My great grandfather, Samuel Samuelson, (yes you read it right) was an immigrant from Lithuania. He first owned a hay, feed and grain store (this was before there were cars) and then a bar. His five sons and a daughter were all born above that bar. Our store, a pawnshop, was actually founded by my great uncle, Aaron Samuelson, the oldest of the brothers. This store was the financier of all Samuelson Family business, whether it was real estate deals or other stores. One was Crown Loan, another Baltimore pawn shop, and Tommy Tucker Five and Dime Shops. In 1936, my grandfather, who was the youngest, bought our business from his older brother Aaron and it flourished. My father came to work in the 60′s and I’ve been here since I was a kid in the 80′s, on summer breaks and Saturdays. When I got here full time in 1994, we were a very successful pawnbroker and jeweler. Sure I liked the guitars and other cool stuff, but it was diamonds that interested me the most. I do believe that the pawn business suffered from the Home Depot’s, Guitar Center’s and Walmart’s of the world. Ebay became a big help to move stuff, but you can also argue that it hurts the pawnshop, as people can find pretty much anything second hand at a good price.

Anyway, I took my last Stratocaster and a nice Paul Reed Smith and I got rid of the other stuff. Just concentrated on jewelry and started catering to my website customers. There was, of course, a HUGE magnetic force of resistance coming from my father, and understandably so. The business had served him and his father very well. Why change? Why screw up a good thing? In 2003, when my brother-in-law, David, came on board, we tore it up. Why? One thing my grandfather always said was, “Change with the times.” There you go. Aside from the fact the I love the jewelry business, you have to change. And it’s for the better.

We partnered with David S Brown Enterprises and A & R Development and not only did we build ourselves a beautiful new jewelry store, but we’re making this block beautiful. PNC Bank, Five Guys, Panera Bread, and other major retailers will be our tenants and this will be a neighborhood that people will want to visit.

So CHECK OUT OUR FLICKR PAGE to take a look at the progress of our new store. Soon you’re gonna walk in and I’ll put up a video of your favorite song on the plasma, and we’ll hang out and talk about diamonds – or about music or sports or whatever you want. Get ready for the new Samuelson’s Experience in 2009 and take a look at one of my favorite videos that gives me chills every time I see it:

Oh yeah, and we have three new websites on the way…

Take a look at what a former employee says about them:

I am a former employee of Cash 4 Gold. I did not know much about the company before being hired. On my first day of being hired, I was taught the “Cash 4 Gold Scam” from beginning to end.
1. The “refiner’s pack” that is used for you to put your jewelry is “insured for UP TO 100 dollars, ” according to how much they feel your items are worth, NOT appraised at
2. We receive your “Refiner’s Pack” within 3-4 days, but we are instructed to tell you that it takes “7-10 business days, for us to receive your pack, ALTHOUGH your package has already arrived.
3.Your jewlery gets appraised by hand/magnifying glasses/
a small weight pad, and a bottle of mystery fluid, which your items are then give a value for. Not million dollar equipment or specially trained jewelry experts.
4. Although the payment (check) for your item is dated within 24 hrs of testing your jewelry, we sometimes DO NOT actually send out the check until up to 3-4 days later.
5. We claim a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee or your jewelry returned, BUT THE CATCH IS, that the guarantee is contacting us within 10 DAYS from when your check is DATED. (This begins with the time it takes for the accounts payables dept. to issue the check and also including the transit time for you to receive your check in the mail. **** NOTATE THE COMMERCIALS THAT STATE U GET YOUR CHECK IN 24 HRS.***
5. IF you are lucky you will receive your check around the “7th-10th” bus iness day, AND more then 97% of the time Customers are outraged when they lay eyes on the amount of the check. Some Customer’s even receive a check for 0.01 cents. (TRUTH) Thats including items of great value (Diamonds, Platinum/ Gold and Sterling)
6. They sometimes even receive your valuables and like them so much THAT we CLAIM to not have received the items just so the “TOP” people or even “FAVORED” people can get first dibs on your items. From which point we issued an INSURANCE CLAIM for UP TO 100 dollars. GOD FORBID your items are worth more then a 100 dollars, and when you call in to check on the status of your items, we tell you ” YOU SHOULD”VE ADDED EXTRA INSURANCE ON YOUR ITEMS.” We do not have an actual Insurance company, they use customer service reps as the claim department agents.
7. For those who receive there check within the 10 day frame, GOOD LUCK with trying to get in touch with a cust. srvc. rep before your 10 days are up. Which after your 10 days, your items are “ALREADY MELTED” or NO LONGER AVAILABLE FOR RETURN.”
8. For the “LUCKY” people who do get in touch with us within the alloted time frame, we already know what you are calling about. Customers want their items returned, because there
check amount is so insultingly LOW. The first thing a Rep will ask you is “HOW MUCH WERE YOU EXPECTING TO GET BACK?” This way we can know how much to “BONUS” you.
Definition of a BONUS: We issue low checks just to have you call us back if you are smart enough to realized that you just got scammed. For the smart one’s we are paid to offer u a bonus up to 3x the original amount of your check and you accept. For ex: Sally Smith receives a check for $27.86 for a rolex watch(which we dont issue value for), a class ring, a ring with diamond chips, a pair of earrings with emeralds, as well as a few sterling silver pieces, and maybe a few items that were really of no value. Now Sally Smith calls the cust srvc dept, where she speaks to a rep who seems so concerned and will see if she can do better with the amount by speaking to a “SUPERVISOR”. We then place the caller on Mute, and speak to our neighbors or doodle on a sheet, or twiddle with our hair for about 45 seconds, while we are supposedly speaking to our supervisor about Ms. Smith’s complaint. We then come back with an offer to “BUMP UP YOUR MELT DATE or any other lies the cust srvc reps can think of, and offer you a total amount of $53.20 which is a little under double the amount of your original check. In which case if you accept, the cust srvc rep makes a 15.00 bonus off of your transaction. If the cust srvc rep offers you under triple the amount of your orig check, she makes 10.oo in bonuses.
9. If you accept the offer, the deal is done, and you are told that the call is recorded(which most of the time, the record button does not work.)Just a way to make your feel binded by a verbal contract. IF you do not accept the deal, you have to return your check, and it takes sometimes up to a month to receive your items back after we receive the check.
10. If you only want the items that we do not find of any value back, you have to pay a 10.00 shipping and handling fee to have your own items returned, which varies depending on sales for that week. IF sales are good, there is no fee, when we are slow, you must pay.
Cash 4 Gold is definitely not a trustworthy or credible company to do business with. You are almost better off taking your items to a local pawnshop or shopping around for other companies. With the economony the way it is, Cash 4 Gold seems to be a way out of financial stress for some, but in actuality becomes a stress of its own. I would advice you to think twice before sending in valuables or items inherited and of sentimental value. Its not worth it. I am not doing this as a way of Bashing their money making process but more so to warn everyone.

You want more?  They tried to bribe a blogger to take his negative article down (to the tune of $3,000) and even had the CHUTZPAH to ask if they could donate to his favorite charity.

Rob,
I work with Cash4Gold on the reputation management. Your article is ranking #3 on their brand term. They would really like to make it worth your while to take it down or make it more positive. They did something similar by joining (OTHER CONSUMER AFFAIRS WEBSITE)’s advocacy program. Is it worth a few thousand to take it down? If not, maybe a donation to your favorite charity is more to your liking?

Feel free to call me anytime to discuss further.

Thanks,
Joe Laratro
President
Tandem Interactive – Trendy Online Marketing Solutions
Hollywood, FL 33020

Click here for the full article.

Now, Samuelson’s Diamonds buys gold.  And we’re in the business of making a profit.  And we try to make the best buys that we can.  However, we’ve never lied to a customer about what karat content they brought us, and in the 87 years we’ve been in business we’ve never kept anyone’s merchandise or held back their money.

So when you’re sitting back watching the Super Bowl and you see MC Hammer wanting to melt his gold records (cause he ran out of money) and Ed McMahon talking about melting his gold toilet, remember to take your gold to your local jewelry store and don’t send it anywhere!