In a Down Economy, One Business Owner Making Serious Coin

He's making a mint and if you're lucky, so are you. Craig Sklar, owner of Ridgewood Coin and Stamp on Chestnut St., is in the gold buying business, and business has never been better.

"Gold is $1256 an ounce and coins have tripled," Sklar says of his hottest items. Stamps, which used to be the store's mainstay, have fallen on hard times, but selling a bracelet or class ring or an old (pre 1964) silver dollar will get you 90% back. "I tell people that hotel and mall buyers give them just 60% so they'd be nuts not to come right to us."

Today, as always, business is booming. One lady brings in a few odd pieces she's found lying around the house and although Sklar, after applying a chemical solution, tells her that "sorry, some aren't sterling." She still walks away with $315. Another man has just made $1240 for his stash of silver dollars.

"Enough is enough," another lady says as she and her son hoist in 2 heavy cartons filled with her late husband's coin collection. "He's dead, and whatever am I going to do with these bags of coins?"

Sklar majored in photo journalism in college but veered into coin collecting because his dad, a doctor, was a collector and father and son enjoyed the same hobby. He and his dad were both experts and knew a lot about coins (Sklar says he can tell you something about every coin since 1793 when the US Mint opened). He opened the Chestnut St store several years ago and it became immediately popular.

"About 30 people pass through here every single day," Sklar told Patch. "I'm not just talking residents with jewelry in their drawers but people who use those metal detectors at the beach like the guy who works Pelham Pkway and made himself $1800 off me with the gold rings and stuff he found over a 2 week period."

Of course, then there are the garage sale types who go Saturdays and find gold among trinkets, Sklar relayed.

Even law enforcement gets in on the action. And Sklar does too.

"The sheriff's departments are in here checking out whether a thief has tried to fence something. I've helped the police with stings, too."

Saddest, of course, are the people who hate to part with their valuables but need them for medications or rent. One lady last week, for instance, told Sklar that the $800 he gave her would go to pay her rent. There are kids who sell their parents' heirlooms not because they want to but because they have to in these economic times.

"Everybody comes here because they know he's fair," said Billy Woods owner of Chestnut Deli, the gold store's next door neighbor. "Even I do because I buy from him and the silver I've bought has gone up 20-30%."

"Sometimes we barter, too because he'll go fishing for blues, give it to me, and I'll make him his lunch," the deli owner smiled.

Amid this morning's commotion, with 6 people lining up to sell their gems, Sklar's beeper went off. He's a fireman and it was a local call; he wasn't able to go. That's one of the bad things about being so busy, Sklar said.

"You want to do your civic duty but sometimes business just gets in the way."