A new gold rush is sweeping the U.S. -- in dental work.
Mark Porcello of Porcello Estate Buyers, a 50-year and third-generation family jewelry business with offices is Chicago, Los Angeles, and Bellevue, WA, says he is seeing a wave of customers looking to trade in their old teeth since the price of gold spiked in February.
As people struggle to pay bills and put food on the table in this economic downturn, pawn shops and estate jewelry dealers are seeing an influx of those looking to cash in their gold caps, fillings, and grills, Porcello noted in a press release. Gold teeth can fetch thousands, depending on how much they weigh, he added.
In the past eight years, the price of gold has gone up four times its worth at an estimated 300% since 2000, the press release stated. Prices in the past weeks fluctuated between $970 and $940 an ounce.
Four years ago it was a nationwide trend in many U.S. cities to get gold teeth; now a lot of those sparkling dentured customers are cashing in to survive, Porcello said. His company is actively seeking high-end dental work from celebrities and is willing to pay "hundreds of thousands of dollars" for Lil Wayne's gold and platinum diamond-studded crowns, P. Diddy's gold bottom front teeth, and Flava Flav's 22-karat semipermanent gold caps top and bottom, according to the press release.
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