Wednesday, August 22, 2012


WHAT’S UP WITH ALL THOSE GOLD BUYING GUYS????

With historical record breaking precious metal prices, folks are scavenging their jewelry boxes to convert unwanted gold jewelry, silver and coins to fast cash.  But wait...what about those metal buyers that offer an added 10% to 20% coupon ( we all know who they are) to “sweeten”  the payout to the gold sellers.  And what’s up with the places that don’t offer the so called added value coupon?  How many of your friends have been to one of those in-home gold buying parties or visited a one day  buying event at a local hotel?

If you can remember back to the year 2000, we had one of the worst hail storms ever.  Roofs everywhere in Minnesota were in desperate need of replacement due to the extensive hail damage.  Opportunists from all over the country flocked to Minnesota to made a quick buck on the misfortune of homeowners.  Those roofers were here today and gone tomorrow, leaving the home town reputable roofers to deal with the aftermath of their shoddy workmanship.

Believe it or not, there are many gold buying opportunists in the marketplace today working desperately to cash in on your precious metals while the market is hot.  There are ploys, offers, coupons and claims all designed to lure you into the gold buying den.  

At Diamonds On Main, we monitor the metals markets daily.  To ensure that we are more than competitive in how we pay our trusting  customers, we shop the competition.  Two of biggest advertisers in the twin city area both offer the “added value 10% to 20%” coupons.  If we mentioned their names, you would be well acquainted.  So, here’s what we found! 

Margie took 3 items to both competitors, one ring -14k, one pair of earrings -14k and one bracelet with a 14k clasp and the chain between the clasp ends was 18k.

    Competitor one*: Tested her ring to be 10k (instead of 14K)
                                 Tested her earrings to be 12k (instead of 14k) and
                                 Tested her bracelet to be 14k ( instead of the 14k/18K combination)

                                  Total payout= $184.42  (included in this figure is the added 20% coupon)

    Competitor two*:  The ring, earrings and bracelet were all treated as 14k.

                                   Total payout=$227.40  (included in this figure is the added 10% coupon)

Now, check this out!  Using the same gold market of the day, Margie and I calculated what Diamonds On Main would have paid for those same items, making sure that each item was gold tested for accuracy.

                                    DIAMONDS ON MAIN TOTAL PAYOUT:  $295.28

Remember what your momma told you growing up?  “If it’s too good to be true…”,well, you know the rest! 

JoAnn