Competitors Spar over Advertisements

A fight over who offers the best prices to customers looking to sell gold items has erupted locally.

Both Arkansas Gold & Silver Exchange LLC of Rogers and NWA Gold & Silver have stores in Fayetteville, Springdale, Bentonville and Rogers.

But the bad blood between the companies intensified this year when NWA Gold & Silver opened its Rogers location right across the street from Arkansas Gold.

NWA Gold displayed signs that said “We Always Pay More!” according to Arkansas Gold’s lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court. In addition, NWA Gold has television commercials touting that “when you want to sell, nobody is going to pay you more for your fine jewelry, broken gold or large diamonds,” the lawsuit said.

But Arkansas Gold said it “routinely offers consumers a higher price for their gold and silver than NWA Gold & Silver.”

It listed several cases where customers had been paid more by Arkansas Gold than they were offered by NWA Gold. Arkansas Gold is suing NWA Gold for violation of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act for its “false and misleading” advertisements.

It wants NWA Gold to be prevented from using statements such as “always pays more” in its advertising. Arkansas Gold also wants an unspecified amount of damages that would include the profits that NWA Gold made from “its unlawful conduct,” the lawsuit said.