I pawned my stereo in college. It was one of those $200 Wal*Mart jobs - an Aiwa or somesuch - and since my computer had equally good speakers and I didn’t own any cassettes it seemed like a waste of space.
I got $35 for it, which is exactly what I was expecting.
I used to collect Oakley sunglasses, and am something of an expert on the topic (actually, Oakley products are the one thing I can say with certainty I know better than anyone else on the SDMB), so pawn shops were one of the places I’d look. The prices weren’t often the best, except on damaged pairs; knowing the cost of replacement lenses made things a lot easier; plus, hardcore collectors- there aren’t many- all focus on eBay, so you were really just competing with kids spending their allowance at pawn shops.
Strictly speaking, you don’t sell things to a pawn shop; you pawn them. Originally, the point was simply that you offered them something as collateral on a loan. If you pawn something, they hold it for a set amount of time before selling it (unless you tell them you have no interest in buying it back) so you can buy it back at the original price, plus interest.
Nowadays, the “pawn” part has pretty much gone out the window and it’s more of a buy-and-sell-used-stuff deal.
I’m not really sure how it works, but to me it looks like this:
Buy = X
Sell= 3 * X
Storage, labor, overhead costs, advertising, etc. = X
Therefore, they buy at 30% of what they can sell it for, pay 30% in costs, and make 30% on the deal, which is pretty much standard for all businesses. I think people have to inherently understand this, otherwise supermarkets couldn’t exist.
What sucks for pawn shop customers is that they bought it for retail, but the don’t have the store (and more importantly, the time) to sell it for retail, so they have to sell it for wholesale.
I’ve bought stuff. Vegas is a place where people pawn stuff a lot as you can imagine. I’ve found a few really nice things at some of the nicer places.
A friend of mine is a tool junkie and he’s found a lot of really nice tools for good prices.
I’m not normally someone who wears a lot of expensive jewelry because I’m bad about losing it, but I’ve found some decent pricing on stuff at pawn shops and then sometimes they want pretty much the same thing you’d pay at a jewelry store. Odd.
We’d pawn it, not sell it.
We’d only have to pay back the original loan plus interest. I forget what it was exactly but say they gave us 90$ for it. We could buy it back within the loan period for that same amount plus the interest. Say it was 10%. We’d give them 99$ and they’d give us back the guitar.
I’ve heard you can get some decent deals at pawn shops in towns with a big and or expensive college. Spoiled college kids have little idea of the value of the really good stuff their loving and well off parents bought them.
I’ve looked at pocketknives in pawn shops before. A lot of what they have is flashy crap, but the prices aren’t necessarily bad, and some of the knives would be worth about 75% of the labeled price, which is probably what you could get them for.
Had never even been in a pawn shop except for business (when I worked Armored) until January, two months before I filed for bankruptcy. I’d gotten to a Friday between paydays and had $2 in my pocket, an empty gas tank, not much food in the fridge and was about $15 short of paying my rent which was due Monday.
So I took one of my pistols, the one I had never much liked, spent a good hour cleaning the crap out of it, then sat down with my friend Mr. Google and did a ton of research on how much they were selling for. Then I went down to a pawnshop and asked for a price that was not quite 40% of that - a nice round number. The guy behind the counter looked it over, pulled up some numbers and called over the manager. Who did a bunch of looking at the computer, grimacing and saying “Well, you sure did your research before you came here”, then accepted my price. Dunno if it was an act of not and I don’t care. I got enough money to pay my rent, put gas in my tank and buy some groceries.
A couple of weeks later I pawned a 7 year old 27" TV and got a measly $15 for it. They almost didn’t take it because it was too old and they could already point at their overstock of TVs. I would have liked more, but the fact was that I’d had the thing on my floor, unused for two years and didn’t need it.
The real value of it all was showing me what things were selling for at the pawn shop and what my property would sell for at the liquidation valuation required for filing bankruptcy. Managed to convince me that my apartment full of valuable objects was really a fat load of not much and I had little to worry about when it came to the idea that they’d take it away from me if I filed for bankruptcy.
I don’t really have much experience, but can’t you opt to sell things outright? The money you get is usually more than you’d get by pawning, but in this case they’d put the merchandise out front for sale ASAP, and you’d have to pay full price to get it back.
Yep, sad really. You’re not the only one. My wife criticizes me for buying the cheapest possible thing that will do the job, but imho, 99% of what I own is worthless, disposable, and rapidly depreciating.
The stuff I have that does have value probably I’ll never sell, e.g. my tempurpedic bed, a real wood bookshelf, etc.
Exactly, they buy real low and sell moderately high, so why would anyone sell or buy with a Pawnshop? Usually they sell because they need the money now, not after a couple weeks on eBay.
I took some old electronics to one in Florida before moving so I wouldn’t have to haul them across country. It was either sell them to a pawn shop and hopefully get enough money for lunch or throw the stuff in a dumpster. I got lunch out of it so it was worth it.
I pretty much knew they gave miniscule amounts of cash for stuff. Like $15 for a TV etc.
This was in the summer Florida heat and I watched a teen kid haul in piece-by-piece a massive stereo rack system. Tower speakers, cabinet, amp, EQ, etc. I took him a while and he worked up a huge sweat hauling it in.
The owner asks him how much he was looking at getting for it. The kid says “Oh, I don’t know, like $500.”
The owner sort of chuckled and said “Well, I can give you $50.”
The shocked look on the kids face was priceless.
Years ago I went with some friends to Las Vegas. I gambled a little, they gambled a lot. So while they gambled, I hit the pawnshops.
They were great!
Lots of musical instruments, lots of old jewelry (I loves me some 1920s silver & turquoise).
Also, at the time, a plethora of class rings. Bunch of wedding rings, too.
They also had some weird stuff. A Selectric II typewriter, very good condition, $15. Who sold them that? I had to wonder.
Many, many years ago, I used to drag my stereo and sewing machine to the pawnshop before going on vacation. This was (a) to get a little traveling money, and (b) so they wouldn’t be stolen while I was gone. It was like cheap storage that you didn’t have to pay for until you were ready to get the stuff back. Eventually I decided I didn’t really need a sewing maching, they’d given me $75 for it and wanted $85 for me to get it back, and it just didn’t seem worth it.
Shortly after I moved to Nashville, I hit hard times (pretty common story for the town ). I pawned one of my keyboards, one of my TVs and an old guitar. Next paycheck, I got them back.
I now stop in occasionally to shop. In recent years, I’ve bought two keyboards, a guitar, an amp, a couple of mics, some jewelry and a .22 S&W. Got reasonable to good deals on all of them. If you’re interested in musical instruments or guns, Nashville pawnshops rock.
I have bought several movies on DVD for $2 USD, and one for $5- a practically new copy of The Blues Brothers also on DVD; never sold anything at a pawn shop.
Well at a used CD store you’re only gonna get between a nickel and a quarter for most CDs.
I’ve never been in a pawn shop, though I look through the windows. I like the jewelry but what I don’t get is how do you know what it is? Sure they can say it’s 18K gold, but so? I don’t know that. Anyone can punch a mark on a bracelet and can you return it if it’s not real? I don’t know? Someone enlighten me please
). I pawned one of my keyboards, one of my TVs and an old guitar. Next paycheck, I got them back.