Pawnshop buys gold jewelry at department store

As global prices of gold remain high due to Europe's credit worries, people are flocking to an event at a department store in Tokyo to sell their old gold jewelry.

Keio Department Store in Shinjuku started the event on Thursday to buy gold accessories from shoppers, in tandem with its annual pawnshop fair for designer brand bags and other items.

Many people, mainly women, were visiting the counter to have their gold rings and necklaces evaluated by a pawnbroker who buys them for cash.

A housewife in her 40s who sold a gold ring said that she was satisfied with the deal because she had earlier considered disposing of it as an unnecessary accessory.

The pawnshop said the volume of gold it has purchased has increased to about 5 times that of an average year, as gold prices started soaring around July and August.

Thursday, October 13, 2011 18:10 +0900 (JST)