Gold buying company opened in Croatia (and long time closed

Back in 2010, I stumbled into this weird little corner of the world — the gold scrap trade in Croatia. It was like finding a hidden treasure map in a dusty attic, except instead of X marks the spot, it was “X marks the gold.”

I was fresh-faced, had some capital, and a wild idea: Why not open a legit company here to buy and export gold? Back then, the Croatian market was… well, kind of a ghost town for gold buyers. Seriously. Almost nobody was doing it. Not companies. Not even individual traders. Just jewelers and the Central Bank — and they were the only ones allowed to touch it.

Why? Because Croatia was still playing by the old Yugoslav rules. You remember Yugoslavia? The big, chaotic, communist country that fell apart? Yeah, they didn’t believe in letting people just walk into a shop and sell their gold for cash. No way. Only jewelers and the Central Bank got the green light. Everyone else? Out of luck.

And then… Croatia became independent. And the laws? They just… stayed. Yep. The old rules got repurposed by the new government. Gold could only go to jewelers. Not businessmen. Not companies. Not even your friendly neighborhood scrap dealer.

But then something changed. Croatia was getting ready to join the EU. And with that, they had to clean up their act — including their gold laws. Suddenly, the old restrictions were gone. The door was wide open.

I saw my chance.

I had some money, a little hustle, and a brain that liked puzzles. So I dove in. I researched. And what I found? It was wild.

Local jewelers? Not only were they cheating their customers — buying gold for less than $4 per gram — they were also smuggling it out of the country. Big time. Like, “I’m not just selling this to you, I’m laundering it through my shop” kind of smuggling.

And then… I found the real kicker. Some big-name investment companies from Slovenia — super reputable, clean-looking, professional — were actually the number one buyers of that smuggled gold. They were buying it from Croatia, laundering it, and shipping it off to other countries.

I thought: “Hey, I can do this better.”

So I did.

I opened the first legal gold-buying company in Croatia. No shady deals. No hidden fees. Just honest cash for your gold.

I went all in on marketing. More than 10,000 websites. Ads in newspapers. Radio spots. Flyers on the streets. I made sure every Croatian who wanted to sell their gold knew they could call me.

My phone? It was ringing off the hook. Every minute. Like a gold mine of calls.

Within a year? The big players moved in. Investment firms from Albania and Italy? They saw the opportunity. They came in, bought tonnes of gold, and shipped it off for export. They were the new kings of the gold scrap game.

And then… the real boom. More than 500 new gold-buying businesses opened in Croatia. All of them wanting to cash in on the gold scrap trade. And it wasn’t just Croatia anymore. Other Balkan countries — Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro — started following suit. Suddenly, the whole region was buzzing with gold hunters, scrap dealers, and cash-flippers.

But then, in 2012 — boom. The market shifted again. The gold scrap game was getting too crowded. Too predictable. Too… local.

So we packed our bags. We didn’t just stay in Croatia. We went to Africa. To hunt for gold-bearing ores. Because why stop at scrap? Let’s go find the real stuff — the raw, untouched, earthy, golden stuff.

And that’s how my wild, weird, gold-obsessed adventure kept going.