Cash4Gold
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| Headquarters | Pompano Beach, Florida |
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| Website | www.Cash4Gold.com |
Cash4Gold (sometimes stylized in advertising as Cash4Gold.com) serves as a mail-in refinery that buys gold, silver and platinum primarily from jewelry.
Cash4Gold.com's original ownership team was beset by Better Business Bureau complaints and filed for bankruptcy after overspending on large advertising efforts including a commercial which aired during the Super Bowl. In 2012 the assets of the company were purchased by Direct Holdings Global. The company changed its name in an effort to improve the Better Business Bureau rating; complaints, however, continue about their questionable business practices.
Consumers request a pre-paid envelope known as a “Refiner's Pack” online or by phone. Customers place their gold materials / precious metals in the pack and ship it to the Cash4Gold refinery in Florida. A Cash4Gold employee weighs the items, photographs them and assesses the items using such tools as acids, X-rays and electronic testing devices. They then make the customer a financial offer for the submitted items, and forward a check for the determined value to the customer. Should the customer decline this offer, they have 10 days from the date on the check to ask for their jewelry to be returned.
Many people have complained about the fairness of this process and the valuations of the gold they mailed to the company. Every effort was made to ensure that all customers were fully aware of the valuation process, and had the opportunity to reject the financial offer within the stipulated timeframe.
Cash4Gold also purchases diamonds, but will not pay for additional gem stones and recommends they be removed from jewelry prior to sending the jewelry for evaluation.
To ensure customers are the legal owners of the jewelry that is sent in, Florida passed legislation aimed at regulating the online gold-buying industry. Cash4Gold worked with Florida legislators to draft the bill. This new law also requires the company to get a driver’s license number and a sworn statement from customers stating that they own the items they are selling. Sellers must be at least 21 years old and the senders’ addresses are verified.
CNN visited Cash4Gold headquarters in March 2010 to see the company’s methods of collecting, processing and melting gold jewelry. In the visit, steps shown included customer background checks, a separation of the jewelry, then processing the items for evaluations before sending customers their checks and melting items into gold bars. In a follow up article written in 2012, CNN Money described some of the business practices that led to the company's bankruptcy that same year.
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