallenbeck, the owner of Hallenbeck Coin Gallery.
Hallenbeck has been in the gold and silver business since 1984 and says the only time period to potentially rival what he's seen recently was the economic crisis of 2008.
"I've not seen anything quite like this. The momentum is still building, and the volume is just going through the roof. Absolutely stratospheric, right now." But Hallenbeck said many are also coming to buy, despite the high prices.
"It's up over 66% just this year. In my career, that's the best year by far," Brad Harvey says he's never seen gold rise to these levels in his 31-year career.
Harvey is the CEO of Harvey Investment Management, Inc., a wealth management and financial planning company.
"My initial response when anything gets really expensive is to sell or trim," Harvey says. He isn't advising any of his clients to cash in and sell off all their gold; rather, he is only advising them to sell part of it to maintain exposure long term.
KRDO13 asked him why, despite gold being at its highest price ever, people continue to buy gold. He said part of it is a hedge against inflation.
"Historically, people want to own gold as this hedge against Armageddon. What are they going to do if all of the sudden the ATMs don't work? We have an EMP, and all of the computer technology is dead. And what do we do? Nobody's accepting currency. Well, if we have gold bars, we have a store of value," Harvey said.
Of course, the big question is, how high will prices continue to rise? That's assuming they don't head in the other direction. For that reason, advisors recommend everyone invest with caution and only after doing research involving multiple reputable sources.
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