Heather O\u2019Sullivan, co-owner of the Tralee-based John Ross and Sons jewellers, says it\u2019s a \u201cgreat time for savvy customers\u201d as many predict gold\u2019s historic price increases to continue this year.<\/p>\n
Gold recently breached $5,000 an ounce for the first time in history and, despite a major correction from highs of over $5,500, has remained at record levels.<\/p>\n
The 64pc increase in the price of gold last year is the biggest annual increase since 1979 and is over double the rise seen in 2007 in the run up to the housing crash.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe increase in the last six months has been phenomenal. If we even look back a year ago, it\u2019s more or less doubled. I mean who would have thought,\u201d said Ms O\u2019Sullivan.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen times get bad gold goes up\u2026it eventually goes back down to some semblance of normality but never all the way back down.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey say anecdotally in the jewellery business that certain markets are buying the gold. China is buying a lot of the gold and India is buying a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Due to gold\u2019s dramatic price changes, Ms O\u2019Sullivan said prices in the shop were struggling to keep abreast of market increases.<\/p>\n
She said a recent customer had bought a necklace for \u20ac629 and when the shop looked at restocking the item, they found the new cost to be over \u20ac1000.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get very shocked ourselves, I have ideas in my mind about how much things cost but I now have to adjust my thinking. Things have changed and now there\u2019s a new price,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this is happening across the board now. Where would you go out and buy a new car for under \u20ac20,000? It\u2019s not just in the jewellery business\u2026everything seems to be going up all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet say you\u2019re getting married this year, it\u2019s far more in your interest to shop now. They\u2019re only predicting the gold price to go up throughout the rest of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gold is traditionally seen as a haven in periods of crisis or uncertainty and demand has been at a sustained high. Many also see the rare metal as a hedge against inflation which is a worry for investors, given the US Federal Reserve\u2019s triple rate cut last year.<\/p>\n
Billy Nolan, owner of Nolan and Hilsers Jewellers in Tralee, said the gold hikes were \u201cdisappointing\u201d and were affecting the margins of the business.<\/p>\n
Having been in business 60 years, he reflected on market highs of the 1980s, when gold surged to over \u20ac600 (adjusted for inflation that\u2019s over \u20ac2,600) and then fell to around half of the high by 1982.<\/p>\n
He said the 1980s were \u201cvery good\u201d for business while the current market made life difficult for both the jewellery seller and consumer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s disappointing because we\u2019d like to be selling more up market but it\u2019s not as affordable as it used to be,\u201d said Mr Nolan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel sorry for people who are trying to buy and it now being so costly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting scheme<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heather O\u2019Sullivan, co-owner of the Tralee-based John Ross and Sons jewellers, says it\u2019s a \u201cgreat time for savvy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12971,72,61,60],"class_list":["post-310165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-alastair-tibbs","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}