The problem with eGold is that it is extremely difficult to get hold of, I will give icegold.com a go and see how good they are. The only concern I would have with Egold is turning it back into cash - as selling eGold for Paypal these days is a disaster in the making.
An e-gold account may be funded (or e-gold funds exchanged for cash) through an independent exchange provider. Some of these providers are listed on the e-gold website www.e-gold.com/unsecure/links.htm#marketmaker You may use a search engine to find more providers. You may also type your country in the search field, to find exchange providers in your local area. For example, [fund e-gold Philippines] <search> E-gold is not as popular as some users may think. At present, there are less than 5 million e-gold accounts worldwide of which, perhaps, only half to two-thirds are active. However, one fundamental advantage of e-gold is that they do not discriminate on the basis of country of residence (except recently for few countries like Iran, probably because of UN sanctions). This may not mean much to residents of the United States, Canada or the United Kingdom, but it is a great source of relief for those who find their country of residence excluded from almost every other payment system. Also, the commission and storage fees are low compared to other payment systems. The use of e-gold is not limited to high yield investment programs (hyip). There are quite a number of merchants that accept e-gold as a method of payment for their products or services. No payment system can claim to be completely free from fraud and e-gold is no exception. Anyway, nobody is forced to send funds to any hyip. An indictment is merely an accusation and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. E‑Gold may still use its existing funds to satisfy requests to exchange e-gold into national currency for customers of non-seized accounts, or sell precious metals to accomplish the same, once approval has been received. It appears as if the real "problem" with e-gold is the potential to compete with (at present) more popular payment systems. For instance, there is an auction site, which also owns a payment system, that prohibits sellers from asking to be paid by e-gold, among other payment systems. The process involved in trying to fund your e-gold account (or exchange e-gold funds for cash) really depends on the exchange provider.
If you like to try it use www.eurogoldsales.com I have known the owner for years and do a lot of business through him. You can even ring him and ask questions if you like.
I paid a few russians with egold. They were just normal guys who did some programming for me. They said that they used egold because paypal refused to give a lot of people in that area an account
E-gold is not just popular in HYIP's or investments sites. They are also used by people who do not have access to Paypal accounts.