With gold selling at more than $1,000 per ounce, Toronto jewelry buyers say they're doing a brisk business with people looking to sell.

Harold Girstal, one of the city's jewelry buyers, says that as the price of gold rises, so does the traffic in his store.

"It generates a lot of interest in gold and many people are bringing in their gold, and they're getting better prices and generally people are happy," he said.

Anthony Eastman is one of those people who says the time was right to say goodbye to an old bracelet. "Just yesterday I was hearing about the price of gold and I said maybe it might be worth something. I have a jewelry box, so I have a couple of rings, a couple of bracelets, so I said 'Let's see what we got.'" 

What he got was $250.

Girstal cautions that customers shouldn't expect $1,000 an ounce — that's for pure gold, which is rare.

Most people have 10-, 14- or 18-carat gold, which fetches between 40 and 75 per cent of what pure gold is valued at.

But John Ing, of the investment firm Maison Placements Canada, said the jump in gold prices is a warning.

"The gold price is telling us today, like the canary in the coal mine, that all is not right," said Ing.

"Gold is a barometer of investor anxiety; it's also an inflation edge. There's a lot of anxiety in the market today. My expectation is that will put gold even higher."