Cash4Gold Payments Grossly Undervalued

I recently become aware that my site was promoting a company that is not acting in the best interest of their customers. The company is Cash4Gold (I’m intentionally not linking to them so no one mistakenly assumes a tacit recommendation).

Rob Cockerham saw an infomercial for Cash4Gold and performed an experiment to test out the service, detailing the process on Cockeyed.com. (As an aside, Cockeyed is a wonderful site full of odd experiments that will have you reading for days). The results of the experiment were an offer of $60 from Cash4Gold when a pawn shop had offered them $198. They called Cash4Gold, and the offer went from $60 to $178.

Rob’s experiment was linked to by The Consumerist, another popular web site, and Rob’s page started showing up on Google’s Cash4Gold search results. This didn’t please Cash4Gold and in keeping with their lack of integrity, Cash4Gold’s marketing firm offered to pay Rob “a few thousand to take [the page] down.” Thankfully, Rob declined.

A detailed overview from a former employee explains the process, and how they do everything they can to pay as little as possible for your gold. Instead of offering a fair market value, they take advantage of people’s ignorance.

As soon as I learned of Cash4Gold’s dishonest tactics I removed their banner from the site, but that didn’t seem like enough. The least I can do is warn you to avoid using Cash4Gold. I value you as a reader and want to make it clear that I will never knowingly recommend a business who treats their customers so poorly. Cash4Gold obviously isn’t in business to provide an honest service. The unfortunate result of their actions is a growing distrust of coin dealers and business, even the vast majority that are honest. I’ve witnessed a gradual erosion of trust in society as a whole, but it’s especially sad to see it in a hobby that has provided so many with such enjoyment.

The best way to show your disapproval is by taking your money (or your gold) elsewhere. A company won’t stay in business for long if they aren’t making money.

In summary, make sure to get a second (or third) opinion whenever you sell items of significant value. Consider yourself warned.

Update: An article in the New York Times says, “In another sign of the (troubled) times, Cash4Gold, a company that pays money for jewelry and other valuables, is buying commercial time for the Super Bowl.”