In an article from Times Online reports that the companies that offer to buy gold through the mail are generally not a good deal. The annoying TV commercials that seem like a good deal to get cash quickly may not be a good thing at all. Several companies are being investigated by a British agency, The Office of Fair Trading, because they are accused of not giving the gold back if the customer is not satisfied with the cash offer.
I found it interesting because to most, companies like cash4gold seem too good to be true, and they probably are. A magazine sent three of these companies identical pieces of jewlery bought for $1180 each. In one case, a company only offered $62 for the gold. It might be worthwhile to look into how many people actually sell their gold to these companies. Are these types of companies actually prospering in this economy?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Followers
Blog Archive
-
▼
2010
(68)
-
▼
January
(65)
- Solar Powered Airplane
- Low-tech radios connect some Haitians
- Decreasing Mortgage Rates
- Congress approves tax deduction for Haiti contribu...
- Sticky Pedals for Toyota Means Big Recalls
- It seems that cell phones have obtained a more imp...
- Starbucks sees its profits triple
- Billionaires of Basketball
- Google's Big 4Q
- Gold Buying Companies not a Good Deal
- Japanese Airline Company Caught in a Buyout Battle
- Lincoln City is Green
- China Economy Seeing Fast Growth
- Oregon Unemployment Rate Still 11 Percent
- Facebook in Prineville
- Expanding Wind Power for the Eastern U.S.
- Kraft Buyout of UK Chocolate Angers Krafts Largest...
- Sweden Teaches Banks Responsibility
- A Country on Crutches
- Comcast and DirecTV Agree on FCC Ruling
- Too Much Help? There is such a thing
- Cyber attack in China
- Starbucks Sees Large Gains in a Poor Economy
- Loss of purchasing power
- New York Times Website willing to charge its readers
- Larger Royalties for Amazon's Digital Publications
- Auto Industry Forsees Job Increase
- Oregon Unemployment Increases to 11%
- Less Known Advertisers Taking Over Super Bowl
- Wells Fargo Optimistic
- Credit Card Companies Find Loopholes in New Laws
- Trader Joe's Creates New Jobs
- Smartphones to Take Over
- Nike and Education Unite!
- Renovation to Oregon State Even in Times of Recession
- China's booming economy
- NY Times to Charge for On-line Articles
- Global Warming Affecting Farmers Around the World
- The battle between Apple and Google
- The Future of Written News?
- YouTube Introduces Film Rentals
- Smoking Can Hurt Your Chances With a New Job
- Starbucks Profits Triple
- Solving our Health Care Problems
- Haiti Earthquake Relief: an Alternative Way to Help
- Internet Search Privacy
- Cell phone distraction causes one in four US car c...
- Too Much Media Concentration?
- USC Coaching switch
- Oregon hospital costs hit $7.5 billion a year
- E Bikes May Be Quick Fix
- Facebook can Hurt Your Chance of Employment
- New Wilsonville Fred Meyer will incorporate housin...
- Tech Savvy Business Vs. Main Street Business
- Kraft Must Increase It's Cadbury Takeover Offer
- Oregon Hospitals Rising Costs
- Detroit hopes
- Farms May Be More White Than Green
- Google Threatening to Leave China Due to Cyber-Attack
- China's Economic Success has Many Chapters Ahead
- Buildings Go Green
- Animation Industry
- Obama's Green Initiatives
- DHS Funding a Hit or Miss?
- Energy regulators up timeline for liquid gas terminal
-
▼
January
(65)
Adam,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the article. I've always been amused and amazed that ads like these for gold sharks produce enough victims to pay for television commercials. Not that I don't have piles of gold heaped around my house that I'm dying to get rid of, but it's such an effort to put it in an envelope and mail it off. If only there was someone willing to take all my EXTRA diamonds off my hands.
Gold is precious in many ways, but especially the perception. I had a friend who purchased 10 one-ounce gold coins when they were selling for $800 an ounce. Gold is now selling for $1200 an ounce. Unfortunately for my friend, he bought his coins in around 1980, and soon after, the price dropped to about $350 an ounce. He died two years ago, about the time his coins had appreciated back to what he paid for them.
The other interesting thing is that commercials advertising gold for sale are frequently on programs of commentators preaching gloom and doom and the end of civilization as we know it. Gold is seen as the ultimate security. For years the economy can rise, and the gloom-and-doomers predict the end of good times. Of course, there is always a bad year, or like the current mess several years, so they claim they were right all along and urge listeners to but more gold, the commercials for which keep them on the air. It comes down to whether one or two bad years each decade is worth investing like every silver (or gold) cloud has a dark lining.