After enduring dozens of their "scrap gold" television commercials, I decided to try out the Lippencott "Gold Kit". If you haven't seen these, they advise you to turn your crappy old "scrap gold" into cash.
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I called the 800 number and was connected to a very nice gal. She was very polite and asked for my name, address and phone number. She promised to send a "Gold Kit". A few days later, their package arrived. It was a business reply envelope, a thick plastic bag, and a brochure about the gold recycling. I was ready to go! Actually, I was a little disappointed, because I wanted to write an article about how incredibly terrible their offering price is. Unfortunately, they don't actually tell you how much they pay for used gold. |
The look and frequency of their television commercials did nothing to establish them as a legitimate market-rate merchant of precious metals, so I was not at all surprised that they didn't name their price. Lippencott employs the following system:
To test their system and discover their exchange price, I should have sent in a known quantity of pure gold. |
Unfortunately, real gold is very rare, and hella expensive. Even after checking the whole recycling bin and both garbage cans, I found that I had absolutely no gold scraps in the house. I grabbed some doo-dads out of the junk drawer and some gold spray-paint out of the garage. Soon I had a gold bottle cap, a gold stem from a bunch of grapes, a gold pop-top, a gold zip-tie, a gold 'S' hook, a gold nut and the elusive gold nickel. In all, a nice sack of treasure! |
I followed the Gold Kit directions and stapled the bag shut. This would thwart thieves. This seemed a little cheesy. Isn't there a high-security version of the ziplock seal? No? Well, there should be. |
I made a note of my unique Gold Kit tracking number, packed everything back into the business reply envelope and sealed it. |
I hung the envelope on our mailbox.... and waited! |
Please continue reading page two of the Gold Kit Surprise. |
Discovering Ziplock Closures with the Eyeclops: Super Magnifying Camera | How much is inside Goldschlager? | The torn-up credit card application
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April 8 , 2008.