'We buy gold' racket

I have a piece of 14k jewelry I no longer need. I went to one of those 'we buy gold' places, the girl with the big hooters working the counter verified the weight and 14k-ness of it, then said it was 6 pennyweight (dwt) and offered me $49.00 for it.

I said no way, she then said let me see if I can get more for it. Nope. She said aren't you curious to see how much? Nope. I reached over, picked it up off the scale and said 'no thanks'.

I was born at night but it wasn't last night, I had done a little research before heading out the door.The current market price for 14k per gram is $32.00, per dwt is $49.59. Times 6 = $297.54.

yeah...I see those stores all the time and can't believe how gullible people are.

I guess I would try a regular jeweler 1st for more realistic value

These places exist because of a very real profit margin.

Can't blame them, but I can't blame you for deciding to go elsewhere.

Kinda like a pawn shop, I guess. If you don't know what it's worth but they're willing to give you money, their offer probably seems fairly enticing.

I'd imagine that you'll have a hard time getting book value for jewelry.

Not figuring on book value and I understand needing to make a profit, but $49.00? Puh-leeze. Oh, at some point during the whole exchange I said 14k was $32/gram and she said no that was for 24k (pure) gold. Um, no. Not true.

Curmudgeon wrote: I have a piece of 14k jewelry I no longer need. I went to one of those 'we buy gold' places, the girl with the big hooters working the counter [...] She said aren't you curious to see how much?

this thread is useless without pictures

Shop around, lots of places including jewelers are buying gold these days.

When you buy gold on the stock market like are you literally buying gold or are you buying a gold "fund" or worse still gold futures?

Everyone says gold is a solid investment but I get no gold when I buy a lb of it on the stock market seems like its worth no more than paper money? Then even if I did buy real actual gold like shipped to my door then I have to sell it to we buy gold places for like 20%.....

Ditto to shopping around.... Wife sold her broken necklace for $96, 5 grams wt, regular jeweler. Everyone else was barely breaking $70....

Are we even allowed to physically own gold bars?

I thought that was highly illegal.

nocones wrote: When you buy gold on the stock market like are you literally buying gold or are you buying a gold "fund" or worse still gold futures? Everyone says gold is a solid investment but I get no gold when I buy a lb of it on the stock market seems like its worth no more than paper money? Then even if I did buy real actual gold like shipped to my door then I have to sell it to we buy gold places for like 20%.....

And people wonder why I say 1) no way in hell I'd invest in gold and 2) if I ever had I'd be bailing right about now.

Sorry, guys; no pics of big hootered gold girl.

Taiden wrote: Are we even allowed to physically own gold bars? I thought that was highly illegal.

Used to be, but I don't think it is anymore.

Taiden wrote: Are we even allowed to physically own gold bars? I thought that was highly illegal.

Not anymore. That law was repealed.

"The limitation on private gold ownership in the U.S. was repealed by an act of Congress codified in Public Law 93-373 [1][2] which went into effect December 31, 1974. P.L. 93-373 does not repeal the Gold Clause Resolution of 1933 which makes unlawful any contracts which specify payment in a fixed amount of money or a fixed amount of gold. That is, contracts are unenforceable which use gold monetarily rather than as a commodity of trade."*

I still wouldn't run out a buy a bunch planning to get rich.

I remember when these were $250/ ounce coins

shoulda bought a dump truck load of 'em

alex wrote: Kinda like a pawn shop, I guess. If you don't know what it's worth but they're willing to give you money, their offer probably seems fairly enticing.

Actually pawn shops are required to pay open market price minus a specific percent. They can pay more then that but most pay this rate as it is significantly higher then what a pure gold buyer will pay.

Sometimes I wonder how different the world would be if we had stayed on the gold standard.

If you wait a bit, Taiden, we may be again. Or on the whiskey standard, or the boolet standard, or the canned food standard. But my guess is we will be on the international banker fiat money standard (SDR) first.

Lessee: 14 carat gold is 14/24, or 58.33% gold. 1 pennyweight is 0.05 Troy ounce. Price of gold right now is, what? 1700/oz? So: 0.050.5833$1700= $50/pennyweight, as JM stated above. Yup, ripping you off.

There was an outfit that was advertising here that wanted you to put your "old, unwanted gold jewelry" in an envelope, send it to them and they would give you the "BEST PRICE!!! GUARANTEED!!!"

Awesome.

carzan wrote: There was an outfit that was advertising here that wanted you to put your "old, unwanted gold jewelry" in an envelope, send it to them and they would give you the "BEST PRICE!!! GUARANTEED!!!" Awesome.

Yeah I think that's cash4gold. They do lots of infomercials. It's incredibly screwed up that anyone would do that. But I'm sure many people do otherwise they couldn't afford the ads.

My daughter mentioned that one time during one of those commercials. She said Jewelry stores will pay more, not quite full market as they have to make a profit but not a lot less. She works in jewelry sales.

Taiden wrote:

carzan wrote: There was an outfit that was advertising here that wanted you to put your "old, unwanted gold jewelry" in an envelope, send it to them and they would give you the "BEST PRICE!!! GUARANTEED!!!" Awesome.

Yeah I think that's cash4gold. They do lots of infomercials. It's incredibly screwed up that anyone would do that. But I'm sure many people do otherwise they couldn't afford the ads.

i tried it for the hell of it with an old silver class ring i found in my parents driveway down in the rocks years ago.

cash4gold said it was worthless and kept it and sent me nothing. i'm confident i could have gotten more locally. pretty sure they pay for all those ads by stealing from people like they did to me.

patgizz wrote:

Taiden wrote:

carzan wrote: There was an outfit that was advertising here that wanted you to put your "old, unwanted gold jewelry" in an envelope, send it to them and they would give you the "BEST PRICE!!! GUARANTEED!!!" Awesome.

Yeah I think that's cash4gold. They do lots of infomercials. It's incredibly screwed up that anyone would do that. But I'm sure many people do otherwise they couldn't afford the ads.

i tried it for the hell of it with an old silver class ring i found in my parents driveway down in the rocks years ago. cash4gold said it was worthless and kept it and sent me nothing. i'm confident i could have gotten more locally. pretty sure they pay for all those ads by stealing from people like they did to me.

report to the BBB

Actually pawn shops are required to pay open market price minus a specific percent. They can pay more then that but most pay this rate as it is significantly higher then what a pure gold buyer will pay.

But that's not to say the DO pay that market amount. They pay whatever a crackhead wants because they sign a contract that gives up their rights to fair market value.

Kinda like at the shop. Legally, the law only lets me mark up parts by 30%... but somebody comes in for a tranny, I tell them $2800, they sign the paper, and I put $400 worth of parts in it. Now, legally I'm covered by the nebulous labor cost details.

Business is shady stuff. There is what the law says you have to do, there is what is actually policed, and then there is the massively huge chasm in between.

This kinda profiteering is pretty rampant. Our shop used a finance company that was basically a title loan establishment. Most of the loans were complete ripoffs with huge interest rates. But it never failed. Some idiot would bring in their 1991 Geo with 400k on it and get a title loan for a $600 repair that will end up costing them $2000 on a car that's worth $600.

CarMax is another one. They'll tell you on the phone that they'll give you $5000 for your car. You rush in thinking you're getting a fair market value and then they point out every ding, scratch, blemish, and odor (classic devaluing sales tactic) and say they can only give you $2000 for it. Alot of times people actually trust that they are experts and take the money. The next day it shows up on the lot for $7000 with some soul-glo on the tires.

I used to stop at the bank 20 years ago and buy the U.S. Mint silver eagles for around $5.00. Ended up with about 300 over 2 1/2 years until the price jumped over $10.00 per.

When silver hit $40 per ounce I took a few to a "Cash for Gold" pop-up store. Guy was actually arguing that they were replicas and were only clad in silver. He even said he would try to find the ad on YouTube that showed they sold for $9.99 new and he would give 5 bucks each.

As I gathered my coins, I assured him that I was sure there are enough stupid people to keep him profitable for a while, but I was not one of them.

Cranky old dude at the gun shop gave me $400 for 12 of them and made us both happy...at least until the next week when silver dropped 20%.

Bruce