Pawn shops

[Tripplebeards]

All crooks in my area. Biggest slime balls you'd ever meet. Every thing in shops are marked double retail. I can buy brand new rifles for cheaper than what they have them priced at. I stopped going in there 15 years ago. Not even nice people. They treat their customers like ****. I can't believe their still open. I hate to say it but they attract a certain breed...and there are a lot of them in my area that keeps the shop in business. It still has piles of stiff people stole and trying to resell just like pawn America. At least they ship their items around from location to location. I went into pawn America a few years back and found a fishing pole that was stollen off my dock back in the late 70's with my name still carved in the pole handle. They had a good supply of trail cameras and tools that I guarantee I would have burnt my hands on if I picked them up. I wouldn't walk into another pawn shop of my life depended on it. As far as I'm concerned the place is funded by thieves selling to scum bags that either work or own the place. Neither I care to associate with.

[RogerDat]

There was a pawn shop in a suburb of Detroit where a women tried to swap sex with her daughter for I think it was a laptop. Pawnshop owner turned her in to the police. Don't know about the owners normal business practices but he at least had some moral scruples.

One thing I recall from both Fayetteville and Norfolk was the abundance of pawn shops. As a window shopping experience it was impressive. That would have been back in the 70's for Fayetteville and the 90's for Norfolk. Fayetteville made the largest impression. Nothing but bars and pawnshops, and diners. Stayed at the Prince Albert Motel right in the thick of it.

[RED BEAR]

There was a small pawn shop right down the road from me that I used all the time mainly for vintage jewelry as my better half just loves the stuff. Had a lot of jewelry repaired there very honest and everything above board. Closed when owner retired. Have used a couple others for the transfers lot cheaper than the gun stores. The ones that carry firearms seem to be high but then the gun stores seem high to. I don't mind paying some extra at a gun store but when they are charging 150 to 200 dollars more than I can buy it in line that's just to much. I have found that a pawn store is the cheapest place i can buy a new gun. I purchase it and in a couple of days it's there and a lot cheaper than the local gun stores!

[aap2]

I recently won an online auction for a 70-year old S&W M36 snub-nose 38 advertised in "great condition". The seller was a pawn shop and the price was reasonable and they had positive feedback. The gun arrived and it was in mint NIB condition; better than advertised. I made that pawn shop a favorite seller; I'm sure that there are good and bad pawn shops just as there are good and bad dealers and individuals. I admit that buying a gun from a pawn shop made me a little nervous at first,but the seller knew guns and "under promised and over-delivered" in my online purchase. I may even check out a few local pawn shops in person....

[Char-Gar]

All crooks in my area. Biggest slime balls you'd ever meet. Every thing in shops are marked double retail. I can buy brand new rifles for cheaper than what they have them priced at. I stopped going in there 15 years ago. Not even nice people. They treat their customers like ****. I can't believe their still open. I hate to say it but they attract a certain breed...and there are a lot of them in my area that keeps the shop in business. It still has piles of stiff people stole and trying to resell just like pawn America. At least they ship their items around from location to location. I went into pawn America a few years back and found a fishing pole that was stollen off my dock back in the late 70's with my name still carved in the pole handle. They had a good supply of trail cameras and tools that I guarantee I would have burnt my hands on if I picked them up. I wouldn't walk into another pawn shop of my life depended on it. As far as I'm concerned the place is funded by thieves selling to scum bags that either work or own the place. Neither I care to associate with.

I don't know of a single Texas Pawn Shop that would knowingly purchase stolen good. Anything with a serial number can be traced. If the item is stolen, the police will find it and it will be returned to the owner and the Pawn Shop must eat what they paid for it. If too much stolen goods shows up in a certain Pawn Shop, the shop runs the risk of being investigated as a "fencing outlet" and being charged with knowingly receiving stolen good.

Pawn Shops are the poor folks bank. Folks who can't get a loan at a bank, can get cash on a short term basis from a Pawn Shop.

If your description of your local Pawn Shops is accurate, that is just another reason why I would not live in your part of the country.

[David2011]

Last place I lived, in East Texas, there were two pawn shops I visited regularly. I'm more likely to buy guns at a big gun show that has more unusual stuff; generally not what pawn shops have. One was in reality a gun shop with a little pawn stuff on one corner. The other seemed to end up with more pre-owned reloading stuff than most pawn shops or gun stores. After the owner had seem my face a couple of times he was giving me discounts without me asking. I would stop in any time I had a chance just to see what was on the shelf.

Where I am now one pawn shop has an interesting practice. They collect the money for a gun from the buyer and then call in the background check. If for any reason the background check doesn't go through immediately they refund 80% of your money. Not a place where I would do business. I'm not concerned about passing a background check; just think that's a sketchy practice and an end run around it being prohibited to charge for an instant check.

[lightman]

Locally theres not much to see. I know of a couple of large shops in other parts of the state that have lots of guns, ammo and even reloading tools and components. I've bought a few things from both of them. If you get to know them they can treat you pretty good and even call you when they get interesting stuff.
I've got a few sets of big name sockets and wrenches by buying them 1 at a time for 25cents, 50cents or $1 each and looking through a box of misc stuff. Brand names like Snap-On, older Craftsman, Proto or Mac.