GoldSmart Network ™

Just when I thought I had heard every scam there is in the gold business, I just heard a new one. I pass it along here in the interest of public awareness in the hope that someone else will avoid being victimized. In this case the victim was approached by a legitimate seeming business person [...]

There’s an old saying that says if something sounds too good to be true it probably is, and it was never so true as in the gold business.  Over the course of my thirty years in this industry I think I may have heard them all, from schemes to recover gold from sea water to [...]

Crime as old as time.  In the news today we hear of 75-100 oz gold bars which were purchased using a fraudulent bank draft for about 1.9Million. The purchase price in itself seems a little fishy since the price for gold today hit $1,440/ troy ounce, the seller sold these bars in mid Feb. for [...]

All supporters of Jewellers Vigilance Canada must agree to uphold the Code of Ethics.  As a consumer, whether you are buying a new piece of jewellery or selling an old piece to recover the gold value, it is in your interest to know that the company you are dealing with is a JVC supporter who [...]

Gold parties are popular. They are a good way for a group of friends to convert old jewellery to cash in a safe and happy environment. But there are concerns: Can I trust the company I choose to do the actual gold buying? Will my friends truly feel comfortable and be treated fairly? Will we [...]

There can be no doubt that there are some unscrupulous businesses  in the jewellery industry, both buyers and sellers.  The answer for the consumer in either case is basically the same: knowledge is power. When selling old gold jewellery we really encourage you to try to understand what you have before looking for a buyer.  [...]

Sadly, one of the things we frequently have to do is inform someone that a nice looking piece of jewellery, convincingly stamped “18K”, is in fact not gold at all.  Frequently it turns out that these items were purchased in a foreign country while on holiday.  This doesn’t mean that buying jewellery as a souvenir [...]

Beware of Greenwashing in the gold business… Greenwashing is the practice by any business, in any industry, of dressing up in an “environmentally friendly” image when the reality is that their business is no more environmentally responsible than any other business. In the gold business there are companies that present an image that they are [...]