Many of the customers at the gold dealer Bullion Exchanges on West 47th Street have been collecting gold for decades. A man who gave his name as Bernie Schwartz said he’s attracted to the beauty, the glitter, and the artistry of gold coins. But on Monday morning, Schwartz traveled from Queens to the Diamond District for something else: to part with some of his collection.
“If I was in my sixties, I wouldn’t sell it now,” he said. “But I’m in my eighties now, so that’s the reason it’s going.”
When Schwartz started collecting, gold was worth about $800 per ounce. Two years ago, when he bought the Australian eagle and elephant coins he came in to sell this week (about 7 ounces total), an ounce went for about $2,000. The sale grossed him more than $21,000, thanks to record-high gold prices.
One ounce of gold now costs more than $3,200, an inflation-adjusted peak not seen since 1980. For businesses and collectors in New York’s gold industry, that’s changing their finances, and not always for the better. The high prices mean that businesses like Bullion Exchanges are less liquid and need to spend more and more cash to buy the same amount of gold.
“When I used to think of $3,200 gold, I would think, ‘We should be making a lot of money,’” said Ben Tseytlin, managing partner at Bullion Exchanges. “But it’s not the case.”
The showcase at Bullion Exchanges’s small storefront is stocked with Swiss-made gold bars in plastic assay cards. About the size of two stamps, and weighing in at an ounce, each is now sold for roughly the average month’s rent for a Manhattan studio.
That’s in part because President Trump’s tariffs have created uncertainty in the global market. Trust in the U.S. dollar and U.S. Treasury bonds have taken a hit, prompting investors to switch some assets over to one of the world’s oldest stores of value. Swiss investment bank UBS raised its price target for gold to $3,500 per ounce last week, and said it was expecting greater demand from central banks, institutions and private investors. Although some customers buy physical bullion, many more investors trade in gold-backed ETFs.
Companies like Bullion Exchanges have started charging higher premiums for imported gold, expecting to pay high tariffs on their replacements. Prices change minute by minute, but on Tuesday afternoon, Bullion Exchanges offered to buy gold at a spot price of $3,227 and sell it at $3,243, a margin of $16 per ounce, subject to the quality and mint of the bullion.
The company makes money on transactions, so activity is good. But when prices are high, liquidity is low. The company needs to hold onto its gold longer, waiting for buyers, and at a higher dollar amount.
“High gold prices don’t make it easy,” Tseytlin said. “We definitely like when there’s more of a two-way market where you can buy and sell.”
Recently, the buyers who come in are first-timers looking to get exposed to the industry. In total, Tseytlin estimates the Bullion Exchanges sees 60 to 100 people in the store daily, but the company does most of its business online.
“The guys that are selling probably have been buying gold for 30-plus years,” he said. “The guys that are buying now are usually first-time buyers of precious metals.”
Bullion Exchanges has seen the biggest bump in its scrap metal and refining business. Retail gold buyers — the kind who put up “We Buy Gold” banners — come to the store with pounds of jewelry they’ve bought off the public, all to be melted and paid out. That business has gone up by around 50% year over year, estimated Eric Gozenput, CEO of the company. (Bullion Exchanges declined to share more specific revenue and sales figures for this article, citing competition.)
Because prices have gone up so much, even relatively new jewelry is often worth more now than when it was purchased.
“You don’t need to buy grandma’s jewelry to make money, you can even have bought it yourself and make money now,” Tseytlin said. “Which is never supposed to happen.”
For Bernie Schwartz, the precious metal is more than an investment, it’s a piece of art. But with prices this high, so is the potential for profit.
“Little by little it has to go,” he said.
