It’s been hard or impossible to travel during the coronavirus pandemic. How frustrated have you been?

Chances are you have been eager to travel again. But frustrating as it has been, we all need to remember that even though we have not been able to travel much in the last four or five months, we have still been able to continue buying, refining and selling gold scrap, silver scrap, and platinum scrap too.

Don’t let valuable precious metals slip through your fingers

A recent trip to our town recycling yard (once called the “town dump”) convinced us that a lot of people are tossing an awful lot of stuff during the time they are staying at home because of Covid-19. They’re cleaning out their basements, attics, garages, and storage rooms. That’s probably a good thing to do. Decluttering and cleaning out are great projects to take on right now. They help us feel like we are making progress and getting organized, in a time when we feel stuck and out of control.

Would you believe that Bob Dylan wrote the song, “The Times They Are A-Changin’” way back in 1964? Ever since then, the times have been changing year by year, and there is no doubt about that.

But today, 56 years later, Dylan’s song seems to have become completely true. Suddenly, the world has changed in ways that we would never have predicted only five or six years ago.

What makes for a good investment? As we have noted on this blog before, a good investment is one that offers a significant return on investment. If you can invest in something – a stock, a piece of gold, a painting, anything – and then sell it for three or four times what you paid for it or more, then you have made a good investment.

Yet other considerations make some investments better than others. And today, we would like to offer one of them for your consideration.

Over the last few months, gold has been occupying center stage for people who invest in precious metals. And with good reason! As we have noted on this blog over the last few weeks, the trading price of gold has broken all previous records.

But before you turn your back on other precious metals, we would like to point out something that is obvious, but easy to overlook . . .

Have you visited your town dump lately?

If you have, you have noticed that people are tossing out an awful lot of electronic items. During this period of sheltering at home, they are cleaning out their closets, basements garages and other places where they have stowed a range of electronic devices that include old and unwanted . . .

If you’ve watched “Raiders of the Lost Arc” recently, you know that in the movies, archaeologists seem to live dangerous and exciting lives. They lower themselves on ropes down into vast underground tombs. They pry up huge stones and squeeze into ancient burial chambers that are full of treasures.

Gold continues to hit new highs. We would say that it can’t go much higher. But the fact is, no one knows just what level the price of gold will hit in the current upward spiral.

We’ve been seeing an online education explosion over the last few months. From kindergarten through graduate school, students have been using their computers to learn. And we’re just learning that colleges from coast to coast will continue to teach classes online as the 2020-21 school year begins.

Marie Antoinette apparently wore a lot of jewelry. When you jump ahead to our century, you see that gold has hardly lost its popularity among celebrities. A few decades ago, Mr. T of The Mod Squad wore huge gold necklaces and medals.

Although you might think that the current cancellation of big-scale social events like the Met Gala have driven celebrities indoors, current new stories reveal that today’s A-List celebrities are still wearing a lot of gold jewelry when they go out and about, even just to buy a bag of bagels on the weekend.

On July 27, just one week ago, we wrote on this blog, “Gold is trading for $1,900.90 on the London Fix. Just to put that price in context, let us mention that the all-time historical high trading prices for gold is $1,920. We are in stratospheric territory.”

Are you experiencing a bit of burnout about investing in precious metals right about now?

If you are, don’t blame yourself. A lot of people are lacking enthusiasm about a lot of activities right about now, thanks to the unprecedented period of lockdown we have all been going through. But you should be enthusiastic and energized about your precious metal investing, and here is one reason why . . .

Gold is trading for $1,900.90 on the London Fix. Just to put that price in context, let us mention that the all-time historical high trading prices for gold is $1,920. We are in stratospheric territory.

What is driving up the price? It’s more than the traditional law of supply and demand (which of course is at work too). Most analysts agree that the immediate driver of these high prices is the trade conflict between the U.S. and China. If things continue the way they are going, the flow of gold into the U.S. from China should slow to a trickle.

There have always been some health risks – most of them easily managed – associated with investing in precious metals. Some precious metal prospectors have tried to smelt piles of material that contained silver or gold, for example, and in the process have released noxious gases that hurt their lungs or made them feel sick. Other people have lit their garages on fire while melting of smelting metals. Other precious metal hunters have fallen down wells, gotten chased by dogs, gotten sunburned and encountered other minor health problems, but we won’t dwell on those.

Due to the upcoming increase in the number of cars that use batteries, lithium is poised to increase in value over the next half century.

Just to review . . .

When demand increases for a material that is in limited supply, the value of that material increases. The more the demand increases and the more limited the supply, the more the value increases. It’s the old law of supply and demand.

On your trips to the beach, chances are you’ve seen people using metal detectors. They’re often out there in the early morning or early evening hours, looking for items that people have lost.

What do these modern-day prospectors do after they have found something – a piece of jewelry, a watch or maybe a small stack of coins? That depends. For some users of metal detectors, the enjoyment comes from the “joy of the chase,” meaning that what they really like to do is hunt for valuables using their high-tech equipment. When they find something, they turn their discoveries in at the lost and found counter if they are hunting in a town or public beach or post a notice on a bulletin board.

The first thing you need to know about investing in gold-plated flatware is that not every piece of gold-toned flatware contains gold. That’s true because. . .

In today’s post, let’s explore a question that is a bit more complicated than it seems . . .

If you find something, does it belong to you?

It’s a question that comes up more often than you might think, because people lose personal items every day and presumably, the things they lose are found by other people. If you don’t think people lose and find things frequently, just visit the Lost & Found section on the Craigslist in your area. You’ll quickly see that people lose keys, rings, dogs, cats, parrots, cellphones, and all sorts of personal items. You’ll also see that lots of honest people post “found” notices on Craigslist. They found your key or your parrot, and they would like to return it to you.

If you are a fan of the old TV sitcom Cheers, you remember what a classic role Cliff Clavin was. Cliff, who was played by the actor John Ratzenberger, was a know-it-all who either made stuff up or presented truths that nobody cared about. Usually, he preceded his revelations by saying, “Here’s a little-known fact.”

One example? Cliff once told his buddies at the bar Cheers, “2008 was the last time Ohio State lost the ninth game of its season.”

Do you have parents who are downsizing? Or are you planning to downsize your own residence? It’s an issue that seems to be on more people’s minds in the aftermath of the covid-19 crisis.

Deciding what to keep and what to part with is a very personal matter. Certain possessions, after all, have great emotional value for you that exceeds their dollar value. So perhaps the first step to take is to identify those items and set them aside if you have no intention of getting rid of them. With them “off the table,” you can focus on finding items like these, which contain precious metals, and which can be worth quite a lot.