By Candace Renalls, Duluth News Tribune, Minn. Nov. 08--As the price of gold rises, business is good for The Gold Guys. When the price hits an all-time high, business gets very, very good. That's what happened Friday when gold approached $1,400 per ounce. "Never in the history of the world has it been this high," said Joe Beasy, a Hibbing native who co-owns The Gold Guys chain of stores. Just two years ago, when Beasy and his partner, Shane Maguire, opened their first gold-buying store in the Mall of America, the price of gold was $780 per ounce. At $1,398 per ounce, it has almost doubled since then. So what gives? Typically, investors turn to gold and other precious metals when the economic outlook is bleak. A weak dollar drives up the price of precious metals, as investors seek safe havens for their cash. But with the dollar also up on Friday, the boost in gold is being attributed to expected inflation if the Federal Reserve follows through on its plan to buy $600 million in bonds by mid-2011. The Feds hope to boost the economy by lowering already low interest rates. In the long term, however, low interest rates probably would weaken the dollar. That further raises the value of precious metals by making them cheaper for overseas buyers. "Other places in the world are doing much better than we are," Beasy said. "We're falling behind Brazil, Russia, India and China, because they're thriving and we're floundering." But because the U.S. dollar is struggling, The Gold Guys is thriving, he said. Indeed, it's prompting middle- and upper-class people who aren't even hurting to bring in their broken and unwanted jewelry to take advantage of the record high prices. Beasy said his nine shops, including one that opened in May in Duluth's Miller Hill Mall, pay 70 percent to 85 percent of the going rate. "All that junk gold jewelry really has some value," he said. "There's money sitting in that drawer." Gold chains, unmatched earrings, old charm bracelets, even old wedding rings and jewelry from ex-spouses and boyfriends that aren't wanted anymore -- he'll buy them. "It doesn't matter what condition it's in," he said. "We're going to melt it anyway." Old class rings? They get hundreds of them a week. They also buy silver -- including old commemorative silver cups and silverware sets -- which is going for prices that are at a 40- to 50-year high. In mid-September when gold hit a then-record high of $1,282 per ounce, Goldman Sachs predicted gold would continue to rise, hitting $1,300 per ounce by mid-March. With the price already near $1,400 per ounce, will prices go even higher? "If I knew that I'd be the richest man in the world," Beasy said. "It could go higher. It could head back down. But when you have it this high, it's the perfect time to take advantage of it." ----- To see more of the Duluth News Tribune, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/. Copyright (c) 2010, Duluth News Tribune, Minn. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail services@mctinfoservices.com, or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States, call +1 312-222-4544).

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