Exclusive | The dos and donts of buying and selling gold: See the New Yorkers cashing in as prices hit record highs

When David Kleinman realized just how much the price of gold had gone up, he beelineed to the Diamond District with a bag of his wife’s unused jewelry.And, after Alon Mirzaev, manager of U.S.Gold Refinery on 47th Street, handed him $659 for the three gold rings and two gold necklaces his wife never wears, he’s pretty sure he now has the Midas touch.“I’m not really a jewelry buyer and I had no idea how much gold was in these items,” Kleinman, an HR consultant who lives on the Upper East Side with his family, told The Post.“I’m a little surprised that this small bag of jewelry was worth this much.”The owners of the stalls lining the street are watching as the gold market continues to soar minute by minute, hour by hour.At press time, gold prices were trading at a staggering $3,322 per ounce.

While that’s off last week’s record high at $3,500, it still represents an annual increase of around 35 percent compared with a year earlier versus the average annual uptick of five to 10 percent.And New Yorkers are taking advantage of prices by either offloading their gold or investing in the currency that hasn’t lost value in months amid recent market volatility.Take a walk down 47th Street right now and you can’t help but notice all of the customers toting bags of baubles they’re ready to sell.“There are a lot of people who are selling the gold they have sitting around,” Mirzaev said, adding that he hasn’t seen this big of a gold selloff since 2008.“Times are tough and gold prices don’t ever stay down — they will always go up and, with inflation, it will go up more.”All the more reason it’s a perfect time to mine for gold in your own jewelry box.“I always recommend that people sell things they never wear,” said Mark Kandinov, owner of Luriya, a family-owned jewelry business on 47th Street.“With gold at this price, this is a really good way to get some cash — fast.”Besides all the people selling off unused tchotchkes, Mirza...