How badly do minor celebrities need the cash? Quite badly if the Dale Winton Cash My Gold ad is to be believed. It’s mercilessly ripped apart in Saturday’s Guardian Guide. Ironically, when I viewed this piece online, the Google ads below served three gold-cashing services up including Cash My Gold itself. £150 for a laptop indeed…
These ads are vile. They prey on the desperate. They’re not really just hoping for Elizabeth Duke and TV shopping channel fare. They want your heirlooms. Then they’ll send you a cheque with a measly offer knowing that cash in the hand works so well, that in most cases you’ll cash the cheque and accept the deal.
In my local shopping centre there’s a gold cashing “booth” which is essentially a stand peopled by a couple of surly looking late-teens/early-twenties who sit in front of a laptop staring at Facebook. I’d love to know how much training they’ve had in basic jewellry valuing. Perhaps they just pop the items in a bag and mail them off themselves?
I was also really disappointed to see that WH Smith has done a deal to place a pile of envelopes outside some branches of its outlets ready for customers to grab.
Gold prices may be quite high at the moment, but what I do know is that you’re not getting the best prices from these guys. Survey after survey has shown that you’re better off elsewhere. Probably your old-school pawnbroker.
I thinking the gold cashing people have just become my most hated advertisers, just after the loan consolidators and ambulance chasing lawyers (who featured in a fascinating, if shallow, Cutting Edge last week).