cash my gold/postal gold etc etc

[bednobs]

how is there room in the market for all these crappy gold merchants? Surely not that many people want to send their jewellery off in the post on the off chance they will get a good deal for it
Has anyone done it, if so, why?

[another-view]

Only a fool will fill a jiffy bag with gold and put it in a post box to a random company hoping for a quick quid.

[Ankou]

i think that gold is kind of out of fashion at the moment and therefore people will have a collection of old gold jeweleery and family heirlooms that are not worn. add that to the current levels of redundancy and lowered incomes, trading this gunk in for some cold hard cash might appeal to some members of the particularly cash-poor public. and thieves.

[another-view]

Exactly, surely a thief would just send his stash over to them to get some readies? Must be easier than trying to flog it down the pub.

[Androcles]

Ankou, Oberour ar Maro, Collector of Souls says that gold is out of fashion at the moment - in fact the price of gold has soared and is projected to go highe, whilst as price increases, jewellery sales decline.

"Gold remains in a powerful bull market as measured by prices in the futures market, where speculators can run rampant.

But third-quarter data from the World Gold Council show that the surge in the metal's price to record highs ($1,146.40 an ounce as of Friday) hasn't been accompanied by record purchases of the real thing.

The recent peak in buying of physical gold, in fact, was in the third quarter of 2008 -- before the financial system meltdown accelerated.

The council's report put total global purchases of gold in the quarter that ended Sept. 30 at 800.3 metric tons, down 34% from the 1,205.6 tons bought in the third quarter of 2008.

Purchases in the latest quarter also were below the 1,029.8 tons bought in the first quarter of this year, though 10% higher than the 724.8 tons of the second quarter.

Buying was down in the third quarter versus a year earlier in every major category of gold consumption, including jewelry (the biggest single source of demand), industrial use, coins and purchases by exchange-traded funds.

The drop in the amount of physical gold demanded partly reflects simple price sensitivity: As the cost of gold goes up, some buyers back away." Los Angeles Times

So you may be tempted by these companies, but better not to go there!