Cash4Gold offers Cash 4 Reputation; comes up 2/3 short!

Cash4Gold, the scrap gold buyer that recently hired Ed McMahon and MC Hammer to pitch their service during the Super Bowl, was busted by a blogger named Rob Cockerham at Cockeyed.com for offering one-third of the appraised value for scrap gold and then trying to bribe him to remove the story from his popular website.

Cockeyed.com has a thing for scrap gold companies -- last year he sent a collection of household items spray-painted in gold to Goldkit.com and actually received $1.01 for his assortment of metallic colored items.

Given this fascination, it's no surprise that he teamed up with Brent, a Cockeyed reader, to test Cash4Gold's appraisal and payout methods. Brent rounded up his treasure trove of gold and went to his local pawn shop to find out the weight and value of his haul. After securing an appraisal of $198, Brent sent his gold off to Cash4Gold whose Web site had promised higher prices than his local pawn shop based on weight.

After a short wait, he received a check for $60, roughly a third of the actual value of his family treasure. Dissatisfied with this offer, he called up Cash4Gold and asked them to return his items. Cash4 Gold countered by tripling the amount to $178 which was much more competitive with the actual value of his gold goods.

But wait -- it gets better, or worse if you're Cash4Gold!