With Permission of the Examiner and Jerry Jordan

Southeast Texans are once again being targeted by traveling gold buyers, and just like many newspaper and radio stations across the country, some of our local media have been lured into accepting misleading advertisements by their desire to make a buck.

The Examiner has investigated more than a dozen traveling gold buying operations over the past year and our research into the business and advertising practices has been quoted in articles in the Los Angeles Times, on CBS Money Watch and by dozens of other smaller media outlets throughout the country. Still, this week alone, the Beaumont Enterprise has run three ads from THR & Associates, also known as Ohio Valley Gold and Silver Refinery. In fact, over the past year the Beaumont Enterprise has also accepted ads from The Great Treasure Hunt, GoldRush and Phoenix Coin LLC. It even published a glowing story on The Great Treasure Hunt a day before The Examiner, along with KBTV Fox 4, exposed the company for using eBay to price items and offer a fraction of the value for the items taken in.

The Examiner prides itself on having never accepted an advertisement from a single traveling gold buyer. While we recognize the need for advertising revenue, especially in the current economy, we don’t believe we should put our readers at risk of being taken advantage of.

These traveling companies have no roots in the community and therefore have no reason to offer you the best deal for your stuff. Simply speaking, they will be gone in a few days and after you sell your items for a fraction of their true value, what recourse do you have, especially since most all of them refuse to provide an itemized receipt?

Considering gold and silver prices are once again flirting with record highs, the thought of making a few extra bucks off that old broken gold chain or those silver dollars left to you by your grandfather is hard to pass up.

But rather than driving to a local hotel to deal with a fly-by-night operation, why not stop by a local jewelry store or coin dealer to see what they will pay? If you still want to take your items and sell them in a hotel, then at least you have something to compare the offer to. Our advice is to ignore the overhyped ads promising “top dollar” and deal with the local, reputable company that has roots in the community.