[ukmicky (OP)]

Why is gold so expensive, it can't be that its rare because their is so much of it you see it everywhere.
Its used for everything from jewellary to speaker connections.
There's so much of the stuff that the americans have had to dump hundreds of tons of it in an old fort.
Seriously though there IS tons of the stuff. so why is it so dam expensive

[neilep]

There is indeed tons of the stuff...but in reality the sum total of gold in the world is very very low.....less than 200,000 metric tonnes....enough to only fill a 22metre cube !!

...yes..there's a lot of jewellery out there but it's small pieces and it's expensive depending on the purity.
Gold used in speaker connections is very  very thin goldplate.....

also..extraction of gold from the earth is expensive, time consuming and yields trite results.......the ratio between gold and earth is large....

Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[neilep]

...just found this chum http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/tustain/2004/0315.html

Men are the same as women.... just inside out !!

[Ultima]

Aside from what neilp said, why is anything expensive? Because people want it! If it's in demand and people are willing to pay a price, then they will pay it. Jewelery in itself is a completely pointless item, but people are still willing to pay prices that could feed them for a year!

wOw the world spins?