Fun at the Pawn Shop

[pete501]

I have been driving into town bringing Mrs. Pete501 to physical therapy a couple times a week. With 45 minutes to kill, yesterday I decided to bring a rather rare Marlin Model 50 Autoloader to the big pawn shop in town. The shop that advertises they pay the most for firearms.

Walking in the first thing they said "is that a firearm?" How'd you guess was my reply. These guys must be smart.

They ask what I want to do, sell or pawn. Sell if the price is right.

I browsed the store while they looked it over, I had told them what I thought it was worth and offered it for about half of that.
Looking at the gun cases gave me sticker shock. $1700 for a S&W 17.

Done browsing, I see the guy holding the Fagen Blue Book of Gun Value. That book lists the Marlin 50 for very little money. That book's value is wrong and does not reflect the true rarity of firing from an open bolt design. Lots were destroyed and only 5000 made.

The owner points out the last one sold for $150. I couldn't find another that had sold or was for sale, on my computer. I suspect his statement was a lie. Then he says, "you know it has been re-blued, don't you?" I picked up the rifle and put it in it's case and walked out.

As I was walking out the owner recommended another shop in town that would be interested in it.

The re-blue statement was another way to lessen its value.

Years ago, a pawn broker was sniffing an old Savage 99 I brought in for a trade. I asked why the sniff? he said that re-blue has a certain smell. He was trying to give reason to suspect that it was re-blued.

[Winger Ed.]

If you're not in the gun selling business, it's kind of hard to get a decent price for one.

Years ago, I had a tricked out Browning Hi-Power and just for a grin, asked what a gun shop guy would pay for it.
This thing had been built by an automatic fanatic, to shoot in competition and actually have a chance to win.

After telling me all the things wrong with it, like the cracked barrel, I started to think I'd owe him money to take it.
The barrel wasn't cracked. It had been bored out and relined with a lathed down Colt barrel with the left hand twist put in it.

For a right handed shooter, that makes it recoil into your hand instead of trying to torgue out of it during recoil when rapid firing.

In serious competition, it's like when the difference between 1st and 2nd place at the Indy 500 is 1/2 a car length:
Every little bit helps......

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

There are Pawn shops with a FFL
then...
there are Gun shops with a Pawn license.

These two are very different places.

BTW, my quick google search only came up with one Mod 50 sold at Auction
...it sold for $145, but I couldn't access the date it was sold.
that was probably what your pawnshop guy seen.

[Alex_4x4]

If you want to make fun of a pawnshop, then after you leave, you can send your wife there with the “tool” that you are “looking for.” And again you will learn a lot of interesting things.

Ohhh, that's cruel.
And it reminds me---

I don't know if they are played over there, but some are are youtube.
It a cartoon called 'Foghorn Leghorn'.
Two of the main characters are a rooster and a dog.

The rooster is always teasing and beating up on the dog.
One of the rooster's favorite things to do is when the dog is in his doghouse sleeping,
the rooster will stick a big clown face on a stick inside and shake it.

When the dog jumps up, goes crazy, runs out after the rooster and hits the end of his chain,
the rooster smacks him and says, "Awww,, shut up".

[czgunner]

Yeah, I don't have any respect for the shops in my little town. Crooks, all of them.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[Sig556r]

Most browse gunbroker & filter the cheapest latest bids then act like they know your firearm much better than you with made up flaws to lowball…vice versa, they sell the rarest of them all!
They’re in business for reasons that being fair ain’t one of them.

[GhostHawk]

Local pawn shops seem to offer 1/5 to 1/4th what I would consider the average selling price for a given gun.

Neighbor asked me one day a few years back. Bill your into single shots right? Sure am. I have this combo, .30-30 and 20 gauge barrels on a H&R frame. Pawn shop did not want to offer even a 100$ even. This gun is in great shape, what do you think it is worth?

Well tom, bring it by and I'll tell ya. 2 days later he was back. It was an original H&R combo, with case. The .30-30 barrel had the rail on top so I could easily scope/Red Dot it. Inside the barrel looked to me to have roughly half a box of rounds through it. Strongly doubt it was 15 rounds. 20 ga barrel was unfired.

I went and got 3 new crisp 100$ bills and set them on the table.

Good enough? Well he digs out a 60$ Marbles damascus bowie knife and adds to the pile an an unfinished front stuffer with a few minor issues.
OK tom, both sides walk away with a smile on their face that's a good deal IMO.
He agreed with me.

Still have yet to shoot the 20 ga barrel but the dirty thirty with a Red Dot is a tack driver at 100 or less.
I also have 2 long 20 ga chamber adapters in the case, 9mm and .357mag. Makes it into a heavy but very flexible SHTF kind of package.

[Winger Ed.]

They’re in business for reasons that being fair ain’t one of them.

It's a business the same as the payroll loan people, and 'we tote the note' used car dealers:
If you have the stomach for taking advantage of people at the lowest point in their life, you can get rich.

[Gewehr-Guy]

I had a very good friend that owned a pawn shop for years, and his best money was made by pawning guns , not buying them. He told me that once he bought a gun and sold it, he was done making a profit on it, as it was then long gone. Pawn shops are there to make small loans on items, so cheap, that the customer doesn't want to lose the item for the little money given them, and comes back too claim it, and pays the interest on the loan.

I don't really blame the pawn shop for making a rather lo-ball offer on it, as their customer base has little interest in a rare and little known rifle, and the shop will probably end up trying to sell it on Gunbroker, kind of a hassle if they are only used to dealing with a walk in customer base.

[HWooldridge]

I bought a lot of cheap, name brand guns in pawn shops in the 70’s and 80’s but the internet ruined that entertainment. I used to flip stuff within a few days if possible. Buy something for $150 and sell for $250, then go buy another one. Unfortunately, everybody is now an expert after watching some knucklehead on Youtube.

[Alex_4x4]

...
If you have the stomach for taking advantage of people at the lowest point in their life, you can get rich.

Lying is not good.

[quack1]

Years ago, a pawn broker was sniffing an old Savage 99 I brought in for a trade. I asked why the sniff? he said that re-blue has a certain smell. He was trying to give reason to suspect that it was re-blued.[/QUOTE]

True, with some bottled cold blue formulas, if done recently. They have a slightly rotten egg smell from the acid in the formula reacting with the steel.

[Land Owner]

Ex-wife took jewelry, that we bought together at a national brand Jewler, to a local Pawn Shop for "appraisal". The Pawn Shop offered her $300 for the "fake paste diamonds" in a three strand Tennis Bracelet. With defiance and vengeance, she cussed me for being "cheap" and a censored word. She didn't want it anymore.

She was THERE when we bought it! I handed her $300 cash and took it back.

Curious, I knew what we paid the national Jewler, I subsequently had it appraised by a local, small business, a Jewlery Shop with whom I have done more than a few ring and pendant purchases and jewelry and watch repairs. The real diamonds are worth over $5k new, $3.5k used, and $4k if on consignment! It pays to use a professional and not a "junkie dealer".

[Winger Ed.]

It pays to use a professional and not a "junkie dealer".

A pawn broker will have that little tool that can tell if a diamond is real or not.
Part of a diamond's value is determined by its clarity or lack of inclusion-- basically dirt inside it.

When a pawn broker offers to buy a real diamond-
they'll offer a low ball price based on it being the lowest quality and 'darkest' of the ratings.
And no mater how artistic the settings are-- they go on the scale and be will be bought at the scrap value.
That's how you end up with the offer for jewelry at about 10% of its retail value.

If you find antique diamond jewelry for sale on the cheap--- grab it, its probably 'the good stuff'.
Now days you see diamonds on jewelry that they wouldn't have put on a drill bit 100 years ago.

Some jewelry places won't let you use a 'loop' to inspect jewelry before you buy it either.
When getting appraisals- don't go to where you bought it, and it isn't a bad idea to get one of those tester tools.
Jewelers have been caught swapping out great diamonds for junkie ones or even fakes.

[10x]

A pawn broker will have that little tool that can tell if a diamond is real or not.
Part of a diamond's value is determined by its clarity or lack of inclusion-- basically dirt inside it.

When a pawn broker offers to buy a real diamond-
they'll offer a low ball price based on it being the lowest quality and 'darkest' of the ratings.
And no mater how artistic the settings are-- they go on the scale and be will be bought at the scrap value.
That's how you end up with the offer for jewelry at about 10% of its retail value.

If you find antique diamond jewelry for sale on the cheap--- grab it, its probably 'the good stuff'.
Now days you see diamonds on jewelry that they wouldn't have put on a drill bit 100 years ago.

Some jewelry places won't let you use a 'loop' to inspect jewelry before you buy it either.
When getting appraisals- don't go to where you bought it, and it isn't a bad idea to get one of those tester tools.
Jewelers have been caught swapping out great diamonds for junkie ones or even fakes.

Some of the folks who do custom cleaning of jewelry swap out real diamonds for paste.
My wife's aunt had her rings cleaned along with other expensive jewelry and any real gemstones were replaced with fake during the cleaning process. They discovered this when a few years later they got the jewelry appraised for insurance purposes.

[ulav8r]

When I worked at The Gun Exchange, we had a regular customer that visited the rock shop next door. Had a ring that had been pawned elsewhere some time in the past. The store owner told him the diamond had been removed and replaced with paste.

[Winger Ed.]

The store owner told him the diamond had been removed and replaced with paste.

He probably felt like that guy on "Pawn Stars"
who came in to sell a super rare old Colt he'd payed A LOT for as an investment.
Rick and his expert told him it was a reproduction worth a couple hundred bucks at most.

He left muttering, "My wife is going to kill me".

[Thundarstick]

Lying is not good.

Correct! Lying isn't good. It has a way of bringing bad luck with it!

[Idaho45guy]

Thankfully, my area is not plagued with dollar stores and pawn shops. I think I went in a pawn shop in Arizona 15 years ago and the prices and atmosphere confirmed my bias against them. They are run by crooks, frequented by crooks, and are barely above brothels on the morality scale of establishments.

Their retail prices are ridiculous, and their buying prices are worse. I have no idea why anyone would set foot in such a scam establishment.

[GhostHawk]

The flip side of the coin is we have a pawn shop that opened less than 5 blocks from us. We stopped in and saw some old familar faces from a previous pawn shop.

Within a month they were automatically knocking 15$ items down to 10$.

They get a certain amount of our business, mostly buying.
They got a pair of nice older .32acp pistols in, initially had them priced over 500$. I just settled down to wait them out.
2 weeks ago walked in and it was down to 270$ with no transfer fee. Completed the paperwork and walked away with it.
Still have not shot it yet but it looks good.

To my way of thinking pawn shops are a bit like auctions. You need to know what you will pay for a given item. And if you don't get that price, walk away. Let them sit on it until you do.