Ever wonder why gold prices change? Gold, the second you here the word yellow to brassy nuggets dance through our head. If your a scrapper, it can be the Holy Grail of scrap metal adventures (of course in our area copper is king).  One of the big issues is pricing.  When we do take the time to find that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, why is the price different this week, over last week? Well, here are a few answers.

Why Gold Prices Change

So, lets talk simple stuff and not get to complicated. Gold, like all of our scrap, is a commodity. Meaning people want to buy it, and people want to sell it everyday. Like silver, oil and even pork bellies. So like any other commodity there is supply and demand. The less supply, the more demand. So much of the demand lies in places we really wouldn’t believe. Not so much in the human jewelry box or in a rappers mouth, but in international commerce. Gold can be found just about anywhere, from the wiring in a television, to a microprocessor in your phone. The reality is though, gold though a supply and demand commodity that can fluctuate in price by the second..is more driven by economy.

Gold has always been said to be a great hedge (protection) from inflation. Depending on who you listen to. It always seemed you could buy gold, and as the price of goods and services rose, your gold would rise as well, counterbalancing your cost (remember the gold standard, our dollars being backed by gold?) The reality is now, people will move to gold when fears arise about the economy, so in the past 20 years, people have consistently fled to gold when other investment options looked bad..just look at the price from 2008 to 2012.

So back to scrapping..the reality is if you are taking the time to scrap for gold the best thing you can do is called Desert Metals and get a fair price..every yard may have different prices and use different standards.