I’m looking to get a camcorder on a budget, and we’re talking about checking out pawn shops in the area. Part of me thinks this is asking for trouble, another part thinks I’m just paranoid. Anyone with experience with pawn shops? Horror stories? Stories in favor of?
You are in Florida, right?
I use to have a negative vibe about pawn shops, then I spent some time around my uncle’s good friend who ran/runs a pawn shop in Cocoa Beach. (he has several, if I remember correctly.)
Anywhooo, It is an amazing and interesting world, pawn shops owners live in. They get the dreg’s of society hocking their stuff for drug money or because they are down on their luck ( drugs) or on hard times and need some quick cash. It was in that pawn shop that I first heard the words Crack and how it came out of Jamaica and was decimating the junkies and this was back in 1984, I believe.
Or they get the ladies and gents who go on the cruises and blow a wad of cash gambling and need a quick fix.
Or they get the younger family members who have the job of cleaning out Grannies house and don’t have time for a garage sale/estate sale because they only have one weekend or so to settle the entire estate. So they go to the pawn shop to hock it for some quick cash. ( The stuff…oh…the vintage stuff…it is fabulous! If you don’t mind the clutter and search.)
The stuff they have in the general merchandizing case is average to below average. This, I’ve learned, is standard operating procedure. The good jewerly is brought out of the back from the safe bythose who know to ask for it.
I don’t know anything about electronics, so bone up on the questions to ask and see if they will let you plug it in. Maybe take a tape along with you to tape just the shop to see how it works.
In general, and this going by what my uncle’s friend told me back in 1998 or so, so it needs to be adjusted to match the times. Pawn shops in general pay X amount of money on the dollar for whatever it is you are selling.
Example: You pay $1000 for a ring. Now you need the money and sell it at a pawn shop. The pawn shop owner will pay you ten cents on the dollar ( or whatever the number is) so you get $100 for your ring. He turns around and sells it for $300+ after a 30 day cooling off period ( or longer, I forget.)
Personally, I would scour ebay first.
But, pawnshops really get a bad vibe that I don’t feel they deserve.
Pawn shops and buy-n-sell shops are hit and miss. I’ve found some really good deal in pawn shops before. I’ve also found neat things priced about 5 years too late. Electronics are one of these things.
I was in the market for a new Palm device. Most of the old crap I found in pawn shops were priced about what the going rate is for the newest model. One was a Palm M130. The shop I found it in wanted $30 less than the new price. For $30 less you didn’t get the software, a new battery, a screen free of scratches and a one year factory warrenty.
That said, I’ve found great deals on music items. An old sax, old synth, an effect unit here and there. The shop could have asked for more but didn’t.
I would say figure out the format camcorder you want and how much you want to spend. hit up a couple pawn shops and see what they have in stock. Make notes of models and prices and hit up ebay to see if they’re in-line with the going rates. Find out if you can get accessories for the items you want (batteries, chargers, etc)
If you can, run some tape through it. Make sure it doesn’t have a problem capturing images and playing them back.
Also, before you buy, find out what the return policy is. I’ve been in some “all sales are final” shops. Not a good idea for something with a million moving parts and a battery that can be hard to find or cost $50 new.
Gee, that 10% sounds awful low. I’m sure our local gives a lot more than that on the dollar. Of course, they also have the rep of being one of the best in the business. I’ve dealt with them, both as a pawner and buyer since I was fifteen. Bought my first electric guitar there.
I think most pawn shops are pretty well regulated these days, at least in Canada. We even got a stolen guitar back once, after someone took it in to our own fav shop. It had been properly reported stolen and was promptly nabbed at the counter when the thief tried to hock it and the owner checked the description.
I wonder - is there anything like an electronics consignment store in your area? Might be worth a look.
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- How much of a budget do you have? There are a bunch of different handy-cams available now for under $300, in various formats. Some even under $200, but they are usually limited to recording onto solid-state media (more expensive and lower-capacity than other media, but more rugged and compact overall as well).
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- How much of a budget do you have? There are a bunch of different handy-cams available now for under $300, in various formats. Some even under $200, but they are usually limited to recording onto solid-state media (more expensive and lower-capacity than other media, but more rugged and compact overall as well).
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Second.
It’s not because pawn shops are shady or anything like that - but the reality is that when people nowadays are selling high-grade electronics, they turn to ebay. I’ve bought cell phones, radios, and other electronics new in the box at substantial discounts.
I think that overall, unless your pawn shops are a complete exception to the rule, you are going to get better quality, better selection, and a better price off of ebay.
- Peter Wiggen
Depends on the shop, but some pawn shops I’ve been to have been ridiculously high priced. As Seven noted, often the prices are just below retail, and this is for items that aren’t brand new. Once in a while you come across good deals though. My husband once stumbled across a digital dish receiver in a pawn shop. We used it for a couple of years and when we switched to cable, he … sold it on eBay (for about $100 more than he paid for it, actually).
That said, I do recommend scoping out eBay over pawn shops. We’ve bought quite a few electronics items on eBay, and have been very satisfied. Sure, we only paid about $10 less for our digital camera than we would have in the store, but we got a huge memory card and some other accessories thrown in that would have cost us $75+ in the store. It was also a brand new camera.
I completely agree with the above opinions.
I’d just like to add that, for some very durable items, and it does depend on the particular pawnshop, you can get some really good deals. For example, I bought a S & W .44 Magnum, nickel-plated for $250; 10 years before that, I got a double barrel 12-gauge shotgun for --well, I don’t remember–but about $150 in today’s money.
And, it is always really fun for me, personally, to just go into them and look at all the stuff that is on sale.
Oh, I also remembered one other good thing about my pawnshop - it gives you at least a 30 day guarantee. They even used to guarantee cassette tapes!