Cash4Gold

Founding

Green Bullion Financial Services LLC was formed in April 2007 and traded under the principle name of Cash4Gold, eventually being located in Pompano Beach, Florida, and being derived from Albar Precious Metal Refining, created by former CEO Jeff Aronson.

In late 2008 venture capital firms Highland Capital Partners and General Catalyst invested $40 million into Green Bullion though both would exit their deals by late 2010. Highland Capital Partners would later be sued by Marlboro Investment Group for fraud and various breaches related to the company. Highland principal Gaurav Tewari, who was alleged to have been a former acting chief operating officer for Cash4Gold, was also named as a defendant.

Due to the rapid growth of their trading and operations during the latter part of 2008 and into the first quarter of 2009, there was a need to address some specific operating issues. Future investors were concerned that the Company would struggle to process the forecasted volume of Refiners' Packs. So a consulting company (Synergetics Installations Worldwide Inc.), based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, was invited to analyze and then upgrade the current operating processes, with a view to meeting customer service levels and processing significantly higher volumes. The first requirement was to relocate the entire business from relatively small premises to a medium-sized and secure interim site, pending the redevelopment of an existing commercial or industrial unit in the Pompano Beach area, which then became their headquarters in the United States. Processing facilities and procedures were upgraded, as were the customer call center operations and administrative functions. Once the customer service levels and performance of these processes had stabilized within the US operation, the Company launched the Cash4Gold proposition into the United Kingdom, then into other mainland European countries.

David Knight, SVP for international marketing and expansion, joined the team in July 2009 from eBay. Shawn Kernes, a former chief technology officer at StubHub, was the company's COO.

In 2006, Cash4Gold had sales of US$40 million with 14 employees. By May 2009, the company employed about 300 people with nearly 800,000 customer transactions. As of 2010, the company has received more than 1,700 ounces (48 kg) of gold per day with 94% of respondents accepting its cash offer.

Controversy

Under the leadership of Jeff Aronson, the company claimed to pay between 20-80% of the melt value of the items to the seller, though independent reports suggest less than 20% of the value was normal. The norm for the gold-buying industry is for the seller to be paid more than 90% of the value of the gold.

Channel 10 News in San Diego did an investigation where they sent in a ring containing over 2 grams of gold worth US$17 in weight to three different sites. The payout from Cash4Gold was US$7.91. Consumer Reports, using its "mystery shooter" team, sent 24 identical gold pendants and chains (purchased for US$175 each) to Cash4Gold.com and its competitors. The determined melt value of the jewelry was calculated at around US$70 each when gold was above US$900 an ounce. In comparison with pawn shop and jewelry store quotes (which ranged US$25–50), Cash4Gold.com quoted between US$7.60–12.72 melt value for the jewelry. Similar low quotes were also given by Cash4Gold.com competitors GoldKit (around US$7.81–20.59) and GoldPaq (around US$8.22–13.11).

When Rob Cockerham, a blogger, detailed drastic changes in Cash4Gold's valuation of jewelry after a complaint is made about an initial undervaluing, a search engine optimization consultant offered "a few thousand dollars" for Cockerham to remove the criticism. Cash4Gold CEO Jeff Aronson stated they had nothing to do with the incident, though the consultant stated "everyone [at Cash4Gold] was well aware of what was going on." On Cash4Gold's blog, the company afterwards posted a "clarification statement" allegedly by the consultant contradicting that quote: "Cash4Gold was not aware of all of the tactics being using [sic] in my reputation management services."

The Estate Buyer

Cash4Gold launched a new division in 2009 called "The Estate Buyer" which caters to individual selling high-end jewelry from brand-name manufacturers. Unlike Cash4Gold, "The Estate Buyer" does not base its offers on the melt value of gold in an item, but upon reselling the items.

Operations for The Estate Buyer were not continued after the 2012 bankruptcy.

OroPorDinero.com

Cash4Gold.com also had a Spanish-language website called "OroPorDinero.com."

United Kingdom

Founded in July 2009, Green Bullion Europe Ltd. launched their Cash4Gold services in the United Kingdom, operating from a small office in Sheffield. The volume of Refiners' Packs received in the first few weeks were very low, but then rapidly grew as the Company moved to a new administrative and processing location at Catcliffe, near Sheffield. The new Company was cash-positive within 12 weeks of starting to trade. This new location became the hub for both the UK operation, and the company's expansion into Europe. In 2012, the company was cited by the Advertising Standards Authority for misleading advertisements.