The stage is set for truly the saddest year of Superbowl Ads, Cash4Gold has bought up a Superbowl Ad slot. Cash4Gold usually advertises on late-night cable TV. You send them your scrap gold, and they send you money. I can’t wait to see what they come up with. Probably they’ll just replay the same commercial. NBC also has two 30-second slots left for sale. Someone tell the Snuggie cult.
Cash4Gold snaps up a slot for Super Bowl XLIII ad [USA Today] (Thanks to David!)
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I saw some TV news expose awhile back where they took some old jewelry to pawn shops and such to see what they could get for it.
IIRC, they discovered that Cash 4 Gold was the worst of the bunch. They initially sent a check that was a deliberate lowball offer, so the reporter called them and they instantly offered to double it, but even WITH the doubling, they were STILL well below the B&M pawn shops that were part of the study.
same thing happened to a friend of mine.She told them to send it back..@dragonfire81:
@chilled: Check out the Google results, this appears to be normal course of business for them:
[www.google.com]
@dragonfire81: Yeah that report was broadcast on WSYR (Syracuse, NY). Here is the link if you’re curious:
[www.9wsyr.com]
Here’s hoping Eagleman can pony up enough cash to buy one of the last 2 slot.
@Segador: ohh…look at those low rates.
@Segador: I’ve got something for youuuuuuu!
@Segador: Remember the one with ManCow in it? Boy is that guy a douche.
@Segador: Mmmm, big-haired 80s chicks.
WTF – Eagle *Man* laid an egg!
They don’t just advertise late-night. I’ve seen their ads on Comedy Central during prime time.
@nicemarmot617: Are you sure it was an Ad, not just part of the Comedy?
Doesn’t this show how much profit they are making, if they can purchase a SuperBowl slot? Maybe it’s b/c:
“I how no idea my gold jewelery was worth so much money!”
@Starscream_GitEmSteveDave: they’d be better off melting the god down themselves and filling their teeth with it for safe keeping then sending it to those shysters.
They’re not the only ones though i see so many places even Jewelry stores who are looking for old jewelry.
@Skankingmike: And with your last bit of strength, you pointed to W and S, to signify Maggie Simpson, right?
What? No, with my last ounce of strength, I sucked out my gold fillings and swallowed them. Those paramedics have sticky fingers.
@Starscream_GitEmSteveDave: HA. You get a Gold star for the day because that was an awesome reference.
@Skankingmike: People have actually died melting down tooth fillings because the mercury that’s mixed with them vaporizes and poisons them.
@ohnoes: Not gold fillings. Only others.
@ohnoes: except i suggested they melt down their jewelry them selves.
But yea most dentists should not be using mercury mixtures in their fillings anymore.
@Skankingmike: I know you meant to write ‘melting the _gold_ down’, but it is so much funnier trying to imagine people melting their god down. Of course, their god might just smite them down if they tried to.
It’s just a matter of time until we have the crazyfox423.com start your own business online halftime show.
@Underpants Gnome: That’s the (Sun)day I turn my back on society and go all crazy woods-hermit.
@Underpants Gnome: And we can run our “Crazy Like a Fox” home businesses with our Blue Hippo PC’s. Hell, we might even discover some things the banks don’t want us to know!! I’m so there!
@VeeKaChu: Win.
They air pretty much around the clock here in God’s waiting room.
Darn, I hoped that “Send UR Gold” would have done a Super Bowl ad instead:
@Hastin:
The ancient city-state of Ur is in need of gold? I’m so gonna send them some!
@Hastin: I wanted Santo Gold to do their infomercial but I guess that is just asking too much
://consumerist.com/5142098/sad-cash4gold-buys-superbowl-ad-slot&feature=player_embedded
They must make A LOT of money off your gold to be able to pay for the commercial.
I’m sure the snuggies people can afford it.
The quirky little blanket with sleeves has become the raiment of the zeitgeist, with more than 4 million units sold in just over three months and more than 200 parody videos on YouTube.
@Blueskylaw: It’s a backwards house coat / old lady robe… just add velcro.
@Blueskylaw: Yeah, but my wife gets cold around the house a lot, so it actually seems like it’s not that bad of a product.
The one that always get me is the paper cutter. With the lady use a pair of scissors to cut a photo in half because she’s too stupid to use a pair of scissors. But wait! With this amazing new product, she can probably manage to actually remove her hand from her wrist while trimming a picture. Just wipe off the blood and you have a photo perfectly trimmed and ready for framing for your funeral.
@SacraBos: I’ve never seen the infomercials for them, but a decent paper cutter (of either sliding blade or good old-fashioned school cleaver type) can be quite nice if you need to put a lot of straight cuts in a lot of sheets of paper, or need something particularly neatly trimmed.
I had no idea my old gold jewelry was worth so much money.
@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: Oh yeah! Gold is at an ALL TIME HIGH!!!
@HIV 2 Elway Resurrected: YOU CAN TAKE THE VACATION OF A LIFETIME!!!!!
who cares. eventually people will start just filtering out advertisements as much as possible anyways, and run this noise into the ground. cant wait.
You do realize Cash4Gold has serious venture backing?
http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/daily-brief/2009/01/06/cash4gold-swimming-in-it?addComment=true
“Cash4Gold recently raised a whopping $40 million from General Catalyst Partners and Highland Capital Partners”
@YasinPegasus:
I do realize that this is your first and only post…ever…and I find it hard to believe that anyone other than a shill would take the time to create an account to make the dumbass comment that you just made..
interesting, if advertising disappears maybe television will go too. otherwise, how will it be funded?
Here are some testimonials about the beautiful people at Cash4Gold.
We decided to use Cash4Gold after reading the great references cited on their website. We were going to sell our jewelry on craigslist.com but thought this sounded like a more effective way to maximize our profits. WHAT A JOKE! I finally received my check after weeks and weeks of waiting with no word and no confirmation that they even received my jewelry — I feared it was gone for good. It might as well be lost! For a 14K gold bracelet that I was offered $75, $85, and $90 for on craigslist I received a whopping $4.73! I felt instantly sick and feared the worst.
For some small diamonds that they took our of a ring they paid me $0.21. Yes, that is twenty-one cents. Add in a 14k ring and pair of earrings and my total windfall was $7.51. I feel like I’ve been sucker punched and just hope someone reads this and saves themself the time, energy and agony of going through this process.
SERIOUSLY! What a f***ing SCAM! I sent one ounce of silver to see what they would pay (going rate is about $17/ounce) and I got a check for $1.90! To get my silver back, I have to pay a $15 shipping fee what a bunch of sh*tbags! I hope those scumbags get shut down.
I ALSO WAS SCREWED OVER BY THIS SHITTY ASS COMPANY ! I MAILED OFF OVER 7,000 DOLLARS IN GOLD AND DIAMONDS ! AFTER TWO WEEKS OF HEARING NOTHING FROM THE COMPANY I FINALLY CALLED THEM, AND OF CORSE “THEY DIDNT RECEIVE IT” WICH I ALREADY KNOW IS BULLSHIT ! TO MAKE A LONG STORY SHORT AFTER A MONTH AND TRYING TO GET ANSWERS FROM ABOUT 7 DIFFERENT PEOPLE FROM THE COMPANY I WAS FINALLY MAILED A CHECK FOR 100.00 DOLLARS ! BECAUSE THIS IS THE MOST YOUR PACKAGE IS INSURED FOR ! DO NOT USE THEM !!! YOUR BETTER OFF SELLING ON EBAY OR CRAIGSLIST ! PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD AROUND ABOUT THIS SHITTY COMPANY !
Was, I fool when I saw it on TV I thought it was a good idea because they said to send any jewelry in and get a good deal while that was not true because I got a check today for .29 cents and I am going to send it back and they can stick it where it counts.They are a scam and I dont think they should get away with it. There should be something somebody can do.
I was about to use them and a very good friend of mine did it a few months ago. She never advised me of it because she was embarassed. She sent her 1 1/2 carat sapphire cut 14K white gold band engagement ring. She felt the diamond district in Manhattan who is notorious for offering the lowest of prices to purchase and then sell at more than 100% was not offering a fair deal (highest offer was $900.00.) The ring cost her former fiance a little over 3500 grand because of the diamond quality and cut (G/H range) and of course the white gold. She said after close to 11 weeks of waiting she received a check for a $8.00 and change! She was in tears. She did report them to the Better Business Bureau and Consumer Affairs, but was told she had no recourse since she basically agreed to whatever there terms are the minute she sent the ring.
@Blueskylaw: amazing, makes wall street sound like a bunch of cloned popes…
@Blueskylaw: Those DABA girls are going to be really disappointed about what their engagement rings fetch.
@Blueskylaw: that ALL CAPS moron has to be made up. who the hell sends $7000 in valuables thru the mail to a company they saw on tv at 4:00am?!?
it does point out the b.s. “guarantee” though.
@Blueskylaw: One of the first ones I read had someone who sent it in, then didn’t hear anything from them for 2 weeks. She called, and they said they didn’t get anything. The next day, she gets the check. She tries to cancel, but they say they destroyed it, since the 10 day period was up. There’s being sleazy, and then there’s making the cancel conditions impossible to achieve.
What about “my gold envelope”? I guess they aren’t doing as well as cash for gold to afford primetime.
Let’s start a Paypal donation thing here to buy a spot for Flea Market Montgomery:
“It’s just like, it’s just like, a mini….mall !”
@scoosdad: Sorry, Jones bigass truck rental trumps the flea market:
[consumerist.com]
@Starscream_GitEmSteveDave: I honestly flipped a coin on this one, and Montgomery won.
Besides, Jones BATR isn’t a real business anyway. But still entertaining and I’d pay just to hear someone say “Bigass” on a Super Bowl ad.
@scoosdad: Hey, at least the spot is entertaining. And you sort of know before you set foot inside Flea Market Montgomery (they have outside vendors too) that you’re going to be buying cheap crap, so you’re not getting scammed on the back end.
@BlazerUnit: And yes, I have visited Flea Market Montgomery. Don’t leave your money or your desperation at home.
Even more interesting is that Ed McMahon and MC Hammer will be in the Cash4Gold spot, according to that ,i>USA Today article. Let that be a cautionary tale to the kids.
Since Cash4Gold has a spot, does this mean there’s hope we’ll see Vince of ShamWow and SlapChop fame in a spot, too? Or perhaps Billy Mays yelling at us to buy OxyClean, Big City Sliders, health insurance, or whatever the hell else he’s shilling?
Shamwow! Superbowl ad rates must be crashing!
Screw Super Bowl ads.
I want Vince Offer doing color commentary.
“Watch dis. Da wide receiver here, he just runs his route like it’s nothin’. A child could run dat play. I tell ya – plays like deez are excitin’. Giants routes? Forget about ‘em. Boring playbook. But the Steelas route – exciting! Why would ya wanna watch boring slant routes? You wouldn’t! You wanna watch exciting quick outs plays run against a dime defense. Dats why I like da Steelers – cuz bein’ from Pittsburgh, dey got German stock in em. And you know dos Germans are smart…”
No frakkin’ joke – I could watch 5 hours of Vince Offer.
@OMG! Ponies!: The Steelers? You’re gonna love their balls.
It depressed me enough that this company makes enough money to afford new commercials every month or so, and now they bought one of the most expensive commercial slots of the year?
I remember thinking when I first saw that commercial, “Nobody could be stupid enough to just put gold, GOLD, in an envelope, and mail it away in exchange for an undetermined amount of cash.” Yet here we are…
I just wonder how people who send gold in can be so stupid to not consider that a company with that much overhead (such as postage-paid padded envelopes and shitty commercials) wouldn’t be ripping them off in order to not be hemmoraging money.
God I want to go punch a TV…
@Courteous_Gentleman:
About the only thing worse than this I can recall is rent-to-own jewelry. I got one of those throw away junk mailers with a listing of the usual couches, TV, and even such. Each had a certain price like $13.31 per week for 78 weeks. Interestingly though the jewely had a price $25.25 per week, they didn’t specify a length of time. I guess you either pay them forever or noone has ever finished paying so the term is irrelevant.
You can even rent-to-own (mouth) grills! Seriously who the hell would want an unfitted piece of psuedo jewelry of indeterminate origin in their mouth.
We don’t seem to get Cash4Gold on the shows I watch, instead we get GOLDKIT.COM
same deal, send your valuables off in their envelope and get a pittance back.
HOWEVER- I did read someplace that someone tried sending them back some junk they spray painted gold and they got a form letter telling them “sometimes things you think are gold, are not” but being good sports and all they would still send them a check for $1, they were unable to return the items though since they were apparently worthless.
I just filed for 3 new “Gold Kits” online for my grandkids and when they arrive we will see what happens when we send off some old doorknob hardware (at their expense of course). Hopefully we will all get $1 checks.
@microcars: Now that’s a fine idea! Come to think of it I’m quite certain that my dogs have eaten my old gold jewelry. Maybe I should send them a stool sample (at their expense) from each just to make sure.
@microcars: Here’s the link you remember: [www.cockeyed.com]
Interestingly, Rob just posted another article about how Cash4Gold is trying to get him to pull down his original article on them. [www.cockeyed.com]
Don’t like ‘em? Then show it by not watching the Superbowl. Prove that you’re prepared to back up your internets comments.
I shall be doing just that (actually it’s a my protest at C4G more that the SB is a stupefyingly over hyped waste of time).
@philipbarrett: Unfortunately, what you are suggesting is akin to holding a picket sign by yourself in a dark room. No one knows what you’re watching or not watching unless you’re hooked up to Nielsen equipment, and very, very few people actually are at any given moment.
@Clobberella: What you just said is why do not like the Nielsen system.
and I should have said “it’s not my protest at…”
You guys are looking at this all wrong. The more people who see the commercial, the more people who use the serviced, and the more pissed off customers there will be. This commercial is going to make a mess larger than a elephant that ingested tainted peanut butter!
@Ibanez720: *service
I hope J.G Wentworth doesnt get any ideas…
@Twinrevanoe: “I had NO IDEA my structured settlement was worth that much!”
(meanwhile, JG takes a annuity and discounts it at like 0.1% and pays the lump sum to the customer. It’s like payday lending in reverse!)
these testimonials are depressing but why would anyone think its a good idea to put valuables in an envelope and mail it across the country to a place you’ve never seen and to people you’ve never met?
p.t. barnum would be so proud.
The best is the “tamper-proof mailer,” which looks like a dull butterknife could open if it fell on it.
I’m as much of a Consumerist as the next guy, but I have to say that I see the devaluation of Super Bowl ads as a positive development. I always thought it odd, and a little bit creepy, that we Americans could get so excited about advertisements. Any movement away from this bizarre fixation is also as step away from a “Wall-e” or “Idiocracy” future. Huzzah to that.
@AtomicPlayboy:
Yeah! People need to focus on the contest between large violent millionaires fighting for the right to justify a pay increase when their contract comes up!
What really get’s me…. I went to RIPOFFREPORTS.com to investigate all these companies. typed in ‘cash4gold.com’, first thing that comes up is their ad 4 cash4gold! then look at the reports, ripoffreports goes pages and pages of reasons you should trust this company, making excuses for them, posting their ads on their pages, then at the bottom it shows the original (1 Paragraph) complaints (and there are tons of them!), The complaints have never been corrected (contrary to what ripoffreports, posts above the report). These “ads” and recommendations have nothing to do with the dozens of reports, just tells you to trust this company because ripoffreports thinks you should (advertising dollars).
Is this right? a consumer protection site, that should be on the side of the customer or at least unbiased. Instead supporting and giving reasons for you to use a company, when it is obvious they are accepting money for advertising for them? They give excuses for the company, tell how honest they are, basically recommend them to you, but never investigated the original rip off report? True, they didn’t remove the original complaint from their site, but they post advertisements and hide the complaints below pages of their “paid for” reviews of the company! When I saw this, that’s when I decided not to even try cash4gold.com with any of my gold scrap!
Ugh. Cash 4 gold has some of the worst commercials. The one with the old shrill balding woman on a golf course is horrid.
At least they could do the world a favor and have it be a shamwow commercial. At least Vince is interesting enough to put up with for 30 seconds.
A fool and his money…
NBC: ADVERTISE YOUR UNWANTED MERCHANDISE FOR A MILLION DOLLARS!
If you really have gold and jewelry you want to melt or get refined, ask your dentist for a referral to the place they send their scrap gold. And be sure to tell the company the name of the dentist, as even if you cold call those companies they might give you less of a return as you are a one time customer, but if being referred by a regular client your likely to get a better return.
I took my gold jewelry to a jewelry shop and they offered me $425. I went 1/2 block to an estate shop they paid me $150 more. Shop around before selling your jewelry. Never, ever send it anywhere. You’re bound to be cheated.
I’ve never thought of them as anything but a fencing operation for low rent burglars anyway.
According to Advertising age their ad features Pitchman Ed McMahon and Rapper MC Hammer… so I guess it is not the same crappy commercial but a different crappy commercial…
The spokesman for the commercials- his name is Paul Rutter. That is a side job for him. His full time job is a cruise director for Royal Caribbean cruise lines. Took a cruise last October and listened to him all week, then came home, turned on the TV, and thought, “I know that voice from somewhere…”. Sure enough….
maybe being a cruise director doesn’t pay as much as you think.
What’s really funny is all these people sending their gold away could probably find a reputable dealer close by. I had a friend go from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham on a train carrying his sacks of gold and silver. He was tempted to put dollar signs on the sides of them.
@Starscream_GitEmSteveDave: What? No Sham Wow!?
What is a TV ????
hmm so people package up all their old jewelry that they probably paid quite a bit for and mail it to some company and then the company just mails them a check for whatever amount they feel like it’s worth? how can anyone go wrong there?!?!
sure you paid $1000 for all the jewelry but getting that check for $250 is totally worth it!