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.

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.

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.

If you live just about anywhere in our great nation today, you know that non-essential businesses have been closed during the covid-19 crisis. Those businesses have included “we buy gold” stores and other metal-related businesses such as jewelry stores and even pawnshops. Many of those non-essential enterprises are only reopening now, and you can only enter them if you are wearing a face mask and practicing social distancing.

Everybody likes to invest in platinum. Even small quantities of it are valuable, which means you can store a lot of money’s worth of it in just a small space. It’s not that difficult to find, as we will discuss in our post today. It’s liquid, meaning that when you decide to sell what you have, you can do so fast.

And as an investment, platinum has the traditional virtues that all precious metals do. Even though trading prices can rise and fall, precious metal values have been shown to be more stable in the long term than the investments you make in stocks.

“When people have been out of work and are hurting financially, they are more likely to sell valuables at low prices, right?”

We have heard people ask that question lately. It is not a nice question to ask. It implies that when people have lost their jobs and need money – or have encountered other kinds of bad fortune – they will be eager to sell off their assets on the cheap. It also implies that a time of economic hardship for many, like the one we find ourselves in now, is a good time for unscrupulous people to take advantage of others.

Okay, you’re spending the day sequestering at home. Maybe your kids are there with you and you are looking for a fun, different project you can do online.

If you’re looking for adventure, we have a suggestion for you . . .

Beautiful warm spring weather is here! If you’ve been cooped up and developing a case of cabin fever over the last few months, chances are you are eager to get out of your house and enjoy the great outdoors.

And we have two suggestions about ways you can do just that – and possibly find gold and silver scrap and collectibles too.

As we have written before on this blog, old x-ray films contain silver that we can extract for you.

But how much silver do they contain? That’s what a number of our clients have wanted to know over the years. They have called to ask questions like this . . .

Don’t worry. When you call us to discuss sending your precious metals to our refinery for testing and processing, we will explain what you need to do to send them safely.

The purpose of today’s post is to help you avoid some of the more common mistakes people make when sending precious metals – and valuable items of all kinds – to other people and businesses.