By now, I’m sure everyone has seen the slightly annoying Cash4Gold commercials. Send in your junky old jewelry now and get a giant wad of cash back! I can’t say that I recommend this scheme – just plug “Cash4Gold scam” into Google and check out the results. And of course, there’s this post from Consumerist with 10 Confessions of a Cash4Gold Employee.
So the other day, when my mom came in and said that she was going to sell some of her old gold jewelry since the price of gold is so high, I was naturally concerned. My mom is a smart woman who doesn’t fall for scams, and I can’t imagine her ever willingly mailing gold to a unknown company, but I had to ask. Turns out that the local, family-owned jewelry store is buying old gold jewelry. This is a great store that we have frequented for purchases and repairs and I have always felt we were getting a good price, so I was reassured that she was making a smart decision.
My mom’s not in need of extra cash, but she realized that she has a bunch of old necklaces from when thick gold chains were all the rage (no, my mom is not Mr. T), and she never wears them but has held onto them simply because they’re gold. This probably is a great time for her to be selling. Plus I was relieved to hear she wasn’t getting rid of any of her prettier pendants or rings. Just the simple pieces she can’t imagine any of us would have an interest in.
It made me take a second look at my necklace tree and I realized that I do have some extra gold I could sell. Some sexy gold chains that I bet you could find me wearing in some junior high photos. Might be something to consider if I take a trip home this summer. Sure, I could try to find a place around here, but I like the reassurance that I know the people I would be selling to – I don’t think that I will get cheated.
I’ve already used eBay to sell off a bunch of things that I didn’t need while decluttering the apartment. It’s time to take another look through things. Perhaps as part of my spring cleaning.
How about you? Looking to sell some gold? Or perhaps something other than gold?
Megan is a 40-something government employee in the Washington, DC area. She got interested in Personal Finance when she got out of college and realized that her paycheck wasn’t going to go as far as she had hoped. Since starting this blog, she has managed to buy a house and make a solid start on her retirement goals, and hopes to help others do the same. Here is her story:
In 2007, I was a gainfully employed 20-something with no debt but not a lot of knowledge about personal finance. It was a co-worker’s comment about Roth IRAs that sent me to the internet, searching for information. It was then that I realized that I really didn’t know a whole lot about personal finance and that my current financial situation was due a lot to inherent frugal tendencies, generous family members, a fear of debt, and good luck. While that was working for me, clearly I needed a better plan.
While I had no debt, I was also pretty much living paycheck to paycheck and not worrying about going over budget (I say this as if I had a real budget) because I had an emergency fund set aside to cover any overages.
Except that’s not what an emergency fund is for.
So I did a lot of research, read a lot of blogs, and decided that I needed a plan. I needed to budget. I needed to know what I was spending my money on. I needed to prepare for the future.
I decided to create a blog not only to make myself accountable to others but also to share the knowledge that I gained along the way. I’ve learned so much from my fellow bloggers, and I hope that my readers can find something useful in what I have to share as well.
Wait a minute, I’d be holding onto ANY gold I had with the state of our economy! Our dollar is being devalued at an alarming rate, and gold will be worth LOTS more if that happens. My vote is HANG ONTO your gold! Also thanks for the link to the Gold4Cash ex-employee tell all.
I clicked on the comment button for precisely the same reason as Mrs. Accountability. Hold on a couple years at most, and my prediction is that gold will be somewhere in the $1,500-2,000 range.
The fed is flooding the economy with fresh money like crazy, and the government’s growing debt-load has no end in sight. I’d be holding on to any precious metals for dear life and looking to add some more.
I think this is not really a scam, but if you are smart about it, the moment you start seeing commercials like this, it means you should be doing the opposite, so when they say sell, you should buy or keep what you have.
your thoughts?
You all make valid points. I can’t say that I trust that gold prices are going to stay high. As part of my job, I follow the price of gold on a daily basis, and while it has been trending upward, I don’t see that staying.
Plus I’m not a fan of clutter. Were we talking gold bars, or bullion coins, my opinion might be different, but it’s just a few chains of gold, and for me, I’d rather sell it and be done with it, rather than risk misplacing them or losing them in a move.
But I see where you all are coming from. The market is too crazy to make any valid predictions, so I don’t think we can say whether it’s best to save or sell. It’s all up to you!
Huh. I actually disagree with Mrs. Accountability and Blake. Yeah, I know there’s a bunch of cash floating out there and it’s diminishing value, but in the last 100 years has gold become profitable? I mean, look at Katrina for a minute. When people lost everything, did they go around using gold as cash? Gasoline, food, and a place to live were coveted, not gold. I am not sure about the selling it for cash approach, but I definitely wouldn’t hoard your gold in hopes it will return back to its ancient value.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/cash4gold-provides-cash-for-the,948814.shtml
have you guys seen this? i started following the company recently and this just came out