Cash for Gold, or Cash for Con?
It seems that literally overnight, new companies have sprouted out of nowhere, ready to buy your unwanted gold jewellery for cash. Every time a programme stops for a break, there is at least one advert talking about making money out of your old jewellery. They claim that gold prices are at their all time high, and think that you will benefit if you scrape together your old jewellery and send it to them, for their financial advisors to price and give you money.
When I first saw these companies, I had an inkling that they would give you less money for your gold, but I thought of it as normal, as they need to make some profit, and there would be costs to send and refine it. However their tactics have now been investigated by the Office of Fair Trading, as reported by the Guardian. Which? Sent three pieces of jewellery worth £729 to these companies. When I read the figures they offered, I was shocked. One offered £38.50, one didn’t even pay as they denied it was gold, and the third went and doubled their quote after a rejection from the researcher. I found it to be daylight robbery, I would have expected them to pay £300-£400, not £30 for over £700 of jewellery. They claim that gold prices are at an all time high, so why receive £30 for a £700 necklace. Surely even if gold prices hit rock bottom, you would get more than that. According to the Guardian the independent jewellers paid 25% less than the original value, so it would be better to not bother with such companies and go to the local jeweller to get a great deal.
The gold adverts are not only annoying, but con people out of the true value of their jewellery, the best thing to do would be to ignore these companies and try to change the channel if an advert came up.