Anyone ever get a [HOT] deal at a pawn shop?

R

RooK

[H]ard|Gawd
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So yesterday, I stop by a pawn shop, and there's an obviously pretty poor guy that is selling his PS3...

I heard the store clerk say "Man... I can barely do 100 for you... I'm almost taking a loss there."

And i'm sure he'll try to sell it at MSRP.

I was halfway tempted to say to the guy in the store right there... "Hey... I'll give you 125 for that right now."

BUT, I know pawn shops are run by people that are pretty crooked... no offense if you own one - you know you are. So I can't help but wonder what the clerk would have done had I offered him more money for it...

Anyone ever done this?
 
crooked? they dont put a gun to your head and make you pawn/sell anything. its up to the seller. a pawn shop is in it to make a profit. sometimes stuff they buy sits for months, years. are they giving him market value for the ps3? hell no! but they arent in the business to give fair market value cause they have to sell it and make a profit.
 
Dell Latitude E4300 laptop, 3.3 lbs, 4GB of DDR3 1066 (that alone is worth $119 these days), 250GB Hitachi 7200 rpm SATA II hard drive (runs about $55 brand new), 13.3" matte finish 1280x800 LED-backlit LCD, 8x DVD burner, Intel 11n wireless, 6 cell battery (for about ~5-6 hours battery life), Core 2 Duo SP9400 @ 2.4 GHz with 6MB of L2 cache, USB/eSATA port, USB 2.0 port, Firewire, SD reader, Bluetooth, Sprint broadband 3G WWAN card, etc...

This thing retailed for about $2700 when it was brand new and shipped from Dell in February of 2009 (by the Service Tag, was shipped 2/20/2009), in excellent shape but needs the battery replaced.

Just got one on Sunday from a pawn shop for $199.99 + tax, for about $216 total. Hell, Dell is selling the exact same configuration of this laptop I now own in their Outlet for refurbs, etc - they're asking at least $849 for it so yeah, I got a great deal on this one. :)

Got a Sony Core 2 Duo laptop at the same pawn shop, 250GB Hitachi 5400 rpm drive, 8x DVD burner, 15.4" 1280x800 X-Brite LCD, 3GB of DDR2 667, etc etc... $150 + tax, about $160-ish total, etc.

So yeah, I get great deals on a rather consistent basis. Pawn shops work closely with local police - the VICE squads of most every police department make weekly (and sometimes even more frequent) stops into pawn shops to check records against known stolen merchandise lists, compare serial numbers, etc. It's pretty tough to actually buy something from a pawn shop that's actually a stolen item since the VICE squad will take stolen items from inventory before they could ever be put up for sale.

Most pawn shops allow for 120 days (4 months) for someone to claim the merchandise they put in for the cash loan. After that, it becomes the property of the pawn shop and put out for retail sale, but again, such items disappear from inventory in that period of time if they're discovered to be stolen property based on police reports, serial numbers, etc.

Pawn shops aren't necessarily "crooked" but they're not in business to be your friend - they are in business to make the absolute best profit off every item they purchase or make a loan on, that's it. It's not impersonal, it's just business, so don't expect the "retail value" of anything to mean Jack Shit© when and if you ever go in to get a loan for whatever reason.

They're going to offer you what they feel is the best given the popularity of something and the going retail price. $100 for a PS3, that's pretty high actually, pawn shops in my area would do about $75 max, with all the equipment included, but it depends on the situation and condition of the hardware, etc.

People watching a show like "Pawn Stars" get this misunderstanding about stuff seen on the show: when they call in an expert and the expert says "it's probably worth this much" and then the pawn shop guy says "Ok, how much do you want for it?" I always laugh because I know the customer will say "Well your expert said it's worth <xxx> much so that's what I want" and then the pawn shop guy laughs and shakes his head and politely says "No."

Then the customer gets pissed and wonders why they can't get what the supposed value is - it's because the pawn shop isn't buying it for shits and giggles, they buy items specifically to resell them, not collect 'em. So if something is supposedly valued at $500 according to the "expert" the pawn shop isn't going to offer more than maybe 1/3 to 1/2 that as a loan, perhaps a tiny bit more if it's an outright sale. People get confused and think everything is sold forever to pawn shops, that's not the case - they loan money based on value of items, so the best way to deal with them is get loans and not sell stuff outright, that way you have the 120 days (in almost all states, that is) to reclaim the item by paying back the loan + the interest on the loan + fees if there are any.

Been dealing with pawn shops since I was about 16 years old, found tons and tons of great deals in my travels, you just have to have an open mind and be on the lookout for such things when they happen.

And if you'd butted in and offered more for that PS3, the owner or the clerk pretty much would have told you to get the hell outta the store. ;) Bad idea, really bad idea. As I just explained, not everyone going into a pawn shop is SELLING their items, they're getting LOANS against the value - those people would trust a pawn shop to take care of their items until they reclaim them, but they wouldn't trust you any further than they could throw you. :p
 
I've only stepped foot inside a pawn shop maybe once or twice in my life out of bredom. IIRC they basically only sold crap that I didn't care for for more than I would want to pay if I did want it.

I guess I can see that you would find great bargains there every now and then, you just have to be a regular.
 
At a Mister Money I found Pretty in Pink on DVD for $8. That was when it had been out of print for long time. Sold it on ebay for $60.
 
I don't buy from a pawn unless I know they turn away the stolen goods as much as possible. A guy I know trusts one shop in town and I go there. Got a good deal on a 36" aluminum pipe wrench and some other tools, so it's definitely YMMV. I would be suspect of the Dell deal, that sounds shady. The guy I go to knows what it's worth, as he's looked things up for me before. I also bicker, I don't like paying sticker price. If I want sticker price, I go to BB.
 
Where i live there are a few local used websites such as kijiji, craigslist, usedcityname, Gov employee used items forums, etc which many people use.
A good proportion of the people who live in my city work in either high tech or the government, and thus are capable of using the various local used websites.

Thus the pawn shops around here ( of which there are very few) don't really have many computer/electronics goods that are new, and thus to me worth buying .
Since most people just put those things up for sale on the various used websites.
Some of these pawn shops don't even have a electronics/computers section because i guess the realized they cannot make money of such things. Most of them just have jewlery and other misc stuff. The ones that do have a electronics/computer section mainly just have old junk from many years ago, that a person like me would never be interested in.

So as a buyer, pawn shops in my area offer little to no value in terms of finding deals on computer/electronics items.
 
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brasherman said:
I don't buy from a pawn unless I know they turn away the stolen goods as much as possible. A guy I know trusts one shop in town and I go there. Got a good deal on a 36" aluminum pipe wrench and some other tools, so it's definitely YMMV. I would be suspect of the Dell deal, that sounds shady. The guy I go to knows what it's worth, as he's looked things up for me before. I also bicker, I don't like paying sticker price. If I want sticker price, I go to BB.
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Already contacted Dell about the E4300, already verified it's never been reported as stolen, already transferred ownership over to me, with 2.5 years left on the on-site warranty ready to go. ;) The town that I live in has an extremely high rate of tourists so... when they run outta cash, they'll pawn whatever they have to get more, and electronics stuff is almost always the first thing to go. They never get the money back, they leave town broke, knowing they'll never get the electronics outta the pawn shop at a later date, and after the 4 months, it goes up for sale - I just happened to walk in 2 hours after they put that Dell E4300 on the shelf. It wouldn't have lasted the rest of the day if it wasn't me buying it, someone else would have snagged it but I got lucky this time.

CompuTrace was disabled in the BIOS when I first tested the laptop at the pawn shop so that means either the original owner never signed up for the service or never enabled it but regardless, it's permanently disabled (CompuTrace is like Lo-Jack for laptops).

And I spent nearly 2 hours running every diagnostic I use in my daily work on computers to fully test that thing out from top to bottom including the full Dell diagnostic which takes nearly 1 hour itself just to complete because it stresses the RAM like crazy - every single test of every single component came up squeaky clean and perfectly functional so, this little monster laptop now has Windows 7 Pro on it running pretty damned well. :)

Pawn shops are an option like anything else - if you're not interested, walk on by, but if you are, you can get some pretty phenomenal deals if you're there at the right time...

interested said:
... that a person like me would never be interested in.
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I just find that completely ironic coming from someone using the nickname "interested" :)
 
eh, they may pay from 1/10 to 1/3 the retail price and at least double or triple that for the sale. They pretty much have to work that way in order to stay in business. For computer electronics I find most people have no clue what something is worth (both good and bad). So you might see great prices on some things and ridiculous prices on other things.
 
I never went to a pawn shop. But I guess lot of shops online is like a pawn shop
 
I've done that at Gamestops a couple of times. Was trading in a crappy Wii Fit board and a dude bought it for $10 more than I was going to get.

Also bought a couples box set movies from people back in the day that Gamestop took movies. I would've done it at the pawn shop too. Who cares if they would've kicked you out. I'm sure the guy would've taken the $25 more dollars too!
 
I've gotten some pretty sweet deals from pawn shops - and to the guy who posted right after me (in great length ;) ) Yes - you are probably right - the pawn shop owner would have screamed at me if I would have taken his sale... The guy wasn't pawning it - he was SELLING the ps3 for 100 bucks. It took all my restraint not to offer 20 bucks more... makes me want to sit outside pawn shops waiting for people to walk in with something I want.

I scored The Ali-G box set from HBO (Seasons 1 & 2) for 10 bucks... Yes, I know you can get it for the same price on amazon, but finding random stuff is FUN! :)

There's a pawn shop that has literally 1000's of DVD's - so many that they sell them 5 for 10 bucks. I've picked up quite a few really good DVD's from that one.

I live in a pretty poor part of a big city, so its quite common for me to be in a shop and see people ripped off on a regular basis. I just wince and keep my mouth shut.

So, that being said, the pawn shops in my area have a lot of power tools, DVD's, subs and amps, and TONS of out of date computer hardware - nothing that a person like me would buy, and all the decent computer equipment is marked higher than what you could get it for on outlet.dell.com and such, and they won't come down on those prices because they know because of the general ignorance in my area, people don't know better and will pay what they are asking.

It makes me feel sorry for people, which makes me want to sit outside, waiting for that person to pull up with something I might want and say "find out what they will give you and i'll give you 20 bucks more" or something.

And then i'm sure i'll have the owner come out with a shotgun, or see some red and blue lights :p
 
The issue with "old outdated computer equipment" is that's what you see when you happen to be in the store at any given time - come back in 24 hours and it could be something entirely new, something that you WOULD consider worth purchasing, as is the case with me catching that Dell E4300 and that Sony laptop when I did. The inventory changes on a daily basis - stuff comes off pawn or even from outright purchases, goes out on the floor, someone either buys the item outright or puts it on layaway, etc.

Stuff is never there for long if it's got value, that's for damned sure. Of course it's entirely possible that old stuff is pawned - that's on the shelves as it is and typically sits there for long periods of time - but that's not ALL the stuff they get, hence regular visits. Most of the time, probably 9 out of 10 trips prove fruitless but, that 10th trip turns out to have winners.

I recently picked up not one but two 3rd generation 8GB iPod nanos for $25 each. Both were in good physical condition but neither of them would power up in the pawn shop, even after plugging in the one iPod charging cable they could find, but I bought 'em anyway knowing I'd most likely have better luck at home.

Sure enough, I get 'em home, attach them to my actual iPod charger - they were using a USB port on a laptop, sometimes those just don't offer enough juice - and both iPods took the charge so, that was that. Gave both a ~10 min charge to get them operational, then plugged them into my laptop that has a dedicated port for actual charging (a powered USB port) and 2 hours later both were effectively fully charged, both had been reset to factory condition with iTunes, a few songs put on each for demo, then I put them on craigslist for $75 or best offer each and sold both within 24 hours - one for $60, one for $70.

I do that kind of stuff all the time, making a few bucks here, a few bucks there. I've yet to purchase anything in decades of using pawn shops that didn't work and I wasn't able to resell for a profit, sometimes small ones, sometimes pretty big ones.

Pawn shops ain't for everyone but, as stated, you can sometimes get pretty lucky and get great deals. Just gotta get past that stigma most people have about pawn shops and that "crooked" slant because they're not always crooked - pretty rarely so, in my experience.
 
Never found a good deal in a pawn shop, but I did talk a guy out of trading in a Ruger Red Hawk at a gun store. The thing was in great shape and had a sweeeeet trigger. They were only going to give him $150. I knew a buddy that wanted one so I told the guy I'd give him $300 ( a fair but still cheap price) for it. So we went outside, and I picked up a gun I was told had been shot maybe 5-10 times.
 
I just meant "crooked" as in they will give obviously poor people very very low prices for stuff they know they will be able to sell in a week or less.

I consider that crooked. But then again, that's just my opinion, and i'm saying that to justify why I call them that.

And dangit Bahamut... you're making me want to hit up the stores all the time now...

Come to think of it, I did get a ~80 dollar Ibanez Tube Screamer guitar pedal for 30 bucks - that was great... asked the store owner if he had any guitar pedals... he showed me, but then I recognized that unforgettable green color, and said "umm.. whats that under all of that stuff?" Knowing exactly what it was... Saw the 35 buck price tag, figured it had probably been buried for a good month at least, and 30 bucks later, MINE! :)

My favorite guitar pedal by far... Unfortunatly, guitars are something you'll NEVER get a good deal on - they do research online to find out what they go for, and then they ask 50 bucks more. Even for guitars with screwed up necks, and overall bad quality. But then they overcharge out the yin yang for genuine strats (never seen a geniune les paul at a pawn shop)
 
The only time I've been to pawn shops was when I had to search and finally purchase my mother's stolen jewelry back, didn't really have any cash to buy anything else :(
 
I got some snes carts (Chrono trigger and some final fantasy) for $5 apiece at Pawn America. Sold em on ebay for over $50 each.
 
Raekwon said:
I got some snes carts (Chrono trigger and some final fantasy) for $5 apiece at Pawn America. Sold em on ebay for over $50 each.
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wow... I need to do some research on what carts sell for what because there are TONS of games at all the pawn shops around where I live.
 
I tend to buy games from pawn shops, if you hard you can find some awsome deals on ps3/xbox360 games, but do a full inspection before buying.

I went to buy 3 ps3 games from a pawn shop, they were gonna sell all 3 for $35 (think it was warhawks, drakes fortune and some racing game) I asked it ehy test them and of course they said yes. I still grabbed one and put it above my head so I could see it against light and sure enough nice small missing hole in the lable of a game, doubt it would of worked right lol. Told them about it, said im not buying anything from here and walked off lol.
 
I got a Colt Delta Elite (Colt's 1911 in 10mm) for 650 bucks at a pawn shop in perfect condition. I think the pawn shop owner thought it was a regular 1911 in a "funny caliber" or something along those lines.

His loss, my gain.
 
My father built a gigantic safe room door for a pawn shop our neighbor of 10 years was building. They didn't pay him anything but offered him 5% over cost on anything he wanted for two years. Got more stuff outta that deal lol. I picked up a brand new in the box craftsman air compressor stand up tank model for like $90 bucks, a 2 ton floor jack for about 30 and lots of other assorted tools. Also bought my 460 magnum from them. Good stuff in there from time to time but you have to look constantly to find the good deals.
 
a funny caliber... ahhaha...

And building a safe for a 5% above cost deal - man... that would be cherry if you were around 18 or so with a job.
 
I used to pick up video games/dvds/cds from pawn shops in high school. With ebay/slickdeals/craigslist they are too much of a hunt for me these days. Used to be fun though.

They are not crooks by any sense of the imagination. They provide the service of buying items for cash on the spot. They have huge overhead compared to a craigslister, and they have the risk of not being able to sell the item. Therefore, they need to make money on the item. They have to buy it for less than the used retail price.

It is the same thing as a used car. Go to a dealership and ask how much they will buy your used car for. I GUARANTEE you it is less than what bluebook says a used car should be purchased for. This is because the dealer needs to make money (it's called a business for a reason). People just get used to getting more than this amount because they TRADE their car in. In reality, the dealer pays more for the trade because they can say "look Jim, we gave you $1000 off the new car AND way more on your trade than its worth. This is a great deal," when in actuality they could have given more off the new car if the trade wasn't there.
 
I have never in my life gotten a good deal at a pawn shop. I've been ripped off though.
 
ryken said:
I used to pick up video games/dvds/cds from pawn shops in high school. With ebay/slickdeals/craigslist they are too much of a hunt for me these days. Used to be fun though.

They are not crooks by any sense of the imagination. They provide the service of buying items for cash on the spot. They have huge overhead compared to a craigslister, and they have the risk of not being able to sell the item. Therefore, they need to make money on the item. They have to buy it for less than the used retail price.

It is the same thing as a used car. Go to a dealership and ask how much they will buy your used car for. I GUARANTEE you it is less than what bluebook says a used car should be purchased for. This is because the dealer needs to make money (it's called a business for a reason). People just get used to getting more than this amount because they TRADE their car in. In reality, the dealer pays more for the trade because they can say "look Jim, we gave you $1000 off the new car AND way more on your trade than its worth. This is a great deal," when in actuality they could have given more off the new car if the trade wasn't there.
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I hear your point - and a good one at that... I may be a master debater, but you've turned out to be the cunning linguist here and i've got to saw for once someone has used logic to change my mind - kudos (seriously).

BUT, there is this comment by the person below you...

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I have never in my life gotten a good deal at a pawn shop. I've been ripped off though.
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There are lots of people who live in poor areas and can't make it to a best buy or don't know what a good computer is and get talked into a shitty one by a salesman at the pawn shop and pay double what they should be.

So while I understand your point, there is also this darker side of the matter that cannot be ignored - even if the pawn shop is just trying to get by, it is taking advantage of the uninformed. That's probably my main beef with them.
 
I bought a couple of quality vintage discmans that still get some niche use.
 
RooK said:
There are lots of people who live in poor areas and can't make it to a best buy or don't know what a good computer is and get talked into a shitty one by a salesman at the pawn shop and pay double what they should be.

So while I understand your point, there is also this darker side of the matter that cannot be ignored - even if the pawn shop is just trying to get by, it is taking advantage of the uninformed. That's probably my main beef with them.
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The opportunity to get ripped off presents itself just as much at Bestbuy. Walk into a Bestbuy uninformed and what are they going to do? Sell you more warranty than you could ever need and make sure that you get all the "right" cables at 10x what they go for online.

Go to a car dealership without research, they will fleece you blind (trust me, I know, I sold cars for a year. If you don't ask for a better deal, you pay what it says on the sticker). Uninformed consumers walking into a pawn shop and paying a high price are not being "preyed upon," they are being stupid.

Yes, I understand that many people who sell or pawn their items are poor, and many times they have no choice as to whether or not to take low dollar for their items because they need the cash. My sympathy for the indigent is actually quite high (worked for a public defender for a summer), but I'd argue that without the service of instant cash, poor people would be forced to sell their items on the street, where they would probably get even less money. Also, the people on the street that would be able to pawn items would more than likely not be the nicest or trustworthy of fellows. With a pawn shop, you get your 4 months and you won't get jerked around (save for a few bad apples inherent in any business).

If you have the money to buy "luxury goods," you have the time to poke around on the internet (free at libraries!) to make sure you don't get ripped off.
 
Ripoffs happen everywhere no doubt, it doesn't discriminate.

I just felt dirt leaving the pawn shop where I had to purchase some of my mother's stolen jewelry back. But thats just my personal unsavory experience visiting pawn shops. I might visit some in the future though, especially for looking for tools.
 
ryken said:
The opportunity to get ripped off presents itself just as much at Bestbuy. Walk into a Bestbuy uninformed and what are they going to do? Sell you more warranty than you could ever need and make sure that you get all the "right" cables at 10x what they go for online.

Go to a car dealership without research, they will fleece you blind (trust me, I know, I sold cars for a year. If you don't ask for a better deal, you pay what it says on the sticker). Uninformed consumers walking into a pawn shop and paying a high price are not being "preyed upon," they are being stupid.

Yes, I understand that many people who sell or pawn their items are poor, and many times they have no choice as to whether or not to take low dollar for their items because they need the cash. My sympathy for the indigent is actually quite high (worked for a public defender for a summer), but I'd argue that without the service of instant cash, poor people would be forced to sell their items on the street, where they would probably get even less money. Also, the people on the street that would be able to pawn items would more than likely not be the nicest or trustworthy of fellows. With a pawn shop, you get your 4 months and you won't get jerked around (save for a few bad apples inherent in any business).

If you have the money to buy "luxury goods," you have the time to poke around on the internet (free at libraries!) to make sure you don't get ripped off.
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You won't pull me into a semantic debate ;)

And while I do agree with you that pawn shops do provide a service to people who need money, do you think that money is 100% spent where it should be, or smoked up somewhere?
 
i2abid said:
Ripoffs happen everywhere no doubt, it doesn't discriminate.

I just felt dirt leaving the pawn shop where I had to purchase some of my mother's stolen jewelry back. But thats just my personal unsavory experience visiting pawn shops. I might visit some in the future though, especially for looking for tools.
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if you have that receipt and proof that the jewelry was stolen, then you should go to the cops yo!
 
The awesome pawn shop deals you'll find are the greatest thing about a bad economy!

Lately though I haven't seen much in there though, sign that things are getting better I guess.
 
I have a 24 inch monitor from HP I am using right now I got in the parking lot of a pawnshop it was closed when they showed up to sell it, got the PC also quad core machine 4 gigs ram you know all the goodies got it for a total of 55$ cash at about 2:00 am god i love vegas
 
Now I really want to go to a pawn shop. I never saw a good deal on guns aside from some cheap brass 223, but maybe some other stuff is cheap. I'll have to see what kind of electronics they have.
 
brasherman said:
I don't buy from a pawn unless I know they turn away the stolen goods as much as possible. A guy I know trusts one shop in town and I go there. Got a good deal on a 36" aluminum pipe wrench and some other tools, so it's definitely YMMV. I would be suspect of the Dell deal, that sounds shady. The guy I go to knows what it's worth, as he's looked things up for me before. I also bicker, I don't like paying sticker price. If I want sticker price, I go to BB.
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Lol, you bought tools at a pawn shop. High probability they were stolen.
 
pawn shops(and thrift stores) rock if you can go there every single day.

the inventory turn over is so fast you will miss stuff if you don't go every day, and even then you will miss stuff.
 
On a business trip to Wichita, I noticed LOTS of pawn shops located near the military facilities.

One in particular caught my eye... had a TON of drum cymbals hanging in the front window.
I stopped in, and was amazed to find that the shop was selling the used cymbals for more $$ than I would pay for brand new cymbals back home. What a rip off. And you know the poor sap that sold them probably got a fraction of their value.

That was my one and only visit to a pawn shop.
 
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