A client alerted me to this bunch and I went in to check it out myself. From what I saw this organization is more about buying gold and silver than anything else. I have been to their web site, www.collectorsroadshow.ca, and they do not mention what they pay.

I offered various gold coins for possible sale and I was shocked how little they offered.

• For a George V sovereign they offered $200.00. The gold value for this coin is $398.45
• For a St Gaudins $20 Gold Coin they offered $860.00. The gold value for this is $1,690.00
• For a 50 Peso Gold Coin they offered $960.00. The gold value for this is $2,028.00.

I would suggest that if you go to see this bunch please know the value of your gold before you accept any offer from them. Arm yourself with what my payouts are for that day and insist they at least match my posted prices. Please keep in mind that we do not have service fees and no hidden costs, what you see is what you get. A wise consumer is our best customer.

I think our biggest indicator of customer satisfaction is our customer referral rate. We are very proud that our customers recommend us to their family and friends. To all my customers, thank you, I am deeply appreciative of your loyalty.

I think our customer loyalty stems from receiving value, service and a great customer experience.

The customer experience grows from being respected, involved in the process and a rock solid confidence that they have been treated well. I enjoy what I do and am happy to spend time with you at each step of the process.

Price

We openly post our prices on our web site and they update automatically as the price of gold changes. You always get the latest price. Even our competitors use our site.

The prices shown are the minimum we pay out. If you have a large sale we pay more. To us, and our customers, that makes sense.

Our customers tend to be knowledgeable on the value of their gold and appreciate the price we pay. We always recommend that our customers know the weight and karat of their items.  A knowledgeable consumer is our best customer.

Service

Along with scheduling appointments at our office I also spend a good portion of my week doing service calls. Yes, I come to see you at your convenience. This service call is free and there is no obligation on your part. You are important to us and deserve the very best we can offer.

Service is more than just offering a counter operation. Those customers that are selling a large amount of gold do not want to line up at an event or scurry around town. For example, a professional appreciates us coming to their office at their convenience. All of our customers appreciate that level of service and convenience. This is one of the benefits of dealing with a registered business that does service calls.

Location

We book office space at the World Exchange Plaza, 45 O’Connor Street Suite 1150 through a company called Intelligent Office. We offer a clean safe office environment with convenient underground parking. We are happy to pay the parking fees for our customers.

Direct Telephone Access

All inquires are answered by me, the owner. Get your questions answered on your first call.

I was pleasantly surprised that my everyday upfront pricing beats their 3 oz. volume pricing by 16.6%. I could not find out what they pay for just a few items but I suspect I would beat that by even more. By the way, with an outfit this size, why is their pricing not more straight forward and current. It is not that hard to have up to the minute pricing like I have on my site. Why mail in your items for less when you can sell your items right here in Ottawa for more. Not only do we pay more, we also provide you a higher level of service.

In an earlier blog entry I suggested you check out any national mail-in outfit with the BBB but if you have access to the web it only takes a moment to google search ” any companies name + reviews”. For example I found the following reasonable review when I google searched “dollars4gold reviews”.

Click on this link for the review.penny for my thoughts review chattywomen.com
While I was doing this I came across these videos and I thought you might enjoy a smile.

The first video features Mr. Sullivan as a representative for a national mail-in gold buyer and the second video features him on his show “Pitchmen”.

dollars4gold.ca

pitchmen

To help you sell gold in Ottawa with confidences the best empowering tool I can suggest is knowing what it is worth. Know the weight and Karat of your items and you can use my pay chart to know what it is worth. If you do not have a scale it is still important to estimate the weight you wish to transact. In a pinch a hand comparison with coins will help you ballpark the weight. A penny and loonie are 2 and 7 grams. Knowledge is power  and here at Cash in Gold a knowledgeable seller is our best client.

Step 1- Know the karat, gold content, of your items.

If you can read the hallmarks sort your items into 10k, 14k, and 18k. If you can’t read the hallmarks don’t worry just skip to the next step.

Step 2- Weigh your items.

It helps to have a scale but if you don’t,  you can come close to establishing the weight by doing a hand comparison with coins. A  loonie, quarter and penny weigh 7, 5, and 2 grams.. For example if your 10k pile feels like two loonies and a quarter that would suggest you have about 19g of 10K. If you have the time, place your items in a baggy and confirm the weight at your local post office.
If you could not see the hallmarks, try to sense the weight of all the items combined.

Step 3 – Calculate the dollar value

For example, if you determined you had 19g of 10k, 12g of 14k and 21 g of 18k,  at the Nov. 16 2009 prices, that would add up as follows:

10K     19g x $11.01 = $209.19

14K     12g x $15.41 = $184.92

18K     21g x $19.81 = $416.01

________

Total             $810.12

If you could not read the hallmarks you can still estimate the range by applying the total weight of 52g to the 10K rate and the 18k rate. This would give you a ballpark range of $572.52 to $1,030.12. Not great but much better than not knowing at all.

Knowledge is power, know the value of your gold.

If you have an assortment of gold items that seems too daunting to evaluate, ask for a consultation. I will be happy to help you know the value of your items.

My customers often relate to me some of the negative experiences they had prior to finding my service. I feel for them and I have come to realize that an educated consumer is my best customer. In an effort to help spread the knowledge I am taking the liberty to blog about the mail in results published by Consumer Reports.

Consumer Reports had identical 18K necklaces with pendants purchased for $175 sent in to various mail in services. The gold salvage value for each item was estimated at $70. The results I read shocked me. The mail in services only paid between 11 and 29 percent of the gold salvage value. The lowest was $7.60 and the highest was $20.59. In order to put this in perspective we at Cash in Gold would pay out around $52.50. Please keep in mind that we would incur a further additional refining cost of about $7 to process the alloy gold back to pure gold.

The actual result for:

Cash4Gold  are $7.60 – $12.72

GoldKit  are  $7.81 – $20.59

GoldPaq  are  $8.22 – $13.11

Know the value of your gold and get the best price. Find out the weight and Karat of your items and look at my pay out chart. If you do not have a scale you can estimate the weight by doing a hand comparison with coins. A loonie and penny weigh approximately 7 and 2 grams.

Every day it seems there is a new company with flashy ads advertising their service to buy old, unwanted gold and jewelry. You know the ones with happy people holding a lot of cash in their hands. This is a great image to sell a service but how much did they get paid per unit of gold? If you are considering one of these services, you will find that doing a little bit of research will pay off. Because I run a gold buying service, I have some insight and a few simple suggestions I would like to share.

First, it pays to shop around to find both the best price and the best service. Hectic lifestyles play havoc with schedules, so find the service that best accommodates your needs. Comparing services can be a real eye-opener. My customers demand an option other than driving to a counter operation in a seedy part of town with thousands of dollars worth of gold in their pocket. Instead, when dealing with a representative from an established business, a home or office visit provides a very secure, private transaction. A typical office visit, where say 10 items are to be tested and weighed, can take only a few minutes. Before I meet a client we estimate the value of the gold being sold. This involves knowing the weight and Karat of the items. With expectations understood, the verification and exchange tends to be a very comfortable experience. Choosing your environment and appointment time goes a long way toward making you feel relaxed and safe.

When it comes to comparing prices, the Internet is a perfect tool. Here in Ottawa, just Google search “cash for gold Ottawa”, and check out the sites. The open and up-front businesses post the prices they pay on their website. If they do not, the seller should be wary. Also, take note of the units for which the prices are quoted. Often I wonder, what is the motivation for using pennyweights as the unit of measure? Most people that I meet are knowledgeable and comfortable using grams. (By the way, a pennyweight is 1/20 of a troy ounce, or 1.55 grams.)

You may also wish to consider selling to a Pawn shop or Jewelry store. On the positive side you are dealing with an established business but both tend to have a much higher overhead costs. The ones in the malls have a high rent and the others have high security costs. Both the selling and buying operations pay for that overhead. On the selling side, a gold item is marked up 3 to 5 times the gold value. The mark-up on gems can be more than twice that of gold. If your item can be resold as a piece of jewelry, then that is where you are going to get the maximum value. Unfortunately, most items are recycled for the raw materials.

There are a lot of national services that only provide a mail-in option. If you do not have the opportunity to deal with someone face to face, then this is an option, but again it pays to be careful. Once you mail it out, you lose some control. I am sorry to say, I hear a lot of complaints. If you are using a mail-in service and have a few items you want to sell, I suggest you send them in one at a time. Make sure you deal with a reputable firm. Check with the Better Business Bureau at www.bbb.org or any other rating service in your area.

Selling to an individual has some benefits but the safety and swindle drawbacks should give everyone pause. For your personal security, deal with an established business. My “online” ads include my photo so that my customers can know who they are dealing with. An established business has a vested interest in making sure you are a safe and satisfied customer.

If you have any comments or questions please feel free to contact me. If you have suggestions for other articles relating to gold recycling I would be happy to consider them.