Well, to me at least.
I don't come across gold too often, so I don't think about it. However, working in the electrical field, I work with copper a lot. In fact, I started swiping the bits of bare copper wire the day I started work. Then I found out that copper is going for just under 4 dollars a pound.
I have a whole box of copper "scrap" in the back of my car.
Technically I'm not supposed to do this. Either it's trashed, or it's recycled by my employer. But they usually throw out the small strands I'm picking up.
One other guy I work with is doing the same thing, except he's picking up the coated wire as well, which means, if he wants top dollar for it, he'll have to strip/melt it all off to get to the bare copper.
I literally dig through trash and scour the floors for the stuff.