[Groxx]

Gold plating uses incredibly small amounts of gold. You would have to have a huge pile, and spend a huge amount of time creating that pile, to come up with any noticeable value. Unless you're doing it automated, on an industrial scale, I very much doubt you can even get within an order of magnitude of minimum wage.

[spc476]

I remember a few years ago seeing a book of gold leaf on sale at an art store. Normally it was something like $80, but on sale, it was $30. I was wondering how they could be making money on that. I did the research and found out that a typical book of gold leaf only had about $10 worth of gold in it (at the time).

Gold leaf is incredibly thin.

[riffraff]

one of the most known italian chefs, Gualtiero Marchesi, is known for preparing gold leaf risotto, which while appearing as something only the fabled edonists of the 1% can obtain, is actually something anyone can make at home (and edible).