My parents’ home was broken into and coins were stolen from them by some (we later learned) junkies (for lack of a better term) and the police told us our best bet was to start going to pawn stores. Long story short, we found some in two pawn stores and could identify them because they were still in the paper and plastic holders that I wrote on when I helped my parents but them in their when I was a kid!
Pawn stores are just one step above the people they deal with.
You mean you ignored all those people clamoring to buy your used guitar for $400 and pawned it for $75? Sheesh.
Pawn shops can act as a temporary source of financing for a section of society that simply have no access to other standard loan facilities, either because such sources won’t lend to them (banks) or other sources are maxed out (credit cards). They’re infinitely preferable to payday loan shops, and cheaper / safer than loan sharks. Added bonus, no major repercussions if you not able to buy the item back, vs if you took out money on a credit card (credit score is shot) or failed to pay back a loan shark (broken kneecaps).
So the guy trying to sell that used guitar was a thief?
I posted that clip in another thread fairly recently. Rick is pretty skinny and a lot more laid back than on the show. Also, you can see that they still had their showroom with all the nice collectible type stuff, even back before they had their series.
I’ve spent a lot of time in pawn shops. I used to collect antique guns and I would make the rounds of all the local shops looking for deals. I got to know the owners of all the indie shops and would hang out and talk to them. They were pretty damn far away from being fences.
If someone came in with something obviously stolen they would hold them (sometimes at gunpoint) for the cops. Nothing made these guys more pissed off then someone trying to sell them stolen stuff, because usually that means they are going to lose money on it.
Pawn shops don’t make much money from selling stuff. That’s not their business. They make money by making short term loans, then getting their money back when the person redeems the pawn so they can loan it out again. One owner told me that everything out for sale on the shelf is losing him money every day because it’s money he would rather be loaning out.
So it doesn’t make sense for someone to buy stolen stereo they’ll make maybe a 100 bucks off of and then have to wait to get their money and then possibly lose it – and the thieves don’t like to show id when they sell their stuff. Someone breaks into your house and steals something your best bet is to watch craigslist for it, or hit a flea market where nobody checks anything.
Many shops their inventory computer is linked to the police. A serial number goes into the machine when the items pawned and if it’s hot it gets put on hold. The shop has to hold it for 90 days to verify, and in most states if you are willing to go to a court hearing you get your stuff back for free.
Even so, the price of gold per ounce is the same whether it’s in coin form or in bullion form, and in coin form there’s a chance that the value could be even higher, whether the salesperson has had them graded or not. Melting down coins adds nothing to the value, and could mean a potential loss. So what’s the point? Why would gold bullion be easier to sell than gold coins?
There is a cost to storing merchandise, plus an opportunity cost to keeping that money tied up in coins that you can’t lend. Selling a collectible coin involves costs for grading which are probably worth it for the high end stuff but for the middle and low end just eats into any profit you might gain.
If a pawn broker melts stolen coins, do they need to return the bullions to the original owner of the coins if it’s proven that the coins used were stolen? If they don’t lose the bullions, melting the coins is likely a way to get rid of the risk of buying stolen coins. The pawn broker may even know or suspect that the coins are stolen, but there’s no risk to them if they get to keep the bullions anyway.