Is Red Swan A Scam?

Make Money On Your Own

You can get started for free by requesting a starter kit that includes everything for you to mail in your unwanted jewelry. Once you send in the jewelry, it is then appraised and shortly afterwards you will receive your payment by check.

Sharing is caring….

Assuming you had a great experience selling jewelry of your own to Red Swan, you may want to share the love with someone else. Well with most cash for gold places, you can do this out of the love of your heart. But Red Swan seems to believe that getting cash is a better incentive. I think most would agree. So they offer an opportunity to move into a lead position where there is more earning potential. As a lead you will be able to earn a commission off of anyone that you refer to Red Swan that sends in their jewelry to sell as well.

You can earn this commission in two ways. One is to order a lead kit that includes everything you need to share with others. They even come with invitations and thank you cards for hosting events to encourage people to sell their old jewelry via Red Swan, and of course you earn a commission from each person that is referred by you. (This is very much like the Tupperware parties you may have been invited to attend.) To get the lead starter kit there is not a payment required, but you must have used Red Swan yourself first.

If that way isn't your cup of tea, Red Swan has a number that you can call to refer people, and then they will receive a free starter kit as well. If they use that starter kit, you will make the commission. Sounds easy enough, right? The commission process continues in tiers one through four. Your first tier is individuals referred exclusively by you; tier two is those referred by the first tier of individuals, and so on and so forth through four tiers. You get the picture, right? If referred people, and yourself for the first tier, use the kit within 90 days you will get the preferred rate of commission, beyond that you will receive the basic rate. Check out the chart below for percentages of commission.

Preferred % – Tier Basic% – Tier
8% – 1 4% – 1
4% – 2 2% – 2
2% – 3 1% – 3
1% – 4 0.5% – 4

PRO's

Potential to earn commission by referral

Honestly this the biggest selling point of this company. You get paid to refer others who may want to sell their jewelry as well. This is really what separates Red Swan from all the cash for gold sites that have popped up in the last few years. If you do a great job of recruiting some go getters you can make some great money on their efforts. Passive residual income is the best income! Your money works for you instead of the other way around.

Free to start and be a lead

The other great point about Red Swan is that their referral program is free (As it should be!). It doesn't cost you a dime to be a "Lead" in their company. That's always a huge plus because they could have easily made a boat load of money by setting this up as a home based business opportunity that you have to pay into. But it is nice that they don't charge you for helping them make more money.

Media Love

Red Swan was recently featured on the Rachel Ray & Today Show which earned it a lot of reputation points for many people. It often does because there is assumption that if something is on TV it must be legit, right? Hopefully most of you already know that just because something is on television doesn't mean it is true or legit. Infomercials are a perfect example of this. That being said, it's highly unlikely that both TV shows would feature them if they didn't perform due diligence.

Guarantee

Straight from their site: "If you are not absolutely satisfied with your payment, you may simply notify us at 1-888-309-SWAN within 10 days of the date on the check and return the check to us. The item(s) will then be returned to you free of charge." I think that's great because if you don't feel you got your money's worth you can shop around without losing anything. I don't know of any other cash for gold site that does this. So that's a huge pro!

Donate Your Earnings To A Charity

Red Swan makes it easy to use their opportunity to support a charity or fund raiser. So if you're not in it for the money, you could use the income you earn with this opportunity to help others which is definitely admirable.

Track Your Jewelry

Once they have received your jewelry you can track it's progress online via the Red Swan website. This way you're not left in the dark as to what's happening. I think psychologically that helps because the wait may not seem as long because you can see the progress in real time.

That's pretty much it in terms of pros.

CON's

Receive substantially less money for jewelry than you would locally

This shouldn't come as a surprise if you read my review on Cash 4 Gold, but I will recap it here as well. Many of these companies will usually pay you a substantially lower amount than an actual local jeweler, or even a pawn shop. Even Red Swan sort of admits to this. There is a note located on Red Swan's Sellable Items page that informs people that due to high supply, semi-precious stones like rubies or sapphires have very little or no value at all. Rrrrrright… I am sure your local jeweler may feel a bit differently. So if you really want to get the money you deserve for your jewelry, have it appraised if you don't know what it is worth. Then see what you can get for it locally. Once you have a good sense you can sell it locally or compare it to what Red Swan offers you since they will actually return your jewelry if you're not satisfied with the amount sent. Personally I still don't feel comfortable with sending stuff like that via mail.

Not a potential income to earn a living

I doubt you can support your family on this. It may be good for some quick cash but not a long term money maker. The exception to this statement is if you have a good downline which again is what they want you to do. But just doing this on your own would be hard to sustain. I mean how much old jewelry do you have?

Snail Mail Attack!

Although most everything else on this site is done via the internet, payment however is done by mail. Hmmm, so you will have to wait on snail mail to get your starter kit, when you send in the jewelry, when referring people and sending them a starter kit, and when getting paid. I understand that some things must be done this way, but that is a heck of a lot of waiting in my opinion. Normally I don't mind waiting because money is money. How it gets to me doesn't really ruffle my feathers. But I mention this con because Red Swan's competition is probably that jeweler or pawn shop right down the road from you. If you sell your jewelry locally, it is cash on the spot. I don't know about you but that's better than waiting up to several weeks any day in my book! Especially when you consider that it's also more money to be made locally. There is no competition there.

It's also worth stating again, is it really safe to send precious jewelry via mail? That just doesn't sit right with me.

So What's the Verdict?

Do I think RedSwan.com is a scam? No, I don't think that it is technically a scam. However given the choice between going local and getting cash on the spot vs waiting for a kit and possibly getting paid less, I would lean towards going local. I've also heard some other stories about these type of businesses where jewelry was allegedly lost in the mail. In my opinion there seems to be a lot more down side than there is upside with gold by mail programs.

If you really want to make cash with your jewelry, my suggestion is head to a few of your local establishments and try to get the best price there. If leaving your home seems like too much work then maybe something like Red Swan is appealing. Or you could explore various traditional work at home job opportunities or my personal recommendations. Either way you always have choices. Just pick what's best for you and don't fall for the hype because something is on television or you've seen their ads everywhere. That doesn't mean something is legit or the best option for you. Always do your research!

I hope this review helped. By the way if you've had good or negative experiences with Red Swan or sites like it, please chime in below. We'd love to hear from you.