Every television ad break seems to feature them, and now they have been condemned by leading consumer group Which?

The ads in question are for companies who offer cash in return for gold jewellery, but Which? Claims these companies offer ‘shockingly bad value’.

These firms advertise themselves on TV with their main selling point being that customers can send old and unwanted gold jewellery and have it turned into cash.

Which? tested several gold buyers with three items of gold jewellery bought from the high street: a bracelet valued at £115, a £215 bangle and a £399 necklace. Buying four of each item, Which? sent them off to be valued as well as receiving quotes from three High Street pawnbrokers and jewelers.

One firm offered the lowest prices on each of the three items, with a grand total of £38.57 being offered. Another firm told Which? that the £399 bracelet wasn’t gold at all, and wanted to charge £10.95 just to return it.

On average, the TV gold buyers offered around 6% of the retail price for gold. High Street stores paid around 25%. The figures prompted Which? to condemn the providers and urged customers to avoid them.

On the research, one firm commented that the cost between gold retail prices and the prices obtained for smelted gold couldn’t be compared accurately as retail gold can be subject to markup of up to 300% and that they only advertised for old or broken jewellery.