Should I?

[crabo]

A friend has a Winchester 30-30 in the pawn shop. He says his dad bought it about 1952. He owes $430 on it. He also says it looks brand new. He keeps telling me that the guy at the pawn shop said it was woth about $1800. This doesn't seem right to me. I went to the pawn shop with him, but they would not show me the gun unless I paid the bill.

Serial number is 34963xx. Anyone have a clue about this gun? He is not a gun person so I can really trust anything he says.

Thanks,

[Gunfixer]

Crabo
A 3 million + serial number is way past the 2,700,000 that the post 64 guns start at. That number puts it in 1971.
Without even seeing it for condition, I believe I would pass on the deal.

[6.5 mike]

Gunfixer has that pegged right. I paid less then that for my 2. Something else involved with the pawnshop if he claims it's worth that much.
just my .02.

[shdwlkr]

crabo
I have older ones then the one you are talking about and paid less for one and just a little more for one that dates in the early teens well both of them are from that time. So I have to agree walk away something smells with the pawn shop and it isn't roses.

[crabo]

It just did not feel right. I could not see paying that much for a "saddle gun" that I could not see. The guy at the pawn shop said, well if you don't like what you bought, it's between you and him.

[pietro]

[He owes $430 ]
[the guy at the pawn shop said it was woth about $1800.]
[they would not show me the gun unless I paid the bill.]

Phew ! That reeks, IMHO !

.

[Glen]

If the pawn shop gave your friend $430 for a 1971 vintage Winchester 94, I'd say your friend did pretty good! Let the pawn shop try to get $1800 for it. It's their problem now.

[Dennis Eugene]

you say this guy is your friend? Dennis

[cbrick]

crabo,

Give your friend $500.00, let him go get it out of hock and then give it to you. Your friend already got $430.00 from the shop, then another $70.00 from you. If it's as nice as he says you get it for $500.00, not $1800.00.

Something rotten about a deal where they want to sell you something but won't let you see it first?????????????

Rick

[shdwlkr]

Cbrick
my thoughts exactly also I am wondering what is wrong with the rifle as if you can't see it until you put you money down. It smells like a sting to me and I don't like being played which seems to be going on here too. I think I would really watch my friend from now on.
I have purchased some firearms over the net and couldn't touch them until after I had paid for them but I had a good idea from pictures of what I was getting. NEVER purchased a firearm that I could or should have been able to see first and check out.

[405]

I've bought, sold and own quite a few old Winchester lever guns. Unless the thing is a gold inlayed, presentation gun to some VIP, the numbers are all wacky. If I read the post right the pawn shop gave (loaned) the owner 430.00 for the gun. For a post-64 (1971?) mod 94, 430.00 is about top dollar for the gun to begin with. Kinda agree about either letting the pawn shop go ahead and sell it for 1800.00 when it goes dead (hah!) or if you have good trust in your friend, give him the money, let him pull it out and agree to buy the gun from him on the condition that it is in top condition.

[stocker]

You need to find better friends. The whole thing smells like a con on the part of the "friend" and the pawn shop. Even the commemoratives from that era don't bring much money.

[carpetman]

Part of the story seems to be missing. Pawn shops loan a very small fraction of the value of the item and they hope they do buy the item for that price. If the ticket is redeemed they collect their phenomenal interest which is a good deal for them too, but the better deal for them is to end up owning the item for what they loaned on it. For this reason, many do have a policy of not being able to see the item without redeeming the ticket. They will not loan nearly the value of the item. If the pawn shop loaned that close to the normal value of the gun, there must be something special about this gun that has not been mentioned????? The pawn shop did not loan $430---the $430 that is owed includes their most high rate of interest charge---even so they loaned a much closer to actual value than would be typical. I did know one guy that owned a pawn/gun shop. He said in some cases he would offer to loan more than the customer was requesting. His reasons were the more he loaned the better chance of them not having the money to redeem the ticket but if they did redeem he drew more interest. He did this on guns he knew were good sellers and his hope was that the ticket did not get redeemed. Don't know if he had the policy you could not view without redeeming---but it would make sense if he did. I once bought a pawn ticket off a guy and the pawn shop would not show me the gun, obviously they hoped I would not redeem---turns out I got a really good buy.

[spurrit]

crabo,

Give your friend $500.00, let him go get it out of hock and then give it to you. Your friend already got $430.00 from the shop, then another $70.00 from you. If it's as nice as he says you get it for $500.00, not $1800.00.

Something rotten about a deal where they want to sell you something but won't let you see it first?????????????

Rick

The pawn shop is doing that because they know his friend don't have the money to pay for it, and they're gonna make money on the deal.
I'd demand to see the pawn ticket; the guy probably has other things hocked, as well, and is trying to get someone else to pay his way.

[crabo]

I went with him to the pawn shop and we had the ticket. They would not let us look at it. He was loaned $300 on the rifle. My friend was not trying to make any money off of me. He just wanted me to have the gun because it belonged to his dad. I could have the gun by paying of the loan and interest. I ended up giving him $45 so he could extend it for another 30 days.

Yeah, it was throwing good money after bad, but sometimes you need to invest in your friendships. Money isn't always the only thing that is important.

[725]

Pawned his dad's rifle? Tells me enough to stay away from that one.

[spurrit]

Some folks are raised with a different set of values; most gun guys appreciate history, nostalgia, and their place in the world's timeline. Some are not so lucky.

[JDFuchs]

I buy most of my guns at pawn shops. Some times they have great deals. Some times NIB price for a junker xp. But it all depends on if the guy working the pawn shop knew what he was doing in price. *shrugs* good luck with it.

[Four Fingers of Death]

As Frank Crebben said 'Move along, nothing to see here!'
Four Fingers.