Golden Opportunity |
Like the popular Tupperware scene a generation ago, gold is the newest trend in the business of in-home transaction parties.
by Danyael Halprin
“Bring your own gold,” Calgary’s Gloria Lawrence told 10 friends and neighbours when she invited them to her party for the opportunity to convert their gold into cash while mingling over wine and cheese.
Arriving with golden odds and ends, the guests gathered around the dining room table with licensed gold buyers Golden Girls Canada. Mother-and-daughter team Carol Chandler and Jill Rollefstad formed the Canadian division of Golden Girls in March 2009. Since then, they’ve worked at parties in Winnipeg and Toronto and throughout British Columbia and Alberta.
Golden Girls is an Atlanta-based company started by three entrepreneurial women in April 2008. It has grown to 155 buyers in the United States and 15 in Canada.
The Golden Girls determine on-site whether or not each item is gold, its purity and weight and then offer their price. There is no pressure to sell. The company pays about 50% less than what gold is trading at – it closed at US$952.40 an ounce on August 31 – yet the guests were keen to sell. In fact, a couple of women who came only to socialize quickly regretted showing up empty-handed after seeing the big cheques being written.
The total amount sold that night was $4,000. Monique Kempers-Soucy took home the largest sum of $955, the majority of which came from two heirlooms from her grandmother. “These pieces are no doubt beautiful,” says Kempers-Soucy of the 22-karat filigree chain-mesh bracelet and the 18-karat Indonesian gold scent ball, “but no one in my family wants them.”
“We are not jewelry appraisers,” emphasizes Chandler. “We are buying the jewelry merely as scrap gold.” Indeed, the purchased gold is shipped the following day to a smelter in the U.S. and then onto a refinery where it’s poured into gold bricks, which are sold to the U.S. government. The refinery pays a higher price for the gold than what the Golden Girls offer the guests, which is how the company makes a profit.
The “Gold Does Good” motto refers to the company’s philanthropic side, which encourages the hostess, who receives 10% of the event’s sales, to donate her proceeds to a charity of her choice. Golden Girls kicks in another 2.5% to her charity. Sharing her heart of gold, Lawrence donated to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
