No matter what you ask, somebody on here has a personal experience related to it. I know the shows fake as in they're set up, with a preliminary team going in and flagging all the good stuff, but I wonder about the values. These guys virtually steal some stuff. If you tell me my antique widget is worth $350, and I see it on the show later valued at $3000, I'm going to come to the shop and beat $2500 worth of ass!
If you take $350 for something and it ends up being worth $3K than it's on your head and you need to beat your own ass. You should know what your shit is worth.
This. "They told me it was worth less than it was worth". No, they told you what it was worth to them.
Typically you need them more than they need you, so, you're at their mercy. They had a pawn starts show on the other night where they took about 100k of their good stuff to a legit auction and lost their asses. I think they're crazy to buy high dollar stuff. Just stick to buying diamond rings and Louis Vuitton purses from crack whores.
I've went into a couple bigger pawn shops when travelling and bored in various cities. The shit people sell or pawn at pennies on the dollar when desperate is unreal.
This. Also a lot of values on older stuff is all over the place. This and the people usually are desperate for cash or they wouldn't be there in the first place.
All I can offer to the discussion is that a friend was featured on Pickers and he said it was scripted and agreed upon in advance.
One of my Sons works in a pawn shop... some of the stuff he sends me pictures of and what they give folks is "Just Damn"... 15-25% of value.
Like a lot of stuf, an items worth is what someone will give you for it. The one advantage the pickers have is being able to have abroad enough presence to find other buyers. So yes, they may underpay somewhat but the person they are buying from doesn't always have the means to connect with the end buyer. So in a lot of cases, something is better than nothing.
Yep, they're the middle man and they're coming to you to haul off your shit that you can't or don't want to get on craigslist and sell. A lot of times it's also not worth as much in your area as it is when they sell it elsewhere.
Pawn shops used to be a lot of fun and you used to be able to f@ck them raw on items that had been sitting. Then the intergores came around and everyone became an experts and the days of cheap Fenders, Gibsons and shotguns ended. Oh well, I don't need more junk.
I remember buying a decent Snap-On combination wrench set from 3/8" - 1" for $29 at a pawn shop. It was over 10 years ago, tho.
About 25ish years ago, I went into a pawn shop in Jasper Ga.. kinda of a shit hole..Old SeaHag behind the counter took a drag on her Camel ask if I was looking for anything "Fender Guitars & Ruger 3Screws"... "there is a ol'piece of shit Fender over there in a case on the floor"... I dug around and sure enough.. bottom of a stack of cases was a Fender Leather hardcase... opened it up 1973 Telecaster Deluxe.... two strings.. and loose pickguard... Tobacco Sunburst. "WaddaYaGottaHaveForIt"?? .."$100 bill and its yours"... I damn near broke her hand when I slapped the C note in it.. My Dad wanted to re-finish it.. (I know I know.. but I let him).. Dillan learned to play on it and still plays it, He knows his Grandfather had a hand on it so it is more valuable to Us, than it would be as an original finish.
We still have a couple of old school shops. I'll go in every couple of months and find a nice $50 Zildjian.