Well known consumer research company Which has conducted an investigation into the plethora of cash for gold companies that are taunting us daily with their promises of money for nothing.
In a test, Which purchased some new gold jewellery to the value of £729 and found that they were offered just £38.57 from CashMyGold. One of the items was a bracelet that cost £215 and they were offered just £10 for it whereas an independent jeweller offered £54.
It’s an unregulated scammer’s market that borders on daylight robbery. The trouble is people don’t really know what their jewellery is worth and are easily parted with it; particularly when the adverts imply that because there’s no middle man and they operate their own metal refineries that you get a really good price for your jewellery.
The price of gold currently stands at $1159 per ounce (about 28 grammes) and by extracting extremely cheap gold from hard up families with promises of instant cash, large profits can be made. There’s an advert at the moment for Cash for Gold Man who goes round saving families by taking their gold off them and giving them fuck all for it.
Indeed, some of these adverts promise that there is no commitment when sending jewellery to be valued: if you choose not to take the cash and want your jewellery back, they’ll send it back at no cost. Money4Gold is not one of them: according to Which, they sent a £399 9ct gold bracelet to Money4Gold but were informed that it wasn’t gold and they would have to pay £10.95 to have it returned.
Michelle Mortensen from WPTZ Newschannel 5 did a similar test and took a 14ct gold ring to a private jewellers for a cash for gold valuation. After testing the ring for resistance to determine the actual gold content, the jeweller offered $94 for it or $105 if the customer took a gift card (to spend in the shop). Cash 4 Gold offered just $16.90.
As I’ve mentioned before, I find these exploitative adverts similar to the old Ocean Finance adverts during the housing boom. They featured a single woman purportedly worrying about debt who finds that once she contacted Ocean Finance she can suddenly afford to go on luxury holidays. What they don’t tell you, of course, is that once these sharks have finished with you you don’t own your house any more.
I just love this, though:
Tags: cash for gold, scams
Ah but there’s always “Goldbuyerman”. He pays more than “any other TV advertised goldbuyer”. They even buy dental gold (they helpfully show some in a set of false teeth – is it me or do false teeth tend not to have fillings at all?) It sort of shows you might get a better deal at the pawnbrokers or jewellers. People who use these companies are idiots. They even need showing just what sort of items might have gold in and how to put something in an envelope for goodness sake. If they can’t take something around a few jewellers to make sure they’re getting a good price, they deserve to be ripped off.
Ahh Gold Buyer Man, perhaps that’s the one I was thinking of.
You are of course right, but it incenses me to see these adverts exploiting people that don’t know any better.
They know that you have no idea what the jewellery is worth, they mislead you with talk that they “cut out the middle man” and operate their own refinery, they know that people love to think they’re getting a good deal (even if they’re not) so by the time you decide to send your jewellery off you’re ready to accept whatever they offer.
These ads should be banned.