In the past I have shopped at pawn shops for the same, tools. But I no longer shop at pawn shops at least around my area. I feel like they try to rip people off if you try to pawn something they will give you the lowest possible but then turn around and sell the same thing for double the price. So, to me they are very untrustworthy, also their prices for things are sometimes very high, I won't pay high prices when I can get it cheaper and brand new not used.
I've never been to one but if I did, I'd look for something unique that I probably couldn't find somewhere else. Maybe like some antique furniture or a really old gun. It'd be cool just to have it in my house, or maybe I could resell it for a lot more than what I bought it for.
I haven't ever bought anything from a pawnshop but I have been tempted by a few items they had in there. One time I saw a really sweet motor scooter, with a matching helmet..for an affordable price. Generally, I don't look at items in there that often, because I think some of the things may have a sad history, and what if it was stolen? Maybe you could end up being liable. Probably not, but clearly some of the stuff in there is.
That is so true, I learned this while working with different shops. I found out about their margins, and how they make money off of what people pawn. I hate their workings but sometimes you have to make a pawn to get the bills paid. I'm happy to say that I lost all my electronics to pawn shops believe it or not. I could never get anything out because of the interest payments. I don't care now, it's been so many years since I used a pawn shop. I learned from loosing all of my stuff. Whenever I saw high prices, I cut it in half and say take it or leave it. Sometimes it worked haha.
Sometimes pawn shops play on the psychology of buyers by inflating the prices of the items on sale. Most shoppers are convinced that they are having a bargain only to realize later that the price difference is not worth talking about. I would rather make enquiries from individuals on leads of who could be selling a second hand item. I would buy farm implements and furniture from pawn shops since its easy to assess their functionality at the point of sale.
I'm not really big on pawn shops at all. I've been in them, but the stuff in there always have this weird, grimy look about them. I wouldn't touch the jewellery at all LOL The reason I've gone in there was mainly to see if we could find old DVDs back when we weren't big on downloading them. My husband would also go in there for stuff to do with his SWOS game, a very ancient football game. Other than that nah, pawn shops just aren't for me at all.
I think that you can some really good deals at pawn shops; but it depends on the shop, and whether the owner is actually willing to make deals. We used to go into one particular shop just about every month, and my husband would check out the tools and shop equipment, and I looked at gardening things, like pruning shears and such. Sometimes, we would see items there that were priced just about the same as buying them new; but other times, we found some bargains, and the owner would usually negotiate with us and put together a package deal for whatever we bought. I also bought a nice bicycle there, and they let me put it on layaway and pay for it over three months. Everything that is brought into the pawn shop, especially expensive things, or any kind of guns or weaponry also is put in a list for the police or sheriff office to check. They run the serial numbers through the NCIC and look for stolen equpment and guns. Sometimes, they will find something that was stolen several years before and just now made it into a pawn shop. So, while not everything is checked by the police; it is pretty likely that it was, and should be safe to buy as not being stolen.
