Are Gold-Buying Services As Worthy As They Claim to Be?

Ahh, the Super Bowl. A time to get together with your best buds to watch what’s arguably the most important sports game of the year in the US. It’s a time for joy, or if your favorite team didn’t make it, regret. Whatever your stance though, everyone always enjoys what co-exists with the event – the commercials. The Super Bowl is unique in that regard, because it’s an event where viewers actually want to watch the commercials, due to their humor and high-budget production value.

It was interesting this past year when one of the commercials to air was from the company Cash4Gold. The reason it caught many off guard, including me, is because prior to this, the company really only ever saw airtime on channels during the late night and early day, and if it was during the evening, it was probably on a lower-budget station that only plays syndicated content.

I personally can’t stand the commercials for gold buyers. It’s not just Cash4Gold. On the channels I watch, I’d estimate I see commercials on a regular basis from at least five different companies, and while none of the commercials are interesting to watch, Cash4Gold actually has the more tame and less-fist-clenching of the bunch. So, are these gold buyers as worthwhile as they claim to be?

Not so much, but it depends on how you want to go about things. Consumer Reports recently did some tests with Cash4Gold and others, and they found that the money you get back pales in comparison to the real value of the gold, and also compared to what a pawn shop would pay. In fact, it was found that pawn shops on average were willing to pay up to 3x as much as these other companies, including Cash4Gold.

There’s a lot more to this story than I can talk about in a multiple paragraph news posting, so I recommend you check out the rather sizable news article at the Consumerist, linked below.

Our tests – which lasted from May through early July – found that Cash4Gold and its competitors offered simple and relatively transparent service. Online tracking systems were updated promptly, the companies generally mailed out checks within a day or two, and customer service reps were courteous and professional. The actual offers, however, were miserly. Cash4Gold sent back checks ranging from $7.60 to $12.72 (or 11% to 18% of melt value), the lowest amounts of any firm. But others weren’t far behind: GoldKit offered $7.81 to $20.59, and GoldPaq $8.22 to $13.11.