Realcent.org

I don't watch too much TV... typically Discovery Channel, History Channel, ESPN, and Spike (I'm also a closet fan of an unnamed MTV show about a beach ) Previously, the only commercials that I had seen regarding gold and silver were either the Cash For Gold commercials or those cheesy rip-off commercials for clad crap. But recently I have seen at least 3 different firms now having TV commercials for selling investment gold. They claim low premiums and diverse products, but I never bothered to check it all out. Conversely, I am seeing less and less of the cash for gold commercials.

Discuss...

I'm not seeing nearly as many Cash4Gold commercials on TV either, which is odd, but I'll tell you what--brick and mortar "Cash for Gold, Silver, & Platinum" stores are popping up all over the place in my area...5 in the last 2.5 years. We're a twin-city area, two towns separated by a 1/4 mile-wide river with a combined population of roughly 25,000 people.

The only thing I can think of for the decline in TV advertising is the negative press those places receive from knowledgeable sources. Even been some Dateline episodes on the subject (or maybe it was 60 minutes--I'm not sure). If I put on my rose-tinted specs, I'd say that John Q. Public is getting more leery of these places and declining low-ball offers, cutting into their profits, and reducing their advertising dollars. Anymore, the places I'm seeing on TV offering to buy gold fairly frequently are jewelers in some of the larger cities around us.

it seems the ads from the 'cash-4-gold' people stopped around Christmas.
it does seem places like lear, rosiland capital, goldline etc - are advertising more.

Yeah there seems to be a "situation" taking place with the fewer gold adds.

I can't speak for the other gold buyers, but my business has been a little bit soft in this new year.
I hope that it's just that people are waiting for the price to shoot back up.
From the jewellers I know, this Christmas was dismal for retail gold jewellery sales.

There is definitely a change to the situation in the marketplace... a local gold buyer here had a great holiday and is opening new locations. I sold jewelry I've saved over the past year to many people, but it was typically as a trade in swap. Few actually just wanted to buy outright. I've noticed that many buyers of bullion gold have been showing up at coin shows lately... I nearly sold out at the last show. Old timers brought me lots of 90% to buy... one guy switched out a bunch of his dimes and quarters for all of my halves. There's a lot of upgrading going on.

But I found it odd to begin seeing more and more gold sellers advertising on TV. Until recently, it's been primarily the gold buyers... I can't figure out the reason for the switch, but it obviously has me thinking... someone is getting snookered

I personally would never do any business with buyers or sellers that are advertising on T.V.. You know they are dealing with a decent profit margin if they can afford the advertising fees that are charged. If you sell you will get WELL BELOW spot and if you buy you will pay a STEEP PREMIUM.

I have seen a sharp decline in the cash for gold commercials in my area, and all of the commercials trying to sell gold are on the channels like Discovery, Science, Nat Geo, History, Fox News and the like. They are aiming for the people who are a bit more mature with some money to invest.

argent_pur wrote:I'm not seeing nearly as many Cash4Gold commercials on TV either, which is odd, but I'll tell you what--brick and mortar "Cash for Gold, Silver, & Platinum" stores are popping up all over the place in my area...5 in the last 2.5 years. We're a twin-city area, two towns separated by a 1/4 mile-wide river with a combined population of roughly 25,000 people.

The only thing I can think of for the decline in TV advertising is the negative press those places receive from knowledgeable sources. Even been some Dateline episodes on the subject (or maybe it was 60 minutes--I'm not sure). If I put on my rose-tinted specs, I'd say that John Q. Public is getting more leery of these places and declining low-ball offers, cutting into their profits, and reducing their advertising dollars. Anymore, the places I'm seeing on TV offering to buy gold fairly frequently are jewelers in some of the larger cities around us.

I agree with Argent. I think Cash4Gold and similar businesses depend on ignorant sellers to drive profits and fund advertising. But all the easily accessed information concerning PMs on the internet and elsewhere has drastically reduced the numbers of these sellers. Every time someone logs onto Kitco, Coinflation and (of course) Realcent for the first time, Cash4Gold loses a potential source of profit.

I advertise for gold regionally and have upped my advertising in the past few months. In fact, I am going to be shooting two new commercials shortly so that the original 2 do not get stale. Do a search for fasTTcar on youtube to see them if you like.

The difference with my operation is that we are advertising large towards a local/regional audience. We offer a bricks and mortar location (2 as of next month) and live pricing on our website as well as being a BBB member. People have the stuff, but are leery of sending it off to someone far away without a price quote.

I personally look at all the "mail in your gold" guys as a advertising source for me, as most people want a face to face experience and want to feel that they are being treated fairly.

the gold sellers might be advertising on Discovery channel because of the popular shows like Gold Rush and Pawn Stars and the viewers seeing all the nice shiney yellow stuff there.

Cash4gold.com has been a little frn poor after buying all the spare gold that Uncle Sam had lying around.

http://www.theonion.com/video/us-to-tra ... 4go,14346/ You have to watch a spot before the 'news report'.

You'll see those adds pop back up all over as ROS TV advertising rates hit the bottom in first quarter.

If a few billion dolars of gold is all there is at Fort Knox, we have been fooled for years about our resurves. They must have been making eagles with it. There is no way that is enough to make even a small dent in the national debt.

MH are you referring to a shift in the perception of gold. I was thinking of it this way previously. A lot of these gold buyers are going to buy up a good amount of peoples gold (jewelry, coins...etc) and then at some point, people will actually be trying to buy gold (the same ones who had sold) because they are worried of FRN decline and they want to try and preserve any purchasing power? Thats the trend Im waiting to see. A lot of gold buyers have set up shop but Im waiting until all of those shops turn into gold sellers. Not sure if this would happen but it is one possible theory.....

rickygee wrote:Cash4gold.com has been a little frn poor after buying all the spare gold that Uncle Sam had lying around.

http://www.theonion.com/video/us-to-tra ... 4go,14346/ You have to watch a spot before the 'news report'.

You'll see those adds pop back up all over as ROS TV advertising rates hit the bottom in first quarter.

I was watching this at first thinking WTF,
then saw it was from "the Onion"
I don't care who you are, that's some funny stuff there.