Harold “The Jewellery Buyer” Gerstel sifted through the charred remains of his store Tuesday, his hands black with ash. Two workmen hauled a massive fireproof safe through the back door.

An elderly woman entered and announced she’d like to make an interest payment. “I can come back,” she said.

Gerstel reached for his notebook. It had only been a day and a half since someone torched his store, but when you’re in the middle of a cash-for-gold war, there’s no excuse for closing shop.

“We have customers that come in on a daily basis and they don’t want to see you closed,” said Gerstel, polite but frazzled in an ash-marked trench coat.

The fire is the latest in an increasingly bizarre saga that has pitted jewellery store owners against each other, escalating to allegations of a murder-for-hire plot.

It’s something prominent cash-for-gold jeweller Russell Oliver says is tainting the industry.

“It hurts my name as well as theirs,” said Oliver, best known as the “Cashman” and “Loan Arranger” on his enthusiastic television ads.

North of Olivers’ Eglinton Ave. W. shop, at Bathurst St. and Glencairn Ave., is the turf for Gerstel’s store and other cash-for-gold retailers.

Standing at the intersection, a man wearing a bright yellow sandwich board advertised for Harold The Jewellery Buyer. It’s a volunteer gig, he said.

At 10 a.m. on Wednesday, the man will have a new haunt. Gerstel is opening up shop less than five minutes away, north on Bathurst St. He’ll even have a new sign.

They were planning to move to the larger store anyhow, he said. But the fire “expedited” things.

Police are still investigating, but say an incendiary device — like a Molotov cocktail — was thrown through the front window of the store in the early hours of Monday morning.

The jewellers’ rivalry began in May 2009, when Jack Berkovits, owner of Omni Jewelcrafters, which operates kitty-corner to Gerstel, started advertising that he would be buying gold, too. It was something only Gerstel was doing.

The pair, who attend the same synagogue, quickly found themselves in a public feud. Gerstel’s sandwich-board clad employees reportedly clashed with their competitors. Omni supporters allegedly handed out flyers, attempting to steal customers.

Last August, a 71-year-old employee of Gerstel’s made headlines when she was charged in connection with a murder-for-hire scheme.

Berkovits alleges a man, a former mixed martial arts competitor, told the jeweller he had been hired to kill him but couldn’t go through with it.

Maria Konstan faces five charges in connection to the alleged plot, including two counts of threatening death and two counts of counseling to commit an indictable offence.

Gerstel said she’s innocent and called the scenario “far-fetched.” Konstan said the allegations against her are untrue, “Everything is lies and this will be proven in court.”

Things had died down, until Monday’s arson. There are new accusations now. But Gerstel doesn’t think Berkovits had anything to do with the fire.

“The feud with Omni was just a business feud,” he said.

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Actually, Gerstel thinks someone else is behind his shattered window and burnt store, although he won’t say who. “People who are trying to steal our business,” he said, remaining tight lipped.

Esther, his wife, admitted she’s been scared to sleep at night and said Gerstel has been followed home from synagogue.

“There’s a lot of bad people in the world,” said Esther, who has seven children with Gerstel.

A request to interview Berkovits went unanswered Tuesday. He is on vacation in Florida. At his upscale shop, ladies lunched in the adjoining café.

While Oliver is distancing himself from events that seem more plausible in the movies than an unsuspecting largely orthodox Jewish neighbourhood, he’s been in the business 40 years and seen it change first-hand.

In 1970, gold was about $35 an ounce, he recalled. In the early ’90s, when he decided to deal in gold exclusively and started airing ads on TV, it rose to about $350. But it wasn’t until 2005, that the price began to skyrocket.

Oliver said he can still remember the harried day in March 2008, when gold hit $1,000 an ounce. It was his very best month in history.

On Tuesday, gold was sitting pretty at $1,403.10 (U.S.), flirting with its all-time high of $1,432.50.

As gold prices surged, so did the number of cash-for-gold shops, all clamoring to get their hands on people’s unwanted wedding rings and bracelets.

Many, like Oliver, offer to loan people money in exchange for keeping their jewellery. But there are, not surprisingly, interest rates. It’s something Oliver warns less trustworthy dealers could take advantage of, adding he’s heard of the more unscrupulous offering rates as high as 10 per cent to those desperate for money and at times giving them only 30 days to repay the loan.

In the U.K. and the United States, government agencies have launched several investigations into the darker side of the cash-for-gold mail order business. They’ve uncovered alarmingly low estimates, underpaying sellers by up to 80 per cent.

Receiving gold through the mail is something both Oliver and Gerstel will do. But Oliver said this is a new phenomenon in Canada. “We’ll get two to three packages . . . per week,” he said.