Cash4Gold Prouder Than Ever to Sponsor MMA Champion Randy “The Natural” Couture

Last Thursday, Cash4Gold announced that it was sponsoring Randy “The Natural” Couture in a pair of upcoming fights.

Saturday night Couture fought against Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira in the main event of UFC 102, thrilling the crowd and bringing it to its feet over and again while ultimately losing the fight by decision.

Today, Cash4Gold announced that it is more excited than ever to be sponsoring Couture.

In his matchup against Nogueira, Couture turned in a memorable performance that showed the world that at age 46 he can absolutely go the distance and he still has a lot of fight left in him.

Randy Couture is a living legend with the heart of a lion,” said Cash4Gold CEO Jeff Aronson. “Put simply, we could not be more proud of our affiliation with him and his Xtreme Couture G.I. Foundation.”

Couture, who himself served his country in the Army, established his non-profit organization to honor the veterans of America's armed forces and raise money and awareness for those wounded in action and their families.

Cash4Gold is currently sponsoring a promotion that will send one lucky winner to Las Vegas (including airfare and luxury hotel accommodations) for Xtreme Couture MMA Training Camp. Over three days in June, Xtreme Couture will provide instruction focusing on Jiu-Jitsu, Kickboxing, Muay Thai and Wrestling as they apply to MMA, as well as an autograph signing and photo session. To enter the contest, call 1-800-798-1139 or visit www.cash4gold.com/couture.

Cash4Gold Sponsoring Randy “The Natural” Couture and his Foundation

Cash4Gold has agreed to sponsor Randy “The Natural” Couture and his Xtreme Couture G.I. Foundation. Couture is slated to fight tomorrow night against Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira.

The world’s number one buyer of gold direct from the general public has also launched a promotion to send one fortunate fan of MMA to Vegas to attend Xtreme Couture MMA Training Camp. Xtreme Couture will instruct participants in kickboxing, Muay Thai, Jiu Jitsu and wrestling, and all participants will have the opportunity to get autographs and photos with the legendary champion.

Couture’s foundation, which he created to provide assistance to U.S. servicemen and servicewomen who are injured in battle, is also being supported by Cash4Gold. Couture himself is a veteran who served in the Army for six years.

Read the full press release announcing Cash4Gold’s partnership with Couture and his foundation.

Cash4Gold Hires Former eBay and StubHub Executive Shawn Kernes as Chief Technology Officer

As Cash4Gold expands internationally, it has further strengthened its senior management team by hiring Shawn Kernes as the company's Chief Technology Officer. Kernes formerly worked at eBay and StubHub.

At eBay, Kernes was Director of Product Development Customer Support. At StubHub, Kernes served as Chief Technology Officer/Vice President.

Cash4Gold announced earlier this month that David Knight had joined the team as Senior Vice President for International Marketing and Expansion.

During the past few weeks Cash4Gold has opened offices in the United Kingdom and Canada.

Major UK Newspaper: Cash4Gold Sparking Gold Rush

The Mail on Sunday, one of the U.K.’s leading newspapers, has credited Cash4Gold with helping to create a “new gold rush” that it says “is sweeping the U.K.”

In a feature piece on gold-selling, the author wrote about Cash4Gold and its new Sheffield-based operation. Cash4Gold CEO Jeff Aronson talked about success of the company’s recent launch, noting that “within the first month of operation in the UK, we've had 4,000 customers send gold into us.”

Aronson also noted that most of Cash4Gold’s customers are well educated women, who do not like the idea of visiting pawn shops to sell their gold items. “It is more discreet and confidential to sell this way. We have built a service that is based on convenience,” said Aronson.

Since launching in the U.K. last month, Cash4Gold has seen a flood of customers eager to utilize its fast, secure, easy and confidential mail-in refining service.

Cash4Gold-Sponsored Cyborg Wins Historic Mixed Martial Arts Victory

Cyborg is defined by Wikipedia as “an organism that has both artificial and natural systems.” The Cyborg that recently emerged victorious from the most important fight in women’s mixed martial arts history was a machine of frightening power and tenacity. Her name is Cris Cyborg, she is actually 100 percent flesh and blood, and she was sponsored by Cash4Gold.

It took less than one round for the explosive and powerful Cris Cyborg to defeat Gina Carano in a match that saw a women’s fight receive top billing as the main event on an historic night at the HP Pavilion in San Jose.

Said Cyborg ahead of the match, “I want to thank Cash4Gold for sponsoring me in this historic fight, and I look forward to showing the world what I am capable of inside the cage. I see this fight as a golden opportunity to showcase the power and excitement of women’s mixed martial arts.”

Cash4Gold’s association with Cris Cyborg is a natural one. The company’s commitment to providing top-notch service to its customers can best be described as “relentless, world-class and number one at what it does.” The same can be said of Cris Cyborg.

Below are a couple of photos of the champion sporting the Cash4Gold logo…

Cash4Gold CEO Appears on MSNBC

Cash4Gold CEO Jeff Aronson appeared yesterday on the MSNBC show It’s the Economy. Anchors Contessa Brewer and Melissa Francis interviewed Jeff to learn more about Cash4Gold’s success in recent years.

Jeff talked about what has made Cash4Gold successful, explaining the basic process for its customers as well as Cash4Gold’s 12-day 100 percent customer satisfaction guarantee.

During the segment, the journalists showed a short clip from a Cash4Gold parody video produced by The Onion. Asked whether the parodies bothered him, Jeff said absolutely not, pointing out that imitation is the greatest form of flattery. He also noted that the spoofs show just how big and recognizable the Cash4Gold brand has become.

During the broadcast, Jeff also discussed TheEstateBuyer.com. The Estate Buyer is the fine jewelry division that was created by Cash4Gold to purchase high-end jewelry from consumers which can be resold rather than melted down. As Jeff explained, this new service was created to meet the needs of customers who have begun sending in luxury jewelry items including Rolex watches.

Jeff’s appearance on MSNBC capped a busy week for Cash4Gold. The company was the focus of features on MSNBC and the Fox News Channel and a front-page article in The Washington Post, one of the world’s most highly respected newspapers.

Final Answer?...Cash4Gold on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

August 10 was a busy day for Cash4Gold. A front page article in The Washington Post (accompanied by a photo of CEO Jeff Aronson with rap legend and Cash4Gold pitchman MC Hammer), an interview with Aronson on the Fox News Channel and the expansion of Cash4Gold's services into Canada. And then there was Regis...

During a broadcast of the ever-popular Who Wants to Be a Millionaire game show, host Regis Philbin put the following question to a contestant, 'Cash4Gold takes your unwanted _____ for money."

It was no real surprise that the question was correctly answered by the contestant.

So whom can Americans (and now Canadians and UK residents, too) turn to for an easy, fast, secure and discreet way to trade broken or unwanted jewelry for cash?

Cash4Gold, Regis. Final Answer.

Cash4Gold CEO Appears on Fox News Channel

Cash4Gold CEO Jeff Aronson yesterday appeared live on the Fox News Channel to discuss his recent letter to Congressional leaders and President Obama. In that missive, Cash4Gold offered to send a delegation of top executives to Washington to help the U.S. government take its marketing of the Cash for Clunkers program to a new level.

Cash4Gold's letter to Sens. Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell and Reps. Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner (with President Obama cc'd) generated lots of buzz, including a front page article in The Washington Post.

Cash4Gold Introduces Gold Buying Services Into Canada

Rapid expansion due to high demand from Canadian market

TORONTO, Aug. 10-- In keeping with its growing global expansion in 2009, Cash4Gold, the company that bills itself as the world's number one gold buyer, is launching its direct-to-consumer gold buying operations in Canada today. This comes directly as a result of high demand from the Canadian market, according to Cash4Gold CEO Jeff Aronson.

"Many consumers are familiar with our television ads due to the variety of American channels available in Canada," said Aronson. "After months of calls asking when our services were going to be ready for Canadians, we decided that the time was right for expansion."

Cash4Gold makes payment for your unwanted or broken jewellery quick, easy and safe. A customer can make a request from the Cash4Gold website for a "Refiner's Return Pak" to be sent to their home or business. Once a value based upon the quality and quantity of each piece's precious metal content is assessed, and depending upon the daily price of gold, the company promptly mails out a cheque to the customer which they can cash at their convenience.

If for any reason a customer is not completely satisfied with Cash4Gold's offer, they need only contact the company within 12 days and all items are returned free of charge.

In these difficult economic times, an easy and secure way to turn gold jewellery into cash without having to visit a pawn shop or jewellery store has become extremely attractive. Over 93% of customers who receive a Cash4Gold appraisal complete the sale of their items by cashing their cheques.

The company has seen a meteoric rise since its inception in early 2007. This was only amplified by a cheeky Superbowl ad starring luminaries like the late Ed McMahon and MC Hammer that truly introduced the company to the world. The ad was widely rated as one of the best of the broadcast, which has helped to push Cash4Gold past 900,000 transactions in the US to date.

This success has been the catalyst behind the company's entry into the UK and Canadian markets, both of which are expected to be extremely active.

Building the business is premised on offering top notch customer service, security and high standards that is unparalleled in the growing direct-to-consumer industry. So confident in their service, Cash4Gold even provides its customers with a number of gold-selling methods on its website so they can be aware of all their options.

"The growth of Cash4Gold has been absolutely phenomenal since the airing of that ad, and in a way, it was our coming out party to the world," said Aronson. "We offer financial compensation for jewellery and precious metals in the most private, convenient and expedient way possible, and the concept has been widely embraced."

Canadian broadcasters have already begun to air Cash4Gold ads, and the service is fully operational to satisfy the heavy anticipated demand.

Cash4Gold on the Front Page of Today's Washington Post

The following article appears today on the front page of The Washington Post, which is widely regarded as one of the world's top newspapers...


Cash for This, Cash for That: You Name It, They Want It
Trade-Ins Catch On In a Down Economy

By Dana Hedgpeth
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 10, 2009

Toiling away in the face of recession -- no act of Congress to help him -- Jeffrey Aronson and company single-handedly pumped $100 million into the economy.

They had advertising (MC Hammer during the Superbowl), an office (the size of a football field) and an idea (give us your old jewelry, we'll give you cash). They called it Cash4Gold.

The name had a ring to it, and it caught on -- what does "Cash for Clunkers" sound like to you? -- so last week, Aronson wrote to Congress, with a cc to President Obama, offering to help take the federal government's auto trade-in program to the next level.

"Dear Leaders," Aronson and co-founder Howard Mofshin wrote. "We have been impressed by the fact that, within just one week of inception, you successfully doled out $1,000,000,000.00 in consumer-confidence-building liquidity.

"In parallel fashion, though at an admittedly smaller scale and on the basis of our own entrepreneurship and self-financing . . . Cash4Gold has paid out more than $100,000,000.00 since our launch in 2007," they wrote.

Cash, it seems, is king today, crowned by tight credit and economic pain. If "Cash for Clunkers" sent Americans racing to trade in their old cars with the help of a government rebate of up to $4,500, and Cash4Gold has them selling off their jewelry, "Cash for fill-in-the-blank" is, well, cashing in.

On Friday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office said it has 110 trademark requests on file for some variation of the phrase, including "Ca$h for Tra$h," "Cash for Gas" and "Cash for Crude."

The retail chain Penn Camera has been running its own "Cash for Clunkers" ad in area newspapers, including The Washington Post, for two weekends in a row.

"We're trying to draw people in," said Craig Wineman, manager of a Penn Camera store in Fairfax. "It catches people's eyes." By midday on Friday, he had received six calls because of the ad; three callers brought in old equipment to trade in.

Like other cultural moments, this one has its joke: I tried to trade in my clunker but they said my husband didn't qualify. (Or wife, as the case may be.)

But seriously, as the economy has worsened, Aronson said Friday, people have begun looking for cash, and it's not just the paycheck-to-paycheck Americans who already felt comfortable in pawn shops.

When Aronson started Cash4Gold, people sent in lots of mismatched items. Now, he said, Rolex watches, Cartier and other high-end pieces are starting to come in. "You've got guys who were wearing a Rolex last week and are sending it in this week so they can pay their mortgage," he said. "It has been a really ugly time out there. Every demographic in America has been hit."

Aronson, 36, said his company has bought more than $100 million in jewelry. His one-story office, in Pompano Beach, Fla., just north of Fort Lauderdale, holds 225 workers who sort the gold, test it and melt it down. Then they sell it to refineries, jewelry makers and private mints that make commemorative coins.

On the processing floor, workers in medical-looking scrubs take pictures, weigh and process mismatched earrings, tangled bracelets and necklaces, plus the occasional odd pieces such as a one-pound, solid-gold pig charm and even teeth with gold fillings. The company takes in 15,000 to 20,000 packages a week.

Perhaps, Aronson said Friday, the government could use his marketing savvy. (He, after all, is making money. The government is giving it away.)

"They've done an admirable job," he said of the federal clunker program, which as of Wednesday had taken in about 184,000 gas guzzlers at a cost of $775.2 million. "We could lend another level of expertise."

"We would be honored to dispatch a delegation of our core executive team -- including global brand strategists, marketers, alternative media experts, industrial metal recycling innovators, and communications specialists -- to Washington," Aronson and Mofshin wrote in the letter.

As of Sunday, neither the president nor Congress had replied.

CASH4GOLD OFFERS ASSISTANCE TO CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS ON CASH FOR CLUNKERS PROGRAM

Pompano Beach, Fla. – August 6, 2009 – In an open letter to Congressional leaders and President Obama, Cash4Gold co-founders CEO Jeffrey Aronson and President Howard Mofshin praised the “excellent branding” of the Cash for Clunkers program, formally known as the Car Allowance Rebate System. The leaders of the world’s number one gold buyer direct from the general public also offered to send a Cash4Gold executive delegation to Washington to share the company’s collective expertise in direct marketing, refining, logistics, strategic communications, Spanish-language marketing and international expansion. The full text of the letter is below and available at the official Cash4Gold website.

August 6, 2009


To: The Honorable Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner

From: Cash4Gold

CC: President Barack Obama

Re: Excellent Branding for Your Cash for Clunkers Program


Dear Leaders:

We wish to congratulate you on the PR and marketing success of the recently launched “Cash for Clunkers” campaign to promote the Cash Allowance Rebate System (CARS) legislation. The bold, ambitious plan, like Cash4Gold’s easy and fast mail-in refining service, has proven irresistible for hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Though we have not had the privilege of meeting before, you may know us from our Super Bowl commercial earlier this year featuring MC Hammer and the late, great Ed McMahon. Perhaps, instead you might recall our name from the hilarious parody video produced by The Onion for premiere at the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington in June. During that segment it was suggested that the U.S. consider sending us the national gold reserve in exchange for cash. We would be happy to discuss that suggestion should you desire to do so, please call our toll-free hotline at 1-877-GOLD-590.

Cash for Clunkers, much like our company Cash4Gold, has proven to be the right offer at the right time for so many Americans all across our country. Both programs offer a much-needed economic stimulus and attractive value proposition to people looking to monetize old or unwanted metallic items.

We have been impressed by the fact that, within just one week of inception, you successfully doled out $1,000,000,000.00 in consumer-confidence-building liquidity. In parallel fashion, though at an admittedly smaller scale and on the basis of our own entrepreneurship and self-financing rather than through an Act of Congress with the support of the President of the United States, Cash4Gold has paid out more than $100,000,000.00 since our launch in 2007, and we are presently on a campaign to buy more than $200,000,000.00 worth of gold from Americans by Labor Day 2009.

As you prepare to take Cash for Clunkers to the next level, with a possible expansion of budget and extended marketing and promotion, we would be honored to dispatch a delegation of our core executive team - including global brand strategists, marketers, alternative media experts, industrial metal recycling innovators, and communications specialists – to Washington to lend your initiative the benefit of our considerable collective experience. We welcome the opportunity to share with you some of the best practices that have enabled our success as the industry innovators and leaders in the consumer-direct precious metals recycling business, also known as mail-in refining.

Among the topics on which we could provide counsel are:
- Celebrity Endorsements – Through our work with MC Hammer, the late and great Ed McMahon, and a range of other celebrities whose involvement with Cash4Gold will be unveiled in the coming year, we have tapped into a mainstream media phenomenon that has propelled our business to heights beyond our anticipation. With the world’s biggest celebrity already backing your program (and we mean that strictly as a compliment), you clearly have taken a huge step in the right direction. But you may be surprised at the impact that other stars with different constituencies might have on your campaign.

- Spanish Language Marketing – Our OroPorDinero.com Hispanic-targeted brand extension has been a massive success for us since its launch. We can tell from the media that the car dealers who are facilitating Cash for Clunkers are already using Hispanic media to promote the parallel brand Dinero Por Su Carcachas. We have developed expertise in reaching this increasingly powerful and important consumer segment, and would be pleased to share our findings for the direct benefit of CARS.

- Innovative Marketing Strategies – A great proportion of our success can be directly attributed to innovative and highly cost-effective use of traditional and emerging marketing platforms including TV, radio, outdoor, online and sports marketing, among others. Some, if not all, of our key learnings would be directly translatable to your current program. Clever press releases, open-letters to top political leaders, social media campaigns, and splashy stunts are all part of the arsenal you may wish to consider leveraging further than you have up to this point.

- International Expansion – While it may seem unusual at this moment in history for the United States of America to consider underwriting automobile subsidies in foreign lands, we see a clear opportunity to further stimulate new American automobile sales around the world. It follows from Cash4Gold’s recent successful launch in the United Kingdom that Cash for Clunkers also may be well received internationally. Though the mechanics of the program would require calibration, it’s clear to us that such an extension would be good, as they say, for General Motors and the rest of the U.S. automakers.

In closing, esteemed Congressional leaders, please know that we earnestly find the appropriation of our marketing approaches for your program the sincerest form of flattery. In the consumer-direct gold buying industry that we invented, we carefully protect our trademarks and other intellectual property from infringement that could confuse or mislead the population and preclude them from enjoying the benefits of our 100 percent customer satisfaction guarantee.

But in consideration of the fact that your well-intentioned program may help provide a positive, stabilizing, and stimulating effect on the U.S. economy, we again want to congratulate you, and reaffirm that it would be our sincere, patriotic honor and privilege to be of service to your current campaign.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Very sincerely yours,


Jeffrey Aronson
CEO and Co-Founder of Cash4Gold.com

Howard Mofshin
President and Co-Founder of Cash4Gold.com


CC: The President of the United States

Just days after Cash4Gold launched with remarkable success in the U.K., Cash4Gold CEO Jeff Aronson agreed to an interview with the editor of a British magazine called Marketing Direct. Marketing Direct is a publication that focuses on the latest issues impacting the direct marketing industry. Below is a copy of the story...

Creatives won't like it but DRTV has a new champion in Cash4Gold's CEO Jeff Aronson


CLIENT IN THE HOTSEAT - First the excitement, then the let down. Cash4Gold's promise to become the UK's biggest DRTV advertiser was followed by what one critic called 'a dinosaur of a DRTV ad'. But CEO Jeff Aronson says it's all part of a well honed plan.

You say you plan to be the UK’s largest DR advertiser – why is this important to Cash4Gold?
The most important thing for Cash4Gold is to let consumers know that the service is available. The only way to achieve that – considering we created this category – is to be largest DR advertiser out there.

Our brand building includes becoming part of pop culture, celebrity events and endorsements but we don’t do any advertising that’s not based on a ROI or CPL (cost per lead) basis.

How does this goal equate with the traditional DM disciplines?

Everything we do has direct response roots. We have an exact game plan – the first UK commercial was the same ad we put out on US and is meant to be very concise in terms of making consumers understand exactly what the product is.

As for being direct marketers, I'm up for Marketer of the Year with one magazine and I was the closing speaker of Response Expo – the largest event in this area – in San Diego last May.

How anglicised will the UK ads become?

We'll do special commercials for the UK that are segmented for the UK. We're always trying to keep the consumer waiting for the next commercial – we don't want the ads to end up without somewhere to go.

Later on we’ll add different commercials to the mix – you’ll see celebrity commercials and animation commercials. We’ll probably do 10-15 commercials [in the UK] throughout the year.

So we’ll see celebrities in your ads? We were beginning to worry we wouldn’t…

You will absolutely see celebrities in the UK commercials. The deals aren’t signed yet – we’re in negotiations with four or five celebrites right now. You might see MC Hammer popping in to say hello.

I can tell you that everyone in the UK will immediately recognise who they are – all people who evoke smiles on UK faces.

How did you make the first UK ad?

The UK ads were done in-house [with media buying by Mike Colling & Co]. The Super Bowl ad was done by Euro RSCG Edge and Arnold Worldwide, and shot by renowned Super Bowl director Brian Buckley.


Cash4Gold's UK debut ad

The ad was panned by the critics – does that bother you?

No! Look at the response levels. The bottom line is number of leads, CPL and efficiency of the ads. I can say the CPL of that ad is half that of other brands' ads. The whole point is to establish leads and educate consumers. The launch has been incredibly successful which means that the ads have been successful.

That first ad was the ‘floor’ commercial we use – you’ll then start to see elevation in terms of creative. The MC Hammer ad was not about CPL – it was a fun commercial that had branding. Our typical commercial will be DR driven but you will see humorous ads with a call to action.

There's a Cash4gold spoof ad on YouTube – isn’t that annoying?

No. If you can’t realize you’ve become so big that people will spoof what you do, you don’t have the right point of view in business. And quite frankly I find some of them funny. [Our Cash4Gold] ad registered as the best Super Bowl ad in terms of ROI.

Why have you chosen this year to aim to being the UK’s largest DR advertiser?

We had such massive growth [in the US] that it was a natural for us to come over here. Being the leader of the category and the largest DR advertiser in the US [meant] it was time to come across the Pond.

There’s a massive segment in society that wouldn’t go to a pawnshop and who prefer doing the transaction from the comfort of their own homes.

So not because there’s a recession on and Cash4gold is a distress sell…

When we started Cash4Gold in the US in 2007, there wasn’t a recession on. Our consumer is skewed to college educated females, who are very busy and don’t have the time to be running around to places selling gold. So we’re not really a recession-driven business - we're a service-driven business.

And TV space is a lot cheaper now…

It doesn’t hurt but if you don’t understand the direct response space, no matter what the cost, you won’t do well. What we do is a very thought-out process.

How will you ensure get value for your media money?

The same way we do it in the US – we are extremely diligent in our metrics. We monitor every cost per lead on every station. Our in-house staff does media monitoring as well as Euro RSCG.

How do you handle the sensitivity around Grandma parting with her rings, only to regret it later?

We offer a 12-day guarantee if, for any reason, there's ‘buyers’ remorse’. If you go to a pawnshop, your material is gone that night. Pawnshops have been integral to the UK for years. We offer a better proposition to UK consumers.

Are you using the UK as a springboard Europe?

Absolutely. There's a variety of different countries we’re looking at. I can’t confirm which ones. You’ll see our next move within two months.

So who are these UK celebrities?

Wait and see. People will say, I can’t believe they used so and so!

Did you recognise them yourself? There are a lot of Z-listers around…

I knew who a bunch of them were. I vetoed a few but I would never tell you who…

You don’t agree with some who say that the day of the celebrity ad is over?

Celebrities are important for us as a differentiation factor creatively. We have done a good job becoming part of US pop culture and a household name, and look forward to doing that in the UK.