Now's another good time to sell your gold

The price of gold has been surging this year, and it now looks like another good time to wade through your box of gold jewelry that doesn't have much sentimental value and sell it at a high price.

In what is probably the safest precious metal of them all, gold futures briefly topped $800 an ounce Friday for the first time in more than a month.

Gold for December delivery rose $43.10, or 5.8%, to end at $791.80 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It jumped 7.1% earlier to $801.90, rising above $800 for the first time since Oct. 16.

Often used as a safe-haven investment, gold topped $900 an ounce in September after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, then fell below $700 in October as bank and funds liquidated their precious-metal assets for much-needed cash in the face of the credit crunch.

March was also a good time to sell gold, when it hit its record high above $1,000 an ounce. But compared to that price, gold is now down more than 20%.

There are plenty of online places to sell gold, but I can't make a recommendation because I've never used them. The only gold I own is my wedding ring, which isn't leaving my finger, no matter how high the price goes.

Aaron Crowe is an unemployed journalist in the San Francisco Bay Area. Read about his job hunt at www.talesofanunemployeddad.blogspot.com