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The Joys and Challenges of a Being Gold Paydirt Seller

I have had the pleasure of sharing the enjoyment of panning for gold with thousands of you over the last few years. Too, I have been privileged to meet and interact with many of you whom I now regard as my friends.

In fact, few things put a smile on my face more than hearing from a happy customer

However, like most other entrepreneurs who deal with the public on a regular basis, I have encountered the challenge of trying to please all the people, all of the timean impossible task of course.

Whenever I get a complaint, it is a challenge for me to not get defensive. I have to remember to balance that with the reality of my own fallibility and capacity to be less than perfect in the execution of processing and fulfilling your orders. 

So, I find myself on a never-ending quest to discover how to best serve you and to offer a quality product with excellence in customer service and execution.

The whole reason I love gold panning so much is not about accumulating, or even having the gold, it's all about the Eureka! moment of discovering gold in the pan

Man! I love it! Once you have experienced the thrill you want to do it over and over again. That's why it's called "gold fever!"

Since 2014, I have been learning more and more about the gold paydirt business and what it takes to be successful. Too, I am learning more about the wide range of interests that people possess who buy paydirt

Some, like me, pan for gold for the same reason I do...the Eureka moment. Others however are more concerned with how much the gold is worth and don't care that much about the discovery aspect...too bad. (They should be buying bullion bars/coins)

However, I have been surprised at how many Facebook Groups are out there that make the purchase and sale of gold paydirt more of a gambling proposition.

That’s why so many of the Facebook Groups online routinely run raffles ("razz") to sell their gold/paydirt. This made me really curious and I finally had to ask how it worked.

Here’s how I understand it: the seller has a Facebook page and they offer up for example one gram of gold, worth maybe $42 at spot price. They’ll offer 10 shares and each share would cost you $6.00 and you can buy as many shares as you like until all the shares are purchased.

Then they’ll have a drawing and pick one of the shares as the winner.

The seller gets $60 for his gram of gold (minus shipping charges), but those who don’t win…usually get nothing.

There are variations of this, of course. For instance, there could be twenty or more bags of paydirt offered. Each one has some gold in it. They are priced at $55 or so, but one contains 2 grams of gold. So, everybody purchases a bag of paydirt hoping to the score the one with two grams. Only one wins the two-gram shipment but their cost is less than everyone else…a winner!

Everybody likes to win...and we all love to get a deal...but this is not the type of enterprise I find appealing…but it is tempting.

On the buyer’s side, I have come across a number of people who are put off by any paydirt seller asking more than the Spot price of gold. (For the record, the total collected by the seller in the raffles almost always exceed the corresponding spot price of gold.)  

As raffle items, the majority of those who purchase a share in the raffle pay less per share than the value of the gold they will receive, if any. If they win the raffle, they're a winner...so it’s just like purchasing a lottery ticket

There are sometimes enough gold in each shipment to provide a degree of value for the money wagered, but one or two will get considerably more gold than the rest…that’s the hook, that’s what stirs one's interest in purchasing a share…the possibility that their share will be selected as the winner of the big prize.

I don’t have an issue at all with people enjoying the gambling aspect of purchasing gold paydirt this way.

However, some potential buyers of our paydirt have been buying their paydirt from those raffle style sites, and they have gotten addicted to the rush of gambling, hoping they will be a winner.

They therefore often refuse to pay retail prices on their paydirt and even get indignant when we paydirt sellers ask for more than the spot price. Some have even demanded regulations to prohibit the sale of gold at more than the spot price! That sounds more like the politburo to me, and definitely anti-capitalist.

 In any case I wish them well. But it certainly is interesting to see the creativity of both buyers and sellers...I still have a lot to learn. 

Any thoughts? What has you experience been? 

mdv

 

 

 


6 comments

  • Always a pleasure to pan what Michael send me, and always great pleasure to find gold !!!

    Dave on
  • Hi Mike, I am like you. I love the hunt. I do not waste my time or money on raffles but prefer to get my pay dirt from reputable sellers like yourself. I recently taught our church youth group how to pan. Every one found gold, learned to pan and the joy of the hunt. We are planning a camping trip to one of our local spots so the kids can experience the process of getting the paydirt. The joy is not in the destination but in the journey.

    Cathy on
  • Very good blog. Sensible and explained very well. Thanks!

    Rod on
  • You pretty much summed it up Michael. It is for the RUSH. Whether you are talking about the EUREKA moment or the moment you find out that you have won a $30 bag of paydirt that you only have $10 invested in. Although the seller got $50 or $60 out of that bag. On the rare occasion there is one where several people win prizes and the total value of the combined prizes are realistic with the $ amount the seller received. Also keeping in mind that the seller is getting most of his items at wholesale and we consumers are thinking retail value.
    It would be impossible for a seller to be in business if he sold his dirt for the equal spot value of the gold in the product. People have to understand that the seller has a lot of work involved in getting this product out! I would say that some consumers are pretty frustrated in a LOT of the suppliers that will sell a $60 bag of paydirt with $7 worth of gold in it. It has happened to me many times before I found some good suppliers like yourself that makes it worthwhile. On the other hand, there are alot of people that are not worried about the cost as long as they get a little color to show the kids or grandkids while teaching about the gold rush. I have heard of a teacher that purchased a bag of paydirt while teaching the class about 1800s America only to find 0 gold! Yes, it could have been panning skills but even some of the worst panners can find a LITTLE gold in a $30 bag. Can you imagine the frustration there?
    I think THAT is the frustration that ends up being conveyed to the sellers. Even if they are good providers of paydirt, they will get some of the people that are remembering that $7 worth of gold they got for $60.

    Phillip Maynard on
  • spoken well !

    kelly levitt on


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