New pawn shop

[starmac]

We have a new pawn shop in town, opened just a month or so ago.
Today was the first time I have been in that part of town since it has been there, so decided to stop in.
The first thing I noticed were two cordless milwaukii inpacts, a 1/2 and a 3/4 inch marked 220 each. I mentioned loud enough for the manager to hear me, that I just bought new ones identical and it was a little under 500 for the pair to my son in law. The manager hastily informed us, that everything in the store was 1/2 the marked price.
Considering mine didn't come with batteries and these did, it was not a bad price.

They did have a nice (very nice) looking scoped mohawk in 222 marked 650. At 325 if I had the bucks right now, I would have looked a little more closely at it.
I have one just like it, but if I had a pair they would make some nice shooters for my grandaughters.

[nagantguy]

There is a store in Kalkaska MI, same thing everything is half of marked price, I buy lots of stuff there as you never know what you'll find but it seems silly to me why not just mark the actual price?

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I frequent two pawn shops, while neither one has declared to me that everything is half price, both places have crazy high prices, and most of the time, if I have interest, the price is usually, easily negotiated to a reasonable price.

I suspect those prices are high, so when people come in to pawn/sell/trade items, that the crazy high prices are a wonderful place for them to start negotiating.

[Bzcraig]

I'm not one of those guys opposed to pawn shops and there owners, in fact both of my primary gun dealers are pawn shops but if I walked into one whose business model was like that I would not do business there.

[starmac]

I am pretty much the same way, price it close to what you want, I do not much appreciate the 1/2 price sale bs.

[Mk42gunner]

Back when I frequented pawn shops, my standard offer was half of the marked price, I figured they were usually into it for about a quarter so they still made money.

Robert

[54bore]

Back when I frequented pawn shops, my standard offer was half of the marked price, I figured they were usually into it for about a quarter so they still made money.

Robert

Close to what i do. I heard they charge double plus 1 dollar, I actually found this true in one case i could prove. A guy i know commented on my little lake boat, I mentioned i was looking for a decent used trolling motor, he told me that he had just sold a like brand new Minkota to a local Pawn shop for 60 bucks (he asked that i not tell the pawn shop that he told me what they paid for it) I went to the pawn shop and seen it was marked at 150 or 160 bucks, I offered 100 bucks, the pawn shop employee got on his computer and within a minute told me that they had 121 dollars in the motor! I wanted to say something REALLY BAD, but this place is tiny, everyone knows everyone, it would have caused problems for the guy that sold it to the pawn shop, and he had my word i would not say anything. In my opinion this showed how greedy crooked they are. The pawn shop would have made 40 bucks profit on my 100 dollar offer. I went to Cabelas and bought a brand new one for 180

[Petrol & Powder]

Back when I frequented pawn shops, my standard offer was half of the marked price, I figured they were usually into it for about a quarter so they still made money.

Robert

That's probably pretty close.

[jonp]

Pawn shop near me is way overpriced. I go in on occasion to look at the used firearms and saw a generator. It had been used hard most likely on a jobsite but probably ran fine. The problem was the identical brand new generator at Lowes was less. Know what your buying and the price of the merchandise much like a gunshow. The same firearm/powder/etc is different price everywhere.

[54bore]

Pawn shop near me is way overpriced. I go in on occasion to look at the used firearms and saw a generator. It had been used hard most likely on a jobsite but probably ran fine. The problem was the identical brand new generator at Lowes was less. Know what your buying and the price of the merchandise much like a gunshow. The same firearm/powder/etc is different price everywhere.

Good sound advice! I rarely buy from pawn shops, most of the time i can buy brand new for very little difference. But there are bargains to be had! I bought 2 brand new Lyman Maxi ball molds yesterday for 10 bucks a piece, one came with a set of TC handles. Know what you are looking for, and what to pay

[6bg6ga]

I wish I had a pawn shop with deals. The shops near me are way overpriced and the merchandise is usually beat to hell.

[Handloader109]

As we don't have payday lenders in Arkansas, pawn shops are the next best thing . At least to the guys that need cash! They are numerous and overly high priced.. one has a decent selection of new and pawned guns and I've seen decent prices on those. Everything else is full retail of new. I'll look every now and then, but don't buy.....

[NyFirefighter357]

We don't have pawn shops were I live. I know of one where I work. The few in the state aren't allowed to buy/sell guns. I've never been in a pawn shop.

[mold maker]

Pawn shops here are at retail or above on the things I would be interested. For instance Primers are $29-32 a brick for well shop worn appearance and unknown storage history. Guns that are in average shape are full blown retail with no way to try them for function or accuracy.
I'd love to sell my no longer needed tools for what they ask.
One has a set (4) unmarked, very plain Pewter plates and ask $25. An 18V DeWalt drill available anywhere for $130. has a $160. tag. A beater guitar with a warped neck is marked $40. missing a string. A badly abused AMT 45 long slide is marked $1399.90.
The only reason I enter their door is for entertainment.

[Kraschenbirn]

We've only got a couple shops in town; one doesn't deal in guns and the other does. Both typically start at pretty close to retail for whatever's on the shelf and the one that does guns admits that he uses GunBroker to set his prices. In other words, if a really nice (80%+) 5-screw M-10 brought $750 on GB then his 4th-hand, police trade-in (that he got for $125) is worth, at least, $600.

On the other hand, there's an old pawnshop next to a closed-down military base a few miles up the road...whose owner is also a militaria collector...that I drop in on regularly. Pat gets mostly run-of-the-mill stuff - .22s, beat-up shotguns, etc. - but, occasionally, he'll have something really interesting on the rack and he's always willing to bargain a bit. A couple years ago, I snagged a Yugo M48 that, except for some minor discoloration on the steel butt cap, appeared un-issued for $175 OTD and, last time I was there, had a pretty decent U.S. Krag rifle (1899), with correct bayonet, hung behind the counter...said it was from his personal collection and was for sale because he'd acquired one in a little better condition. Price was out of my range for a 'shooter' but better than I'd recently seen at auction or online.

Bill

[bedbugbilly]

A few years ago, a friend and I went to a couple out here in AZ. One had quite a few pistols and long guns butt the prices! In one of them, the guy had some new handguns that were 25% - 35% over what they should have been and what you could purchase them for in several of the retail stores. I tried dickering on a rifle and made what I thought was a very fair offer on it but he wasn't about to budge on any of the prices. We were very courteous to him and respectful but he had an "attitude" that would drive business away.

My wife and I went to another one up in Tucson as she had never been in a pawn shop. I chuckled when I read the OPs experience with the power tools. When we were in the pawn shop, there was a line waiting to pawn items - these were younger people in their late teens/early twenties and most had power or air tools of one make or another. Several were "high" and when we got back in our car, my wife asked me why so many power tools. My reply to her was "think about it. They are easy to steal out of parked trucks, construction sites, etc. and a quick pawn for drug money."

The same store had some musical instruments and I asked to see a violin they had. The clerk was not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I looked it over and it was a cheaper but well made Stradivarius copy - probably thirty or so years old. I couldn't believe it when I turned the price tag over and it was marked $800.00 - it was perhaps a $200.00 instrument. The clerk saw the look on my face and asked if I was interested in buying it. I questioned "why such a high price?". Her reply was . . . "well, it's an original Stradivarius." I asked how she knew that and she replied, "there's a label on the inside that says "Stradivarius". I had a hard time keeping a straight face. I then told her that I didn't have enough money to purchase it but asked if they ever did trades. She said yes and asked what I had. I told her, "well, I have an old sword that's been passed down through my family. It was given to my g-g-grandfather by General Washington after the battle of Gettysburg." Obviously she had slept through history class as she said she would have to go talk to the manager first and she went back in to an office. My wife and I left shaking our heads.

[jcwit]

Within the last 5/6 years I have purchased at our local Pawn Shop, a Winchester 94AE for $175 bucks out the door, only had a very, very small ding on the comb, a Tag Heuer Chronograph for $350 bucks, was it a knock off, Jared Jewelers said it was real when it was cleaned and adjusted, also bought a impact wrench like new for $10 bucks. off brand I've never heard of but it does take the lug nuts off which was all it was wanted to do.

So, just as gun shows, pawn shops have deals, just need to look for them and be willing to dicker. Remember the old saying. Cash talks, BS walks!

[Hardcast416taylor]

A shop that I was browsing had an interesting sportered Mauser, at least it interested me. It had been `bubba-ed` then spray painted camo with a sticky (after 4 months) paint. It had been D/T`ed as well it had Williams open front and rear sights plus a Timney trigger and a Buehler safety. The $200 tag almost made me laugh. I offered $100 only because it was an early war Mauser built action and the bore looked pretty good. We played the price game for about a month, off and on, till he finally agreed to $99 plus tax (about $6.00) out the door since he had not got any other attention for it. A sad note about the store help that I hope I changed was the casual manner they take a firearm off the rack and not only point it in your direction but never check the action for clear! My Mauser has been redone from front to back and now is a very handsome rifle.Robert

[merlin101]

G. Washington at Gettysburg! Thats a good one!:D

[Nueces]

G. Washington at Gettysburg! Thats a good one!:D

Yeah! Everyone knows that was at First Manassas!

[Gewehr-Guy]

Starmac, their prices don't make sense to me, having inflated values makes the person expect too much out of the junk they drag in to pawn. A good friend owned a pawn shop and would generally lend about 50 % of the resale value, if it was a nice item that they wanted to get back later. He would rather collect the monthly interest and hope they came back and paid the loan. Often people would pay 5 months @ 20% int. and leave town, giving him the item free and clear. When he closed the business he called an old customer and gave him back his nice old Trapdoor Sprng., I asked him why? He said he wanted the man to have his gun back as he had collected over $2400 in interest on that rifle over many years.

[historicfirearms]

There is a store in Kalkaska MI, same thing everything is half of marked price, I buy lots of stuff there as you never know what you'll find but it seems silly to me why not just mark the actual price?
Does that place sell guns too? I think I have seen it, on the west side of 131 correct? I drive through there often.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

I have never seen anything in a pawn shop that I considered cheap or even a bargain. I was in a local shop a few months ago and saw a spotting scope with the 45 degree angle eyepiece. They had a price of $79 on it. It had no name on it and you can buy the same scope from Harbor Freight for $39.95.

[Petrol & Powder]

I don't begrudge someone trying to make a profit and the burden is always on the customer to decide what they're willing to accept.
Someone in a previous post talked about a used generator being offered for sale at the same price as an identical new one at Lowes. It's that type of knowledge that you must have in order to make informed choices and negotiate wisely.

I'm sure everyone has some type of Pawn Shop Story and I have a few. Here's one: Years ago I ended up with three identical, lightly used window unit air conditioners. I was about to move and didn't want to take them with me. I loaded them on my truck and took them to a Pawn Shop. I wasn't looking for a lot money, I just wanted to get rid of them. The guy looked at them and gave me some ridiculously low offer. No shock there, no reason for him to start high. I made a counter offer that was slightly higher that still left a LOT of room for profit. He held firm to his original offer. I thanked him for his time (all 3 minutes of it), shut the tailgate and drove off. I later sold one of those units for about twice what he offered me for all three. I sold another one for just a little less and gave one to charity just to get rid of it.
I got what I wanted and the Pawn Shop missed an opportunity to make a profit.

[54bore]

Another one of my Pawn Shop scores was a Manfrotto Bogen Tripod with trigger grip pan head, this particular pawn shop is a grungy little place (my wife usually sits in the car when i go in) i seen the tripod set up when i walked in the door, i could tell from a distance that it was a very high quality one, i asked the Ole boy how much? He himmed around a little bit and said 15 bucks, i paid the man and walked out the door with it. This particular tripod retails in the 500 dollar range, and the Manfrotto trigger pan tilt head retails for 300 dollars. Most of what this guy has is highly overpriced! With today's internet available to any, and everyone there is simply no reason to NOT know something's value. This guy obviously didn't bother to look it up.