http://consumerist.com/5142831/cash4gold-offers-blogger-3000-to-remove-negative-post And in related news: Can a pot of gold paint on some random knick-knacks around your house net you a check from Goldkit.com? http://www.cockeyed.com/citizen/goldkit/gold_kit.shtml
I've loved cockeyed.com for years. Rob is one funny, and smart, guy. In fact, I just got their 2009 calendar not too long ago...
I personally buy scrap gold at the coin shop... I have heard nothing but horror stories about those places. We had a lady a few weeks who sent it to one of those places... they sent her a check for less then $5... It was one of the "satisfaction guaranteed" places so she sent the check back and they mailed her her items back. She subsequently brought them in and we paid her $65 for the same items... I wonder how many people are just getting raked over the coals by these places?
I thought I posted about this, but some time back I got them on the phone and asked them how much they were actually paying for gold. They kept being evasive so I asked, point blank, .999 fine Credit Suisse numbered 1 oz bars, 20 of them, how much? Well spot that day was $850 or so, they said $525/oz. I started laughing and asked if she was serious.
We buy it at the shop I work in as well. Of course a shop has to make money but what these people pay is a joke. Couple that with the fact that those sending it in have NO clue in so many cases. At least in a real setting you are watching the buyer inspect it. We buy by weight and karat. If it's got really good resale potential you get more. A jeweler that we do business with sent some "junk" in to one of these places knowing full well what it was worth. The offer was ridiculous of course so he declined. HE received a small lump of gold back NOT what he had sent in. No karat marking or mention of purity. So what does one do? Cut it in half and acid test it? Sure a jeweler can do that or with better tools get a good read on it. How many average people have this available or even know it can be done? I'd love to see these people banned from TV but since there's "one born every minute" it will continue.
I love that they actually mailed the dude a check for a dollar for a bag full of spay painted gold junk. That is toooo Funny
I love that one woman in their commercial "I sent them my diamond engagement ring from my first marriage. I would never believef i could get so much for my old jewelry." Now they don't pay for the diamonds, in fact they will probably reduced the weight sligthly because of them. Then womens rings tend to be pretty light weight, AND you have to figure 14K probably so only about half that weight is gold. And she is IMPRESSED with how much she got? Boy she must have low expectations. I used to work in a shop that bought gold as well, and womens engagement rings don't scrap out at much at all.
A little off subject but is there a place we can send our scrap gold just to have it smelted to bars or rounds and stamped with purity and returned for a fee?
Yeah, such places exist. But it's a whole lot cheaper and easier to just sell the scrap gold to a coin dealer and buy gold bars with the money.
Dental gold is difficult to accurately test. The usual gold used in dentistry is 40% gold, 25% platinum and/or palladium and 35% nickel and/or chromium. The platinum/palladium cobined with the gold gives a false reading when doing the usual jewelry shop test which usually shows more gold than is actually present. This shouldn't matter to someone turning in scrap since you're getting paid for all of the precious metals contained in the scrap. However, if you're selling directly to a refiner they may give you a bit less because of the extra effort in separating out the other nobel metals.
10 Secrets of an Ex-Employee of Cash4Gold. Be prepared to RAGE or take a grain of salt. http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/cash4gold-c117648.html
A jeweler here in town buys gold for just 4-7% under spot not too bad. He will even buy stones but those he would rather give you back. Ice
According to the following article Cash4Gold offered only 23.4% of what 2 legitimate jewelers offered for a gold bracelet. The reporter took his wife's gold bracelet to two jewelers who offered to buy it for $200. Another questionable outfit said the bracelet was not gold and offered $60. Then the reporter mailed the bracelet to Cash4Gold: Experiment: Reporter Tries to Sell Wife's Gold Bracelet