Thanks to the sinking American dollar, gold reached an all-time high this week. At one point, it sold for $1,153 an ounce.

That top-dollar price is creating a gold rush.

Justice Jewelers sales representatives aren't just selling gold -- they're buying it.

"Ten times this much probably daily." Chris Pedersen of Justice Jewelers says. "There's a lot."

Pedersen says some of these pieces are unwanted gifts while others are family heirlooms from customers who may be putting their money where their mouth is.   

"You'll see a lot of gold caps," Pedersen says. "In fact here's one here."

Pedersen picks up someone's old gold tooth cap out of a box of jewelry but says don't laugh, because it's worth $38.

From broken chains to old class rings, Pedersen the average customer walks out with $250.

"This is worth $400," Norman Dias of Gold Digger's Pawn Shop says while holding a gold bracelet.

He says it's not the guitars, power tools, or boom boxes bringing in big bucks.

"Electronics or computers, they become dinosaurs after a year," Dias says.

With some help from a guy who stands on the curb begging customers to sell their gold.

"As far as selling gold, he's helped 10% to 15%," Dias says.

Dias says the gold rush at Gold Digger's is on.

"It doesn't matter if it's broken or what condition it's in," Dias says. "Gold is gold."

Both stores turn around and sell the pieces for scrap, hopefully as a profit.

"If the market fluctuates too much, you wind up losing money so we have to be really careful about the margin there," Pedersen says.

He says for now, the scales are tipped in everyone's favor.

Is the gold market hyped a bit too much? Dias says customers walk in expecting to get hundreds of dollars richer, but the selling price is based on weight, so smaller pieces may not make customers that much wealthier.