Lately, Liz and I have been seeing a lot of Cash4Gold commercials on TV lately. We both noticed the frequency of the ads, and thought the whole thing was a bit odd.
Overall, here’s how it works: you take jewelery that you don’t want, mail it to them (in a secured bag), and the folks at Cash4Gold appraise it. They then send you a check. I believe that if you’re ultimately not happy, they will return your jewelry to you.
Cash4Gold ultimately is a refinery, and makes not qualms about the fact that they will be melting down your stuff. Basically, you send in your gold to them… they assess it… you get a check. Below is an example of one of the commercials.
Unbeknowst to me, Cash4Gold also aired a SuperBowl commercial (featuring MC Hammer and Ed McMahon).
Here’s the big kicker. Today, on MetaFilter, I happened to see a post that mentioned Cash4Gold. Turns out, a guy saw the Cash4Gold commercials and decided to test out the process. His friend sent in some jewelry but had it appraised at a pawn shop beforehand.
The findings? Cash4Gold will make an initial offer that’s approximately 1/3 of the actual value. The offer from Cash4Gold was $60 (for a group of jewelry that was valued at about $198). When the offer was refused, Cash4Gold made a new offer of $178.
And oh but wait, it gets better.
So this discovery on Cash4Gold paying 1/3 of the actual value… this was a post on cockeyed.com. The post then gets featured on The Consumerist. And now, if you do a Google Search for Cash4Gold, this article shows up right near the top.
But wait – there’s more!
Apparently, Cash4Gold also noticed this high ranking on Google. And they contacted the blogger, offering him money to take down or “de-optimize” the post. They followed up with him a few weeks later, and offered “a few thousand dollars” to take the post down.
Absolutely incredible.
I’m reminded of something I read once that highlighted the difference between newspaper headlines and blog entry titles. Basically, the gist of the article was that in some instances… due to a blogger using clear and specific titles, as opposed to a newspaper using “catchy” titles… blog posts end up having better placement on search results.
Example: a sample newspaper headline could be “O Baby, Obama!” versus a blog post that could be “Barack Obama Officially Elected 44th President of the United States.”
I know that in the past year or so, I’ve revisited how I title things… and I’ve tried to make my post titles clearer, more specific in terms of the content within. I’m thinking of folks who have subscribed via RSS and how the title, more often than not, may be the difference between my entry being passed by versus being clicked.
I find this Cash4Gold story really interesting for a variety of reasons – it’s partly tech, and part Marketing/PR cautionary tale. [via MeFi]
Related:
Cash4Gold Will Offer One-Third of the Actual Value for Your Gold
Cash4Gold Would Like to Melt Down and Recast Their Reputation
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Side Note:
Dear Microsoft,
When searching Google using the phrase Songsmith Microsoft, my blog entry shows up near the top on page 1.
I am patiently awaiting offers.
Your friend,
Felix
Does anyone else wonder why these people are looking to buy up all of your gold at cheap rates? Is there anything anywhere on any literature that says what they are doing with the gold? I know most don’t really care, but think about it… the dollar being devalued as it is… what will gold be worth in 2 years? in 5 years? KEEP YOUR GOLD FOR CRYING OUT LOUD.Just my thoughts!