“Royal wedding rumored for summer of 2011 - msnbc.com” plus 1 more |
| Royal wedding rumored for summer of 2011 - msnbc.com Posted: 19 Oct 2010 11:39 AM PDT MATT LAUER, co-host: This morning on TODAY INVESTIGATES , gold. Prices have hit record highs, but will you really get your money's worth if you try to sell your unwanted gold? Janice Lieberman reports on consumer issues. Janice , good morning. Ms. JANICE LIEBERMAN (Consumer Correspondent): Good morning. This time, you know, it's seller beware. It's tempting. We buy gold and the offers are popping up all over the place , so we wondered if we'd get the same amount for the same gold from different outfits. We sent gold to several companies who did not know we were with NBC , and the range we were offered was shocking. The ads are everywhere. Ms. LIEBERMAN: And the offers are so appealing, promising lots of cash for your unwanted jewelry. It's no surprise that selling your gold is very tempting. It was for Patricia Count . Ms. PATRICIA COUNT: I needed some extra cash. Ms. LIEBERMAN: But now she's infuriated. Ms. COUNT: I can't believe that I fell for this scam, is what I considered it to be. Ms. LIEBERMAN: The saga began when Patricia saw an ad on TV and packed up the gold jewelry she never wore. Ms. COUNT: I came up with two necklaces, a pair of earrings, three gold charms. Ms. LIEBERMAN: She mailed it in, hoping for at least $100. Ms. COUNT: I got the check back in the mail. It was for $26 and change. Ms. LIEBERMAN: Patricia was frustrated and confused. But in reality, she had no clue of the gold's real value . Did she get lowballed or was it a fair price? Mr. DONALD PALMIERI (Gem Certification and Assurance Lab): Most people do not know what their gold is worth. Ms. LIEBERMAN: We wondered what would happen if we took gold of the same weight and karat and mailed in to a variety of companies. How much money would we receive in the initial offer? The results and the vast disparity are shocking. First, gem certifier Donald Palmieri lent us gold packages of the same value. Using a high-tech device to measure just over 21 grams of 14 karat gold. Ms. PALMIERI: The gold that we lent you is worth about $450. Ms. LIEBERMAN: We tested 10 different companies, mailing in our gold and waiting to see what offers came back in the mail. Since the gold market fluctuates every day, we based our analysis on the day that the offer was dated. Our best offer was from sellyourgold.com: $393.36. If you consider the gold market's value, that's about 90 percent. We got approximately 87 percent from goldpawnshop.com. But from there the offers began to fall: 81 percent, 55, 54, 52, 33. Then they plummeted: 18 percent, or $76.89, from the well-known Cash4Gold company. And 13 percent from brokengold.com, a company that claims to pay top dollar and 10 percent more than the competition. They declined our request for an interview. But the bottom of the barrel, the very lowest, came from hardgoldcash.com, which claims on their Web site , "We are about giving you the best price for your gold." Their offer: $38.25. That's a measly 8 percent. We repeatedly contacted the Montana -based company's phone number listed on their Web site and got a fax machine. Are there places out here that are really taking advantage of the consumer? Mr. PALMIERI: There's no question. Ms. LIEBERMAN: Many consumers are angry, and the gripes have spiked. Ms. ALLISON SOUTHWICK (Better Business Bureau): In the past year, complaints to the Better Business Bureau about gold buying companies have tripled. Representative ANTHONY WEINER: This is the market melt value ... Ms. LIEBERMAN: New York Congressman Anthony Weiner is taking on the operators, working on tough new legislation. Do you believe that people are underpaid for what they have? Rep. WEINER: I think that too many of these operators function in this area that we just don't have enough information to be smart consumers. So I think we have to have extra protections. Ms. LIEBERMAN: While many people are in fact with the extra cash they get by selling gold, experts say you should figure out the rough value before you try to sell. Seek out an appraiser and try multiple buyers. Mr. PALMIERI: I always recommend the first place you should go is a local jeweler that you know. If you don't know any local jewelers, you should go to several in your area. Ms. LIEBERMAN: So we gave that a shot too, with a hidden camera, shopping our gold around in person to several local buyers. The amounts we were offered exceeded most of the mail-in offers. Unidentified Man #1: Three-ten. Unidentified Woman: Two-fifty. Unidentified Man #2: Three hundred for that. Ms. LIEBERMAN: So in our case, shopping around locally made sense. As for Patricia Count , she knows the mistake she made, and it's one she won't make again. Ms. COUNT: Shop around and see how much the gold is worth before you send it in. Ms. LIEBERMAN: And if you're not happy with the offer, companies like Cash4Gold say they will return your items free of charge. You just have to make sure to decline the payment within the designated time window. So it's buyer and seller beware here. LAUER: As always. Ms. LIEBERMAN: Yeah. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Katy Perry Wears Nose Jewelry Ahead Of Wedding - INF Daily Posted: 19 Oct 2010 02:31 PM PDT
Though they're definitely making a big deal of their wedding, Russell and Katy are also taking their upcoming union seriously. So much so that they're foregoing an important Hollywood ritual – the signing of the prenup! Russel told the New York Times that he and Katy aren't having one, noting, "'It ain't about selling the pictures, it ain't about doing no pre-nup.'" Very sweet… though after last week's spate of celeb divorces, we can't help but worry it isn't wise. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
Katy Perry's doing whatever she can to make sure people don't forget her upcoming wedding to Russell Brand in India this weekend. When INF Daily caught up with the California Gurls singer at Heathrow airport in London, we noticed she was wearing a | You are subscribed to email updates from wedding jewelry - Bing News To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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