Fortune magazine ran an article in December 2009, about the curious case of a collection of high tech venture capital firms (VC’s) investing in a new gold-buying service called Cash4Gold.
Cash is King – Even More So in a Recession
Cash4Gold has a simple operation model – you post them gold and they post you back a cheque. Such a service was historically the domain of pawn shops or low end gold merchants.
From the original Fortune article:
With the price of gold hitting new highs, it’s hardly surprising that pawnshops are flourishing. Cash4Gold claims to be the first such service to operate fully online; indeed, its backers include a handful of tech venture capital firms, including Luxembourg-based Mangrove Partners (an early backer of Skype) and Boston’s General Catalyst and Highland Capital Partners.
Certainly an interesting new business model fit for the times – “.. time to hit them hills”.
‘Prospector‘ by ToOliver2 via Flickr
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