‘The Jewelry District’ Podcast: Coping With Gold Prices and Tariffs

By Kathy Passero | May 08, 2025

In this week’s episode, JCK editor-in-chief Victoria Gomelsky and news director Rob Bates explore the ramifications of the staggering rise in gold prices and share a strategy jewelers can use to offer gold at more palatable prices. (Hint: Think vintage.) Then the conversation turns to tariffs. What is the best way to navigate this new landscape? What’s ahead? Rob and Victoria recall how jewelers learned to pivot during the pandemic—such agility will help them weather today’s volatile times, too. The cohosts wrap up by talking about what to expect in Las Vegas when the JCK show kicks off in June.

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Presenting sponsor: IGI (igi.org/education)
Sponsor: Nivoda (nivoda.com)

Episode Credits
Hosts: Rob Bates and Victoria Gomelsky
Producer and engineer: Natalie Chomet
Editor: Riley McCaskill
Plugs: @jckmagazine; igi.org/education; nivoda.com

Show Notes
01:25 Start your engines
04:42 Seems like gold times
13:50 Secondhand opportunities
15:42 Tariff what-ifs
23:45 Vegas preview

Show Recap
Start your engines
After taping this episode, Victoria was heading to Miami for Formula 1 weekend as a guest of Rolex sister brand Tudor, a sponsor of one of the teams. She marvels at how the motorsport has gained “cultural cachet” in the U.S. over the past decade, and attributes its surging popularity partly to the Netflix series Formula 1: Drive to Survive. When Vic first attended a Formula 1 race in Monaco in 2014, “it felt very European,” she says. But now, “F1 has come to the States, and there’s a mania.” There’s even an upcoming F1 movie starring Brad Pitt.

Rob once interviewed the president of Rembrandt Charms, who races cars as a hobby, and a jeweler who flies planes to deliver product. “They both said the same thing about why they enjoy it,” he notes. “It’s because of the hyperfocus, it’s because it’s something you really have to be present in. And when you do it, you tune everything else out…. It’s in a way very relaxing.”

Seems like gold times
Speaking of wild rides, Rob talks about the price of gold. At the time the episode was taped, the yellow metal had hit $3,322 an ounce, up 27% from the beginning of the year. Its price has grown more on a percentage basis since the beginning of 2025 than it did through all of 2024, driven by uncertainty about tariffs and a general feeling of instability.

Rob is struck that the last time gold prices spiked, in the 2010s, customers flooded jewelers to trade in their gold for cash. While trade-in activity has picked up recently, there’s much less hype and urgency about it, even though today’s gold prices are about double what they were in the 2010s, he says. Perhaps people are biding their time, hoping the rise will continue and yield even better rates for sellers, Victoria suggests. Rob believes trading in gold “hasn’t gotten the publicity and hype that it did last time.”

At Victoria’s recent lunch with Randi Molofsky and Mark Davidovich of For Future Reference, a brand development agency for high-end jewelers, Randi said that some of their clients’ prices are rising dramatically in tandem with gold prices. For example, one chain link piece that had retailed for $5,000 to $7,000 now costs $8,000 to $10,000.

While Victoria has seen that some designers are touting new silver collections, it’s “certainly nothing like we saw during the financial crisis back in 2008 and the aftermath of that, where the whole industry seemed to suddenly embrace silver or very dainty demi-fine pieces.” In fact, designers she spoke to for a New York Times report last December assured her they were leaning into gold.

“None of them said, ‘I’m going to embrace titanium’ or ‘Let’s embrace silver,’” she said. “They were all very very committed to gold. I haven’t checked in now, because it’s easy to [say], ‘Okay, I can live with gold at $2,500 an ounce.’ But when it’s $3,500 an ounce, I don’t know.”

Many analysts feel gold hasn’t hit the ceiling yet, says Rob. However, when any product appreciates this quickly, there’s a suspicion that it will cool off, he adds. “As Martin Rapaport says, ‘No tree grows to the heavens.’ At some point, it’s going to calm down…. When things gain $200 in value over a manner of weeks, that’s not normal or necessarily sustainable.”

Victoria doesn’t expect gold to come down in a substantial way, given we live in an era where “its hallmark is uncertainty,” she says.

Secondhand opportunities
Victoria urges jewelers to not forget the secondary market. Vintage gold pieces are “the one affordable way to offer your clients gold,” she says. It’s an option jewelers would do well to explore.

Rob points out that the opportunity is broader than gold. Secondhand watches, diamonds, and other jewelry pieces are likely to gain traction, because they offer a route around tariffs.

Tariff what-ifs
While Rob hopes we’ve seen the last of the so-called “reciprocal tariffs,” the current 10% tariff rate has already proved challenging. Bargain brands like Shein and Temu are raising prices, and some consumers are getting hit with unexpected fees when goods are delivered, he notes.

The new paradigm is likely to hit small companies hardest since they lack the bargaining power of giants like Signet, Walmart, and Apple, which can either shift manufacturing or lobby for tariff exemptions.

Many businesses are scrambling to find effective strategies in a shifting landscape. One analyst told Victoria that between the initial “reciprocal tariff” announcement on April 2 and when the tariffs were paused on April 9, the secondary watch market spiked, only to see sales drop by 50%.

Victoria says the sense of doom and confusion “feels like an echo” of the COVID era, and she wonders if people are getting a sense of déjà vu. Rob agrees that the tariff situation “feels all-encompassing,” because it is constantly on the news and affects people’s daily lives, like the cost of buying groceries and their 401(k).

On the upside, “jewelry does tend to do well after times of strife and fear,” Rob says. “If this is all settled…people will be feeling a little bit better and be thinking about what’s important in life. But right now it’s scary.”

Victoria adds that “COVID taught us to be a lot more agile…. I think people are better prepared for this moment and these economic uncertainties now than they certainly would have been pre-COVID.” She urges listeners not to let stress overwhelm them and to remember that the industry has survived past crises.

Vegas preview
Victoria and Rob say they will explore how issues like tariffs will affect JCK Las Vegas attendees and exhibitors in podcast episodes leading up to next month’s trade show.

JCK readers can find a guide to fun things to see and do in Neon City from travel expert Matt Villano in an e-newsletter this week, as well as in the May issue of JCK magazine, hitting mailboxes soon.

Las Vegas is “really the most dynamic city I can think of,” says Victoria. “There are new things to talk about every single year.”

Any views expressed in this podcast do not reflect the opinion of JCK, its management, or its advertisers.