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Call it the new Tupperware party, but with a twist: It’s the “Gold Party,” and more and more people are hosting or attending them. Maybe it’s a sign of the times, but with gold selling at close to an all-time high – over $900 an ounce – people are bagging up their old gold jewelry and cashing it in.
“I got the invitation, and I started looking through my stuff to see what I could get rid of,” Driscoll said. “I had old, broken necklaces and single earrings that I had lost the other one, [and] jewelry from an old boyfriend. It was just a bag of junk that I never wear, thrown into a Ziploc bag.”
She was shocked when her items, after being tested and weighed by Kenneth Ouellette, co-owner of William & Kenneth Fine Jewelry, a jewelry store near Not Your Average Joe’s restaurant, in Randolph, added $1,100 to her pocket.
The party was hosted by Kim Madigan, a Milton mother who works in conjunction with the jewelers. She came up with the idea of helping people organize their homes with her business, Mad Cat’s, and found that while people were cleaning and organizing, they were coming across a virtual goldmine.
“How I met Ken was I had a customer who wanted help selling gold and I took it to the Jewelers’ Building in Boston. I took it to someone local, and they weren’t giving me as much money,” Madigan said. “So I walked in and met [the William & Kenneth staff] and they gave me about $300 more for the bag of gold. So I just started forging a relationship with them … and Ken said, ‘Why don’t we start gold parties?’ Now we have seven parties booked in the next month.”
Driscoll was so thrilled with her experience of found money, she hosted one at her Indian Cliffs home recently. It was held as a weekday brunch, and more than 20 Milton women showed up, armed with their own bags of loot. Some brought sterling silver, as well.
“We knew that the way the economy was going, that people really needed to do this, so we opened up the cash-for-gold station, and from the very beginning, we treat customers fairly,” Ouellette said. “And when this whole economy thing turns around they’re going to remember that they were treated right. …This isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme.”
Maybe not for the jeweler, but some of Driscoll’s guests felt like they made out pretty well on the deal.
At the gold party, guests chose a number as they arrived that gave them a place in line to have their stash checked out. Ouellette then tested each piece with different types of nitric acid on a piece of Arkansas stone to see whether the item was 10-, 14- or 18-karat gold, or sterling silver. Then the pile was weighed on a scale for all to see. A stack of hundred-dollar bills sat next to his equipment. If the guest was happy with the quoted amount, cash was handed out on the spot.
“Everybody had fun,” said Ouellette. “We handed out close to $10,000 that day. The average person has about $300 in gold, and at the average party I hand out about $5,000 to $10,000.”
According to William Pace, who co-owns the store with Ouellette, the jewelers melt the gold down, using some of it to make new or custom-made pieces. Some of it is sold to other gold brokers, according to Madigan.
Another perk for Driscoll was that by hosting a party, she got about 10 percent of the total from her guests’ proceeds.
One of her guests, neighbor Nancy Grattan, left with $2,100.
“I can’t believe it,” Grattan said a few days after the party. “I just got rid of a lot of stuff I haven’t looked at in years; some old single earrings and a bunch of sterling silver. It was stuff I just dug out. I have no regrets!”
According to Madigan, some do struggle with getting rid of old jewelry that may have a sentimental attachment.
“This stuff is in their drawers. Their grandmother gave it to them. They don’t wear it,” Madigan explained. “So we say, ‘Sell it, and then buy yourself something.’ And they say, ‘This is from grandma.’…So I help them detach. If it’s been in your sock drawer, sell it.”
So while the economy struggles along, more and more people may be looking for a way to add a little more jingle to their pockets by getting rid of some old bling.
For more information on hosting or attending a local gold party, contact Kim Madigan at madcatmadigan@hotmail.com, visit William & Kenneth Fine Jewelry at 16 Mazzeo Drive, Randolph, or call the store at (781) 961-4653.