Gold rush to Rex's as families cash in

May 7 2008 By Dale Williams

THERE'S cash in that there gold.. according to one Dudley jeweller who is reporting queues around the block every day at his family-run shop.

David Johnson said the credit crunch and worldwide economic slump had resulted in an amazing gold rush to his store in Birdcage Walk, in the town centre.

He said lines of people were stretching out of Rex Johnson & Sons from when it opened at 10am to when its closed at 3.15pm.

Mr Johnson, who is 55 and has been in the trade 40 years, said he had to take on extra security staff, and had switched off the phone after being "swamped" with inquiries.

Since February, record gold values had seen 10,000 people selling their unwanted gold at the shop, he added.

"There was a similar thing in the 1980s but nothing like this. The volume of people waiting to sell their gold is amazing. I've never seen anything like it.

"What people are doing is going through their old stuff and selling items from the 60s and 70s which are no longer fashionable, or even broken items.

"They are not taking the jewellery from their bodies. So my message to people is go through your drawers and dig out your old gold because it may even be worth more for its scrap value than it originally cost.

"Most of the gold we deal with is 9ct and 18ct gold, and we are also getting quite a lot of Asian gold, which is a bit purer.

"It's got to a position where we are serving people in the queue with tea and coffee while they wait, and at 3.15pm when we close we have to instruct the security to stop anyone else joining the queue," Mr Johnson said.