Sick of burning desperate customers by paying bottom-dollar for gold — and tired of being burned by an employer who allegedly let them write checks the company knew would bounce — a pair of former buyers for one of the country’s largest gold-buying operations are pulling back the curtain on the tactics they were told to use when dealing with customers. [More]
Would You Like Some Gold-Infused Cheese?
By November 17, 2011
Fancy artisanal cheeses are all very well and good, but what if you want your dairy products to sparkle? If you enjoy sparkly foods and flaunting your wealth, perhaps Clawson Stilton Gold is for you. The cheese costs £60 per 100-gram slice, or around $95 for about 3.5 ounces. It’s a white Stilton cheese with generous helpings of gold-cinnamon schnapps and edible gold leaf. [More]
Stock Market Drops Most Since 2008
By August 8, 2011
The stock market continued diving on Monday, with the Dow falling 5.6% and the S&P down 6.7%, the biggest sell-off since December 2008. [More]
Vegas ATM Dispenses Gold Instead Of Cash
By January 13, 2011
If you’re sick of just getting plain-old cash out of the ATM, head over to the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, where you can withdraw funds from your account in the form of gold. [More]
Ron Paul Wants Us To Use Gold And Silver Along With Paper Money
By January 5, 2011
Ron Paul, career-long proponent of outmoded and discredited Austrian economic theory, went on Colbert last night to talk about how paper money sucks and he wants you you to be able to go into a store and buy a six-pack with some gold ingots. His proof? Paper money can rot and people have believed in the value of gold for centuries. So, gold is “better” because the collective hallucination around it is stronger. This wouldn’t be disturbing except for the fact that Ron Paul is the new Chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy. Yeeeeeks. [More]
Figure Out Your Scrap Gold Value With An Online Calculator
By December 21, 2010
Don’t rely on the buyer to tell you how much your gold is worth, that’s a ripe setup for getting a bad deal. Instead, know the melt value of your gold before you go into negotiations. To make that easier, GoldCalc is a two-step tool that lets you do exactly what its name sounds like. [More]
Figure Out How Much Your Scrap Gold Is Worth
By November 19, 2010
If you have a bunch of broken gold chains and necklaces and want to try selling them to a jewelry store, it’s important to know how much they’re worth first. Here’s how to calculate their value like the pros do. [More]
Gold Is Not At A Record High
By November 12, 2010
Gold, gold, gold! Fools, fools, fools! [More]
Reporters Convert Toxic Assets Into Gold
By October 15, 2010
Those crazy NPR Planet Money kids took the money they had left over from their failed toxic asset investment – affectionately known as “Toxie” – and put it all into the next big bubble: gold! For $419 they got one shiny gold coin. In 6 months they’ll sell it, regardless of prices, and in the meantime, report on what happens to it. [More]
Museum That Lets Visitors Handle Gold Directly Has Gold Stolen
By August 24, 2010
A 74-ounce gold bar that was salvaged from the ocean floor in 1980 was stolen from the Mel Fisher museum last week. It’s valued at $550,000, and it was kept on display in a special case that let visitors stick their hands in to lift it. Supposedly the case was designed to prevent any removal of the bar, but somehow a guy managed to pull it out and put it in his pants pocket before walking out. The insurance company is offering a $10,000 reward for its return. [More]
Gold Buyer Ripped Off Consumers With Spring Rigged Scale
By July 7, 2010
It sounds like a carnival trick, a spring secured underneath the weighing platform that would push back when items were weighed. [More]
Harper's Magazine: Insider Reveals How You Get Jacked When Selling Jewelry
By May 19, 2010
Struggling to make next month’s rent, you might be tempted to dig out some necklaces and rings you don’t wear and try to sell it to your friendly neighborhood jeweler. But you might actually be buying a ticket to a sick magic show. The jeweler performs a blistering series of slight of hand tricks, whipping out calculators, spouting off fees, keeping your eye on the supposedly worthless diamonds under a tenth of a carat while double-deducting for the base metal. By the end, you slink out in a dizzied blur, accepting 1/5th of what the piece is actually worth. In this exclusive excerpt from the latest issue of Harper’s, ex-jeweler Clancy Martin takes you on a journey to the dark underbelly of the jewelry game. [More]
Ex-Jeweler Dissects "Buying Roadshow" Ads
By May 18, 2010
The ads are cheesy as all get out: “Buying Roadshow” “Instant Cash For All” “Will pay up to 1100%” in giant block letters and starbursts. And the crazy thing is that they’re really good at packing in suckers eager to sell their “scrap jewelry,” dreaming of riches, but eventually convinced to be happy walking away with a few bucks. Over at Harper’s Magazine, ex-jeweler Clancy Martin takes apart these ads piece by piece and reveals what really goes on behind the black curtain. For instance: [More]
Sears And Kmart Want To Buy Your Gold
By May 17, 2010
The next time you want to sell some old gold jewelry, you can just take it to your nearest Kmart or Sears. The retailers have announced a partnership with something called Pro Gold Network, which basically amounts to, “You can pick up a mailer and instructions at our jewelry departments.” Remember, though, that mail-in services almost always pay less than what you can get locally from a jeweler or pawn shop, or by selling to a refinery directly. Here’s what Pro Gold Network will pay so you can compare rates. [More]
Is Gold Fever The Next Bacon Bubble?
By May 17, 2010
Gold prices may be setting new highs almost daily, but to commodity traders, the shiny metal is just another line on a graph. And it’s a line that’s starting to look very familiar to some traders, who see a pattern similar to one that played out recently with hogs. Prices for pigs flew to new highs, and then started drifting back into the mud. [More]
No, The Government Isn't Coming For Your Gold
By May 14, 2010
Goldline, a company that sells gold coins, has an important announcement: coin collectors made out well in the 1930s and were protected from “the whims and vagaries of a spendthrift government.” [More]
Gold-Dispensing ATM Converts Pesky Cash To 24K Bars
By May 13, 2010
Next time you’re in Abu Dhabi and have to get some gold in a hurry (and we’ve all been in that situation, right?), you can just drop in to the Emirates Palace hotel, pop a few bills into the ATM and walk out with gold bars. The machine, Gold To Go, monitors gold prices and automatically updates its pricing every 10 minutes. [More]
Cash4Gold Supports Regulations Proposed By Congress
By May 12, 2010
Cash4Gold supports legislation designed to regulate it and its competitors, according to a letter from the company’s president, Jeff Aronson. “Cash4Gold supports HR 4501, the Guarantee of a Legitimate Deal Act, and the provisions outlined in the bill,” Aronson wrote to two congressman who are backing the bill.
