From 2025 to early 2026, precious metal prices will increase at an alarming rate. Gold and silver hit all-time highs at the same time, with silver rising more than 200% between January 2025 and January 2026. At the same time, the price of gold per ounce exceeded the $5,000 mark for the first time in history in late January 2026, and continued to rise in the following days, eventually peaking. While this is good news for those who own gold or silver, many of the places where consumers unload these items are a little crowded.
Pawn shops are one of the top places for people to buy jewelry and coins quickly, and the recent excitement over the value of gold and silver has inspired many people to head to their local pawn shops to buy or sell. While the danger of a crash eating away at resale profit margins is always present, the rapid changes in precious metals prices this winter have made potential profits particularly difficult to predict. In addition to market fluctuations, stores themselves have been unable to find places to sell scrap metal, as refineries that would have purchased the material have also seen a surge in business. With vast amounts of silver and gold at their disposal—and more coming in every day—pawn shops are at risk of running out of money.
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There are many factors driving precious metal prices higher. Owning gold protects you from inflation, and a recent trend by China’s central bank and other foreign investors to invest in gold rather than dollars has also played a role. However, while hitting unprecedented highs, metal prices also experienced a few days of sharp corrections. For example, silver prices fell around 30% just days after reaching all-time highs in late January.
Pawn shops resell them to individuals and refineries for a profit. With the current uncertainty in the precious metals market, these retailers face the risk of the value of their goods declining after purchasing them. Even though these stores buy the metal at a discount to the spot price, they still suffer losses if a huge crash occurs after the purchase.
In recent years, when precious metal prices have risen, people have often flocked to pawn shops to cash out. However, while metals are one of the best assets to help people grow their wealth in 2025, many people also rely on them for emergency funds. Rick Spoerl, manager of Rick’s Olde Gold pawn shop in Wisconsin, explained to Business Insider, “It’s a little weird for us to stop buying right now. This is something we’ve never seen before, so we’re just going with the flow and figuring out what to do in the moment.” Starting in February 2026, Rick’s Old Gold has set a daily cap on the amount of metal it can buy from each customer that comes in.
Local pawn shops often sell coins and scrap metal to refineries, which then process the metal into the purest possible state before returning it to circulation. However, as sales of gold and silver increase, many of these institutions have excess inventory and need to suspend purchases.
“It’s a real mess,” Dave Siminski, vice president of sales and marketing at United Precious Metals Refining, told JCK. “Basically, everyone is applying the brakes. Things are on semi-pause until we figure everything out.” At the end of January, Metalor, one of the world’s largest refineries, also publicly announced that it would stop accepting purchases and suspend payments to suppliers for a period of time. At the same time, many smaller businesses and middlemen are refusing to import because they cannot hand over their refined metals to larger companies for further processing. This essentially means that the entire refining chain is being clogged, making silver and gold a potential time bomb for local pawn shops if precious metals markets collapse.
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