Sometimes if I finish my day early, I stop by the gun and pawn shop next door to our shop and visit with the owner for a while. Today while I was in there a meth head couple came in wanting to pawn some crap for $50. I can't remember what it was, but the owner turned it down. Then the woman asked, "would you give $50 for an acoustimass surround sound system? I gave $700 for it new". The owner looked at me and I gave him a nod to have them bring it in. While they were retrieving it, I explained that acoustimass is a Bose system, and even though it's crap, it will sell. Then they came back in with this surround sound system.  Surprisingly, the decision was made to pass. Even when the asking price dropped to $20.


If you want some great entertainment, find a pawnshop to hang out in and just watch the meth addicts come in selling stuff. Its better than any show on TV

Wow, that's $700 well spent Meth head!!!


Lol


I thought you were going to say that your pal Eustace walked in wanting a HTIB for his cabin!

Nope. But after the AcoustiMax, a girl came in wanting to sell a TV. Her words, "it's a flat panel one, but it's behind glass. You've never seen a TV like this"

It was an old plasma with the outboard processor and a glass over the whole front. She said it was a Samsung (I couldn't see the badge on it) but the processor said Sony. I told her I've seen plenty of them and had it was worth nothing. Ever see a drug addict panic when they realize they aren't getting any money?

At our store we get the occasional crackheads coming in with stolen crap... guys trying to sell us preamps thinking they are amplifiers. turntables with the wiring cut off at the base of the turntable.

A couple of weeks ago an obvious junkie or crackhead came in with a car audio head-unit. wiring clipped off right at the chassis. He asked if we'd buy it, and I suggested he go back to car it was stolen from and get the wiring harness, and NO we don't buy used stuff.

Our neighbor had them come in all the time with stuff that is brand new, still in the packaging. They steal it from lowes hardware or Walmart and come up with some story. He bought two brand new ratcheting cable cutters for $20 each in one week. I give him crap because he has more kobalt tools for sale than Lowes.

I always feel a little funny walking into those places. It's similar to what I imagine it would be like to walk into the home of a hoarder. There's shit....everywhere, and the proprietor eyeballs you the whole time.

Speaking of Hoarders, we went to do a walk through at a nice house... when the guy opened the door, I could see he as a hoarder... He wouldn't let me in the house to check out the pre-wiring... kinda like he was embarrassed to let me in... Oh well! Very strange and sad. Tried explaining to us on while we stood at the door about the wiring... we sort of blew him off---just too weird of a deal.

The proprietor is just sizing you up...

He gets a good vibe, he'll try to make 20 times what he has in an item, rather than just the normal 10 times.... :-)



I saw an ad on CL one day claiming that this guy had pawned some tools, and he would rather sell them for $10.00 over the pawn charges, than allow the ripoff pawnshop to make a killing.

I thought, what the hell, and gave him a call.

Went to the pawnshop with him, paid to get the tools out of hock, got some REALLY ugly looks from the pawnshop guy.

The upside was that I got nearly $1,000.00 worth of tools for $98.00, and one (a Milwaukee 1/2" right angle drill which they "loaned" $10.00 on) was brand new.

This is actually a great idea. We could create a whole new middle man industry where we purchase peoples pawn tickets for a few dollars more than they owe. They get a few more dollars, we get their $1000 worth of pawned goods for $98.

Then we resell the items for less than the pawn shops would list them.

I've watched the owner of this shop and realized that thinking pawn shops rip people off is like people thinking we are making money on TVs. He has a very good business. But he also has a lot of cash out at all times to keep it running. Also, you never know how long something will sit in the store.

I've always wondered how well the Pawn Stars guys actually do...?

They pay out a lot of $$$$$ but I rarely see them selling stuff... That would be interesting to see them sell stuff once in a while...

I heard the Pawn Shop guys are now making more money (profit) selling T-shirts to tourists, than what they are making selling stuff out of pawn.

Yeah... plus That is the big show on History channel...

Met a guy at Lutron training from Vegas.  Said he has a buddy that owns a cab company and the Gold & Silver Pawn shop is the second most requested destination with the airport coming in first.

Yeah even though its soooooo scripted I watch it to go to sleep.