Something for Everybody

Well, there truly is something for everybody...who's dumb enough to fall for it. The "send us your unwanted gold and we'll send you a fortune" ads have slowly been fading away, although they do appear on the insomnia channels. I can't imagine anyone with a lick of sense would be willing to put something as valuable as gold into an envelope and send it off to some unknown entity and expect to get anything back, let alone get back enough to match the value of what they put in aforesaid envelope. But I suppose there were enough people willing to do it that enough profit was generated to pay for the commercials. Good Lord, people, don't you have a jeweler near where you live? Where you could take your unwanted gold and get an estimate of the value? And see if it matches what gold is selling for on the open market? Having done that, couldn't you ask the jeweler how much he would willingly pay for what you have to sell? You would then have the right to accept or refuse on the spot. Bearing in mind that while it may not be the market price, it should be only slightly less than that, and you would be able to decide if it was worth selling.

But the newest one has me wondering - how many people are being taken in by this? Perhaps you have seen the commercial for CardWOO. "Send my your tired, your poor -" Oh, wait. That's not it. Oh, yes, here it is - You send for a prepaid envelope to ship your gift cards in the hope of getting cash for those cards you just don't want. Why wouldn't you want them, you may ask? The commercial tells me that some people don't like the store, can't find anything they want in the store, would rather have cash, etc, etc. So here comes your envelope and you load it up with all those gift cards "cluttering up your junk drawer or your wallet". And you think that in a few days all that money will roll in and you can pay off your mortgage or buy that Ferrari or book a cruise. Fuhgeddaboudid. Not gonna happen. Go to the company web site and read it. (take a sandwich with you 'cuz it's really long. It will tell you absolutely nothing. Oh, well, it will tell you that they will decide if they want to buy your cards or not. They will decide how much they will pay you for your cards. They will NOT be responsible if your cards, in their prepaid envelope, never reach the company red flag, red flag! And if they reject your cards and send them back, they won't be responsible if they never reach you. There are sooooo many opportunities for deception here. I didn't say you were being deceived. No, I didn't. I said there were opportunities. But anyone who buys into this without being fully informed has no one else to blame if it has a less than happy ending.

If I get a card and I can't use it, I'll wait for an appropriate occasion to re-gift it. You can do what you want.