SalemNews.com, Salem, MA

News

Worth their weight in gold Forget Tupperware. Gold parties gain popularity as economy declines

By Mike Stucka
Staff Writer
Published: August 22, 2008

BOXFORD — The chocolate fudge ganache cake was untouched, and trays of strawberry-topped desserts sat under plastic wrapping. All of the action was on the other end of the dining room table, where women came in, one at a time, to sit before a former mortgage official to sell off old gifts and family heirlooms for the value of their gold.

The atmosphere inside the upscale Boxford home was joyous, even while conversations in the kitchen lingered on subjects like gas mileage. The women were gathered for one of Boxford's first gold parties.

"It's kind of a sign of the times," said Dale Kenney, who returned to her native Boxford from Billerica for the party. "My sister is in California and says gold parties are real popular. I think people are selling gold for different reasons, for necessities or things like TVs."

Kenney took away a check for $128.08 for her old jewelry, money she said could go into a college fund for her 7-year-old son.

Kenney's phrase — "sign of the times" — pops up often in conversations with Lisa Rosenthal, who started buying gold jewelry as scrap metal about two months ago and just created the MyGoldPartyMa.com Web site. Rosenthal was laid off from a mortgage business in November and lost her Boxford house in a short sale. Now she provides a way for people to make money from old or neglected jewelry, which can help them pay their own mortgages or gasoline bills, she said.

Rosenthal hopes to make a living from her My Gold Party business.

"The other women that were doing this were in the mortgage industry and trying to support their families," she said.

North Shore parties

She'll meet people in Dunkin' Donuts to test, weigh and write checks for old jewelry. More commonly, however, she's at gold parties in private homes, where groups of friends get together. Just last week, she had parties scheduled in Peabody, Swampscott and Salem.

Rosenthal said she wrote nearly $2,000 in checks at Tuesday's party in Boxford. Hostess Jill Moorman got $411.42 for her gold, about $200 for a 10 percent cut of the gold sold and potentially hundreds in referrals for her guests who want to host parties of their own.

Rosenthal thinks her business is a function of the times. Gold parties wouldn't have worked a few years ago, she said, when people felt better about the economy, gas was cheaper and fewer people were having trouble making mortgage payments. Now, at the same time that the economy is faltering, a cheap dollar and high demand for gold has driven up prices. Even though they've leveled off recently, gold is still selling for around $800 a troy ounce (a special measurement used for gold).

With some jewelry chests holding broken or old jewelry — or gifts from former loves — the rings and necklaces are valuable but ignored.

Back-to-school money

Almost no jewelry is made from pure gold, and Rosenthal's scale measures grams. At the Boxford gold party, Rosenthal was paying the equivalent of about $450 a troy ounce. But none of the partiers seemed worried about the math involved; they focused only on the bottom line.

"I thought it might be two or three dollars or something," said Lauren Rice of Topsfield. "A pedicure would be nice. It might be helping to buy the clothes for back to school." She ultimately got one of the smallest checks of the night — $84.76 — and was handed back a bracelet that turned out not to have been gold. She smiled as she took the check.

"I'm very happy," she said. "I wasn't expecting this."

Heather Reeve of Boxford sold off a broken 14-karat pendant she found on the side of the road, as well as dented earrings she'd replaced. Ultimately, just her 14-karat items netted her nearly $150, money that will keep her from tapping into savings on a vacation. She told Rosenthal she was interested in hosting a party of her own — and may have more stuff to sell.

Another neighbor ran home to get another $24.52 worth of jewelry.

Later, Rosenthal said she'd already sold much of her own stuff.

"You see a lot of ex-husband jewelry," she said. "I loved all the sentimental jewelry until I found out how much I could sell it for. It was like $650."

The morning after the Boxford gold party, Rosenthal was in another part-time job, advising a woman about to lose her home through a short sale. The homeowner decided she should throw a gold party — at her mother's home.

Rosenthal thinks her gold business will do well as long as people are struggling financially, but it's not a long-term career.

"I'm a realist," she said. "I think it's going to last a couple of more years."

Photos