You’ve seen the commercials. Smiling people round up their broken jewelry, pop it into an envelope and then a few days later they receive a wad of cash. “I got $500 for my unwanted and broken jewelry!” a woman exclaims. While turning something unwanted (the jewelry) into something needed (the cash) is a great concept, you have to wonder if it is really worth it.
People would naturally be wary of sending gold items in the mail, and the commercials tell you that everything is guaranteed. By law they have to pay you, but they also tell you that if you aren’t satisfied with the amount paid that you can have your gold back. But these companies have a couple of tricks up their sleeves.
First, they will take a very long time to get your check out to you. You receive the check and find that it is no where near the amount that you were expecting to get. So you try to get through to customer service. It takes a long time, but you finally get someone. You want your gold back. Oops, too late, it has already been melted down.
You protest. What about the guarantee? The fine print states that you have to return the check within 10 days. Of course, the date on the check was at least a week or more before you actually received it. This means that as soon as it arrived in your mailbox, it was already too late to send it back. You are stuck. I haven’t heard good reviews from anyone on any of these companies.
While those cash for gold mailers seem awfully convenient, if you take a little extra trouble to sell your gold elsewhere, you will get more money for it.
Take your jewelry to a real reputable jeweler with an actual storefront. Start with the store where you normally purchase your jewelry. Even if they won’t take it, they should know someone who will. You can also go to a reputable antique dealer if you have any heirlooms that you want to get rid of. Shop around to a couple of different stores, since they may have different needs and offer slightly different exchange rates.
You can read more blog posts by Mary Ann Romans here!
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