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Post by gato on Jan 25, 2020 8:18:06 GMT -5
When I go to a pawn shop, it's generally to look for deals on guitars and basses. For instance, I got my 1964 Pbass for $110 in a pawnshop in the days of yore.
Of course, for many people, the pawnshop is either their go-to place for a quick loan, or a site of desperation, because they can't qualify for a standard loan and/or their credit is tapped out. No collateral has to be staked, beyond the item brought in.
The pawnbroker assesses the item brought in and gives a loan equal to a certain percentage of the value, usually 25-60 percent of the resale value. The average loan given out is around $75 to $100.
80 percent of items pawned are reclaimed by those who brought them in, and some customers pawn the same item over and over again. (This should be a red flag for those doing it)
Watching the TV show Pawn Stars, gives a skewed view of the business, because the people coming in to the Las Vegas shop, overwhelmingly choose to sell rather than pawn. And most pawnshops don't want the exotic, bulky stuff featured on the show anyway. Musical instruments, electronics, jewelry and firearms are the most desired.
Selling is not the bread and butter of the average pawn shop; they make their profit on the high percentage rate of the loan they make to pawn customers. They would rather collect the interest than to have to take up space displaying forfeited items for sale.
Interest rates on the pawn/loan vary from shop to shop but even 8 percent a month is nearly 100 percent after a year, so those who are able reclaim their stuff are eager to do so within a month or two.
When looking at a particularly interesting item in a pawnshop now, I find myself wondering about the chain of events that brought the owner to surrender his cherished property for a relative pittance.
Full disclosure, I get the same twang of empathy when I walk through the offerings at an estate sale. Things that may have been highly prized (and even intensely private) offered up for pocket change.
(Gato muses about the aforementioned 64 Pbass displayed at at a lawn/estate sale put on by his son, who sits in folding chair beside a cash box, playing video games on his phone)
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Post by Leftee on Jan 25, 2020 9:23:45 GMT -5
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hilltop87
Wholenote
My Strat is my friend
Posts: 885
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Post by hilltop87 on Jan 25, 2020 9:37:36 GMT -5
There is a pawn shop close to where I work. I have thought about checking it out but have not yet.
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Post by Riff Twang on Jan 25, 2020 10:20:13 GMT -5
I really enjoy browsing pawn shops, thrift shops, auction houses and the like. Very rarely buy anything but get a kick out of rummaging about looking for odd and unusual stuff.
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Jan 25, 2020 10:54:07 GMT -5
fleabay killed pawn shops (for me) years ago, because as soon as ownership of an item transfers to the pawnbroker, most post the item to multiple online auction sites and the item is gone in short order..
Pawn shops and payday loan joints generally serve 'unbanked' households (somewhere around 25% of all households in the US) where bad credit or no credit has no effect on the ability to get a low-risk, high-cost loan.
Tinsley Ellis tells the story here:
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2020 12:29:23 GMT -5
Bought my first gear at a pawn shop on Beale St. in Memphis in 1964. I was 14. A Tiesco Del Rey single pick-up, a Kent amp with a 6" speaker, a cardboard case, pick, strap, cord and book. All for $65.00.
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Post by Taildragger on Jan 25, 2020 12:34:41 GMT -5
I remember standing in front of a pawnshop window in Santa Monica ogling a Tiesco in about 1964. The flashy paint job, all those pickups and switches and a big ol' whang bar: must be a good one! (What'd I know?)
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Post by LM on Jan 25, 2020 12:51:30 GMT -5
The only thing I recall ever buying at a pawnshop was CD's.
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Post by Chris Greene on Jan 25, 2020 13:06:22 GMT -5
I got a lot of good guns at pawn shops once upon a time.
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MJB
Wholenote
Who's we sucka? Smith, Wesson and me.
Posts: 634
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Post by MJB on Jan 25, 2020 13:13:18 GMT -5
Surprisingly, I've never set foot inside a pawn shop.
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Bbendfender
Wholenote
Mostly play Fender guitars and amps. I'm 71 and have had a guitar since 1964. Got serious in 1975.
Posts: 216
Age: 71
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Post by Bbendfender on Jan 25, 2020 13:55:59 GMT -5
Pawn shops used to scare me but after making a life long friend of a guy who worked in several pawn shops, I am a regular customer at every local pawn shop. I have found some really good stuff in pawn shops and I usually have cash to buy it, if it interests me.
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Post by rok-a-bill-e on Jan 25, 2020 14:09:12 GMT -5
Every type of business has it's own peculiar customer base. Some people would go to a pawn shop, first, if buying jewelry. When I worked in a drug store in college I was amazed at the number of men who did their Christmas gift shopping, on Christmas eve, at the drug store! We sold a LOT of perfume and candy boxes and stuffed animals and such that day. For some the pawn shop has the desired shopping experience.
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Post by modbus on Jan 25, 2020 14:12:49 GMT -5
The local pawnshops are the kind of places where you can buy for $200 a beat-up Made-in-China guitar that originally retailed for $100.
I'd say tat rather than an island of bargains, or a graveyard of dreams, they are a boulevard of bad economics.
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Post by Ragtop on Jan 25, 2020 14:45:56 GMT -5
I once won a gift certificate to an Omaha pawnshop in a golf tournament. I used it to buy a pair of used baby Advent speakers.
Good speakers, I liked them. But they blew up while J.D. Souther's "History" album was being played through them. Some ultra-low freqs on that album, I believe.
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Geno
Quarternote
Posts: 42
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Post by Geno on Jan 25, 2020 14:56:23 GMT -5
To me a pawn shop to me is a site of desperation (and poor life choices) because one of the band leaders I play with routinely pawns his gear to cover rent, utilities or his gambling addiction. What he doesn't lose by pawning somehow gets broken, then he has no money to fix it.
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Post by HenryJ on Jan 25, 2020 14:57:22 GMT -5
Only thing I ever bought in a pawn shop was a small $30 guitar I got so I could tune it to an open G chord and let the grandkids play it. About 10 years ago.
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Post by Peegoo 🏁 on Jan 25, 2020 16:29:22 GMT -5
Back in 1982 I paid $20 for a 1970 Thomas Organ Cry Baby pedal in a pawn shop. I've had to fix it a few times, but they were made to be worked on. The thing's still working great.
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Post by rok-a-bill-e on Jan 25, 2020 18:10:54 GMT -5
My dad bought my first guitar from a pawn shop. It was a tobacco burst Harmony acoustic with painted-on pickguard. It came with heavy rusty strings and very high action and I learned to play on it anyway and just thought that was what a guitar was all about.
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Post by Mfitz804 on Jan 25, 2020 21:35:46 GMT -5
Re: the thread title, band name alert and first two album names alert.
WOOT!
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Post by Harleyboy on Jan 26, 2020 8:36:36 GMT -5
I believe the internet has changed the local pawn shops. Most shops have a real good knowledge of an items value, and are not hesitant to place the item on Reverb or Ebay. Selling something cheap because it has been in the store to long is just not part of the mindset these days.
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Post by Stratluvr on Jan 26, 2020 11:29:11 GMT -5
I'm pretty sure you would have to waste a lot of time and resources going from pawn shop to pawn shop to try and find something you want to buy. I would rather just go on either ebay or reverb to find what I was looking for.
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Bbendfender
Wholenote
Mostly play Fender guitars and amps. I'm 71 and have had a guitar since 1964. Got serious in 1975.
Posts: 216
Age: 71
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Post by Bbendfender on Jan 26, 2020 15:59:36 GMT -5
Pawn shops make a heck of a lot of money. They know how to do it and they do it, especially the chain stores around here. They are big business.
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Post by jefe46 on Jan 26, 2020 21:08:44 GMT -5
Slimey, one and all.
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Post by guildx700 on Jan 26, 2020 21:57:26 GMT -5
Now days with the internet and tons of info, it's almost a given than anything worth anything will be priced well beyond it's typical value.
To find unicorns now days one has to stumble upon them in unusual circumstances.
I recently talked to a guy who does estate clean outs for a living. Big, small, expensive, modest.
He said the really good stuff is usually buried away in attics, closets, basements, garages, and it's outward appearance is misleading.
Typical he sees this happen.
The family members thinking they know all take all the stuff they think is worth good money, and usually that stuff is actually not worth much, rather it's the stuff they overlook that brings the big bucks, like an old, beat up guitar case in the closet that unknowingly holds a very old rare, mega bucks Stratocaster or Les Paul for example. It's harder than ever for one to find a treasure at a bargain, but it still does happen.
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Post by gato on Jan 27, 2020 7:32:23 GMT -5
In those estate sales, it's the little things that get to me:
a wood carving that the deceased sweated (and bled?) to finish, tossed on the table with a "50 cents" tag on it.
Family photo books. Once priceless, now just extra filler.
Grandpa's well worn cane, used up until his last days.
The final insult: personal handwritten letters and journals. This is especially poignant to me, as my own journals cover my life from about 13 to the 72 year old I am now. Sad.
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