Gold purchases are picking up speed following a recent abrupt price drop for the precious metal.

Gold bars have sold out and gold accessories are going fast at the Caishikou Department Store, the largest gold dealer in downtown Beijing.

“No gold bars are available. Customers who have paid can pick up their bars in one week,” said a notice posted at the store’s gold sales counter.

Gold had almost exclusively been purchased by wealthy Chinese before the prices plummeted. But with prices dropping significantly, those with lesser means have seen an opportunity to invest in the metal themselves.

Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange suffered their biggest one-day decline since the 1980s on Monday.

Prices saw their biggest one-day percentage drop since February 1983. Gold’s one-day dollar drop was the biggest since January 1980 and the second-largest in its history.

At a gold store in East China’s city of Nanjing, one local resident rushed to buy 10 kg of gold at a total price of 2.9 million yuan,  a local daily reported.

Many people have lined up at local gold stores to purchase large amounts of jewelry and gold bars, the paper reported.

A local resident surnamed Sun said she purchased gold bars for less than 300 yuan per gram several years before, although she did not sell them when gold prices reached 380 yuan per gram last year.

Gold has become more popular as an investment option in China, as some believe it is immune to inflation. Gold consumption surged to 832.18 tonnes last year, a 9.35 year-on-year increase.

Jewelry purchases totaled 502.75 tonnes, a 10.09 year-on-year increase, the China Gold Association said.