My interesting visit to the pawnshop…

[Bentfork]

This is not CRH, but it is interesting to see the degree of stupidity of pawnshop owners.

I occasionally hit pawnshops and yard sales looking for possible good deals. They are especially rare at pawnshops. But, I hit a few pawnshops yesterday. I actually re-visited one in particular that I had made a good deal at on some halves. I thought I might be able to get a second good deal.

Two weeks ago I went into this pawnshop and the young lady working there made me a deal on 27 Walkers and Barbers for $293. I knew something was amiss because that was a little less than $11 a piece. But according to her the box was mark for $12 each. Even though they were loose in a box, they were actually in decent shape. Some actually had letters of Liberty visible on the Barbers. But I didn’t bat an eye. I tried to make a deal on all the silver quarters and dimes, but she wouldn't come down any. The boxes (these are just loose in boxes too) were supposedly marked $8 each for the halves and $6 for the dimes. That is confusing. The halves I get for $11, but the quarters are $8? And there is not two-thirds of the amount of silver in a dime as that of a quarter. Something isn’t right. I mentioned that to her. She said she couldn’t come down any more. The owner would have to make a deal and he was not there.

Fast forward to yesterday. I go into the shop and the young lady is not there. But the owner is. I mentioned that I wanted to deal on the dimes and quarters he had. I made him an offer of $6 each on every quarter he had. And he had probably 200. “I can’t go less than $14 because I can’t get them myself for less than $10. And my silver moves quickly”. I didn’t say it, but I thought – yep that stuff is still piled in a big mess like last week. I guess this old goat (okay, older than me) never heard of Ebay. So I press him on the dimes. “They are $8 each.” I kept the pressure on. I said, “Wow, and I can buy an entire roll on Ebay for $120. “I don’t care what you say, and you can’t buy dimes for less than $6 each. That is what I pay for them” was his response. So I challenged him, “Well, if I bring you 5 rolls of dimes and ask for $120 each roll would you buy them at that price? That’s a discount sir of 60%” for you. He didn’t look at me or say anything. “I guess you didn’t hear me” was my next statement. His reply then was, “I heard you”. “So would you buy them at $120 a roll?” He still didn’t say a thing and looked away. When he did look at me my reply was, “We’re done”. As I left the store I was laughing so hard you would have thought I’d heard the funniest joke ever told. Come on man, get your lying, cheating, stealing, act together!

I have no doubts at the age of 58 that pawnshops will try to diddle you. They will more so than coin dealers and that is my second career. I was born on a Friday, but it wasn’t yesterday. Thought you folks might like to hear this story.

HH

Bentfork

 

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[quiksilver]

Interesting story. Next time think long term and only go in checking for good prices. By bringing attention to the coins he may realize his halves have been underpriced and you may have shot yourself in the foot.

 

[hombre_de_plata_flaco]

LOL! Great story. I can't remember which football game I was watching when I heard this, but I think I remember the announcer Ron Franklin use the phrase "It's as cold as a pawnbrokers heart on the field today".

The selection at Pawn Shops in this area is pretty lame. Almost never see any coins. I ask all the time, but I'm pretty sure whatever they do get ends up being sent off to the smelter rather quickly. In fact, the only coin I have seen in a pawn shop the last 6 months or so around here is the 10 Dollar Gold Piece in a bezel that hangs from the necklace of the owner. The shops here all have stuff like lawn mowers, tools, truck boxes, guns, DVD's, and cheap Chinese electronics. I will say that their prices on these items are pretty good, so you know they aren't paying very much to acquire them.

One thing I have learned you can get over on them with is old stereo equipment from the 70's/early 80's. The pawnbroker usually thinks that the age affects the value negatively, when in fact it could be quite the opposite. The last time I made any kind of "score" at a pawn shop was about 3 months ago. I bought an old Pioneer "Super Tuner" AM/FM/Cassette Deck from 1976 for $8.00... I then paid $5.00 for some new rubber belts and $15.00 to an old HAM radio technician to get it up and running. I put a total of $28.00 into it and I sold it for $250.00..... People like these old Pioneer car stereos to finish off a restoration on their classic cars.

Anyway, didn't mean to hijack the thread but pawnbrokers may be the only demographic I actually enjoy getting one over on. It's hard to feel sympathy toward them given their choice of profession, and I consider it to be something of a sport.

 

[Bentfork]

LOL! Great story. I can't remember which football game I was watching when I heard this, but I think I remember the announcer Ron Franklin use the phrase "It's as cold as a pawnbrokers heart on the field today".

The selection at Pawn Shops in this area is pretty lame. Almost never see any coins. I ask all the time, but I'm pretty sure whatever they do get ends up being sent off to the smelter rather quickly. In fact, the only coin I have seen in a pawn shop the last 6 months or so around here is the 10 Dollar Gold Piece in a bezel that hangs from the necklace of the owner. The shops here all have stuff like lawn mowers, tools, truck boxes, guns, DVD's, and cheap Chinese electronics. I will say that their prices on these items are pretty good, so you know they aren't paying very much to acquire them.

One thing I have learned you can get over on them with is old stereo equipment from the 70's/early 80's. The pawnbroker usually thinks that the age affects the value negatively, when in fact it could be quite the opposite. The last time I made any kind of "score" at a pawn shop was about 3 months ago. I bought an old Pioneer "Super Tuner" AM/FM/Cassette Deck from 1976 for $8.00... I then paid $5.00 for some new rubber belts and $15.00 to an old HAM radio technician to get it up and running. I put a total of $28.00 into it and I sold it for $250.00..... People like these old Pioneer car stereos to finish off a restoration on their classic cars.

Anyway, didn't mean to hijack the thread but pawnbrokers may be the only demographic I actually enjoy getting one over on. It's hard to feel sympathy toward them given their choice of profession, and I consider it to be something of a sport.

That is interesting about the stereos.

Yep, I like giving pawnbrokers a hard time especially when I know they don't know what they are talking about.

 

[Iron Patch]

Not much for them places around here, just a few places that buy. One day for fun I decided to take a fake Tag watch in that my brother-in-law had bought for $20. Just before I entered the place I took my own watch off which was about $1,000 retail and said to the salesperson I wanted to sell both. Said I won them in a pool game. They took both to the back, were gone about 10 minutes, just enough to Google them, which I'm sure they were doing. Once back I was offered $30 for each. I don't think they had a clue but figured for $30 each it was pretty hard to lose. Back then the fakes were pretty obvious so now they'd be really lost. Well that's about my extent of dealing with pawn type people.

 

[Bentfork]

Not much for them places around here, just a few places that buy. One day for fun I decided to take a fake Tag watch in that my brother-in-law had bought for $20. Just before I entered the place I took my own watch off which was about $1,000 retail and said to the salesperson I wanted to sell both. Said I won them in a pool game. They took both to the back, were gone about 10 minutes, just enough to Google them, which I'm sure they were doing. Once back I was offered $30 for each. I don't think they had a clue but figured for $30 each it was pretty hard to lose. Back then the fakes were pretty obvious so now they'd be really lost. Well that's about my extent of dealing with pawn type people.

Hey, Iron Patch, I see you're over here too! Small world. Cool.

At a different pawnshop my friend that was with me took his wedding band off and asked for an offer. Just to see. This is one serious wedding ring. Twenty-one grams and 6 diamonds. They offered him $118 ($5 per gram on the gold and $3 each on the diamonds). Right. And pawnbrokers think everyone is stupid?

 

[Nugget Hog]

I manage a pawn shop and am 100% honest. I know that there are a lot of crooked guys running shops but you shouldn't look down on all the pawn shops from one bad experience.

I pulled all my silver coins because I got tired of changing the prices on them as silver went up. I had a silver dollar that was $5 under scrap when I pulled it. Funny that it still didn't sell. Which also tells you how bad the economy is around here.

Pawn shops generally don't scrap silver coins. There is a 15% charge to melt them down. Better to sell them as coins. Shops are holding coins and smiling as silver prices go up. I don't scrap sterling either. I have investor buyers. I sell it to them just for the silver value, usually a pound at a time.

Watches.. I stopped taking them altogether. Rolex... Seems for every real one made there are 10 fakes. Some of the fakes are really good also. There must have been millions of Fossil and Relic and similar quality watches made... These I could barely sell for $20 each.

I would have offered you $400+ on that ring not including the diamonds. I only buy it for the gold weight. There is no resell on used wedding bands. Been there, done that. Diamond market is bad right now. I have a jar full that I can't sell. I have a high quality 2 carat that I tried selling. I had it appraised ... $16,000. Highest offer I had was $3,000 (online and local). I put it back in the safe along with my pounds of silver coins and sterling.

 

[Iron Patch]

Not much for them places around here, just a few places that buy. One day for fun I decided to take a fake Tag watch in that my brother-in-law had bought for $20. Just before I entered the place I took my own watch off which was about $1,000 retail and said to the salesperson I wanted to sell both. Said I won them in a pool game. They took both to the back, were gone about 10 minutes, just enough to Google them, which I'm sure they were doing. Once back I was offered $30 for each. I don't think they had a clue but figured for $30 each it was pretty hard to lose. Back then the fakes were pretty obvious so now they'd be really lost. Well that's about my extent of dealing with pawn type people.

Hey, Iron Patch, I see you're over here too! Small world. Cool.

At a different pawnshop my friend that was with me took his wedding band off and asked for an offer. Just to see. This is one serious wedding ring. Twenty-one grams and 6 diamonds. They offered him $118 ($5 per gram on the gold and $3 each on the diamonds). Right. And pawnbrokers think everyone is stupid?

yeah I have a few posts here.

I think in the case of my watches it was the min. wage workers who didn't know anything and probably don't have the clearance to payout any sort of money. People who always make bigtime lowball offers don't stay in business long, or at least don't have many repeat customers, so paying less probably costs them money in the long run.

 

[Iron Patch]

Watches.. I stopped taking them altogether. Rolex... Seems for every real one made there are 10 fakes. Some of the fakes are really good also. There must have been millions of Fossil and Relic and similar quality watches made... These I could barely sell for $20 each.

I bet you're not alone! (especially with no papers) I bought a breitling, had it for a month, and still needed someone to point out to me how to tell the difference between the fake looking at the picture, and it was minimal. Also, I seen a post that a Breitling dealer actually took a fake in on a trade and resold it know realizing what he did. Obviously he took it back and refunded the money.

 

[Bentfork]

I manage a pawn shop and am 100% honest. I know that there are a lot of crooked guys running shops but you shouldn't look down on all the pawn shops from one bad experience.

I pulled all my silver coins because I got tired of changing the prices on them as silver went up. I had a silver dollar that was $5 under scrap when I pulled it. Funny that it still didn't sell. Which also tells you how bad the economy is around here.

Pawn shops generally don't scrap silver coins. There is a 15% charge to melt them down. Better to sell them as coins. Shops are holding coins and smiling as silver prices go up. I don't scrap sterling either. I have investor buyers. I sell it to them just for the silver value, usually a pound at a time.

Watches.. I stopped taking them altogether. Rolex... Seems for every real one made there are 10 fakes. Some of the fakes are really good also. There must have been millions of Fossil and Relic and similar quality watches made... These I could barely sell for $20 each.

I would have offered you $400+ on that ring not including the diamonds. I only buy it for the gold weight. There is no resell on used wedding bands. Been there, done that. Diamond market is bad right now. I have a jar full that I can't sell. I have a high quality 2 carat that I tried selling. I had it appraised ... $16,000. Highest offer I had was $3,000 (online and local). I put it back in the safe along with my pounds of silver coins and sterling.

I have been visiting pawnshops off and on for years and can usually tell whether they are honest or not just by what the shop looks like when I walk in. I know there are honest shops out there because I have bought from them. This is a shop that I sometimes drive by, but not often. This gentleman's shop was very disorganized. His displays of jewelry and coins were just piled in the display case un-arranged. Tools are piled on shelves un-arranged. The shop has been there for years so it's not a new operation. And it is in a decent area - not seedy. I wouldn't exactly call this proprietor dishonest as much as unprepared and in general a liar. He can charge anything he wants. Just don't make rash statements because not everyone who walks in is a fool. The only real hint of dishonesty by this gentleman was his statements about the prices he obtained his silver for. If he is really paying 25% or more above melt for culls, he's a fool. He's just a liar and wasn't prepared for someone that was knowledgeable and could challenge him on his pricing ethics. But, I've seen that before. He's not a fool - he just has more money than he's knows what to do with and could care less if someone buys or not. He quotes prices and if you don't buy, then he doesn't care, he's looking for a fool to walk into his shop. And plenty will walk in. The image isn't going to change unless the business "ethic" changes and a TV show isn't going to change that image either. I do enjoy watching those guys though.

I could care less in the end. I wasn't angry - I laughed my butt off.

 

[hombre_de_plata_flaco]

Diamond market is bad right now. I have a jar full that I can't sell.

Did Robert Mugabe make good on his threat to go against the Kimberly Diamond Cartel and flood the market with them?

 

[ImpurestStewart]

I have a very good pawn shop I visit here. He always sells me silver under spot. I was paying $10 apiece for WLH and FH when silver was almost 50 dollars an ounce. He usually sells me morgans and peace dollars for 25 bucks apiece!! I bought a bag of silver from him once, Had 31 franklins, 6 silver washingtons, and 3 mercs for 300 dollars. He has my number on speed dial when he get's something off the waiting books that he wants to make a quick profit on.