Monday, April 22, 2013

Japan Gold Rush - Customers Lined Up for Three Hours to Buy Gold in Tokyo


My good friend Michio went to buy gold last week right when the prices crashed. He told me that there were over 20 people lined up outside the store to buy gold. 


It seems this story is happening all over Japan and Asia.

Reuters is reporting that customers are waiting for up to three hours to buy gold in Japan... Please refer to: "As global price slumps, "Abenomics" risks drive Japan gold bugs":

A week ago, as the yen-denominated price neared a new peak, jewelry stores and gold merchants across Japan saw long lines of mostly older Japanese looking to cash in on unwanted jewelry and other items that they had held for years. But on Tuesday, buyers outnumbered sellers by a wide margin. At Ginza Tanaka, the headquarters shop of Tanaka Holdings, gold buyers waited for as long as three hours for a chance to complete a transaction.

......

Nearby at Ginza SGC, a gold merchant, buyers had taken about 6 kg (13 lbs) of gold home by early afternoon on Tuesday. In one case, a 60-year-old man, who asked not to be identified, walked out of the store with 500 grams of gold for about 2.2 million yen ($22,500). 

At a special gold exhibit organized earlier this month at the Matsuzakaya department store, staff said that an 18-carat gold Buddhist bell used in a household altar to honor deceased relatives was selling well. It was priced at 4 million yen. (about $40,000 USD) "You could buy it as a family treasure as many of our customers do," one salesman said. "But if your house burned down and you lost everything, gold is fire resistant and you would still have it." ($1 = 97.9600 Japanese yen)

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