The gold rush began in earnest in the fall of 2007, Ed Dressler, the general manager of the London Jewelers store in East Hampton, said last week. The stock market went into freefall at about the same time as the real estate bubble burst. “We bought more gold in one month than we did in the previous 12 years, combined,” he said. “People were going through their things, finding that they had money sitting there.”