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Mr Neutron
Impassioned Gibberish
Premium Member
join:2005-05-30
Gorham, ME

1 edit

Mr Neutron

Premium Member

What percentage of an item's value does your local pawnshop pay?

I'm trying to get a general overview of what pawnshops across the US typically pay for (or rather, loan out on) an item expressed as a percentage of that item's value (e.g. pawnshop XYZ located in _____ typically pays ___ percent of an item's value).

Granted, I'm not clear if most pawnshop's and/or pawnshop proprietors actually work that way (i.e. usually have an actual fixed percentage in mind when they look at an item). However, I would be grateful if you could share any insights you might have with regards to this particular question.

Edit: rephrased question

CylonRed
MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County

1 recommendation

CylonRed

MVM

Re: What do pawnshops typically pay?

I am going to guess that part of the equation is how popular or in demand the item is...

journeysquid
join:2014-08-01

1 recommendation

journeysquid to Mr Neutron

Member

to Mr Neutron
Half of market rate.

Not really, as mentioned above, it's going to depend on the type of item and how popular the item is. Unless you need money NOW, you're better off selling your junk on eBay or Craigslist.
bop75
join:2013-11-08
0000

bop75 to Mr Neutron

Member

to Mr Neutron
Have you heard of a shylock? A bit better than that without the legs being broken for missing the Vig.

hortnut
Huh?
join:2005-09-25
PDX Metro

hortnut to Mr Neutron

Member

to Mr Neutron
Find a place that buys and resells, that by definition is not a pawnshop. There are a couple in my area that sell new stuff and used. Have found some good deals on tech. stuff.

Pawnshops: I have taken some high quality, in demand tools and other items on several occasions over the years, to several and none wanted them. And I looked before and they had none displayed for sale. I even had proof that I had bought them and that they were not stolen.

Hayward0
K A R - 1 2 0 C
Premium Member
join:2000-07-13
Key West, FL

Hayward0 to Mr Neutron

Premium Member

to Mr Neutron

Re: What percentage of an item's value does your local pawnshop pay?

If you are selling it and not hocking it, they are going to offer you 50% of what they think they can sell it for, and if unusual item you might be able to negotiate higher.

If possible, private sale (Ebay, Craig, word of mouth or paper) is always going to work better.

Mr Neutron
Impassioned Gibberish
Premium Member
join:2005-05-30
Gorham, ME

Mr Neutron

Premium Member

said by Hayward0:

If you are selling it and not hocking it, they are going to offer you 50% of what they think they can sell it for,

Ah, I hadn't thought of that.

As in: a pawnshop might offer a customer more (less?) money if they hock something as opposed to selling it outright.

I had thought the amount offered would be the same in both cases.

Snakeoil
Ignore Button. The coward's feature.
Premium Member
join:2000-08-05
united state

Snakeoil to Mr Neutron

Premium Member

to Mr Neutron
I have an 18 carat gold chain. It's about 21 inches long. I took it to a pawn shop and he said the "salvaged" gold value of the chain was 75 bucks. I had paid 400 dollars for that chain, back in the 80's. Needless to say, I kept the chain.
There is "speculative" value, and real value. Speculative is what you see/think an item is worth. Real value is what someone is willing to pay you for it.
For example I asked a local comic book shop how much are a few comics I own worth. He told me 3 bucks an issue. he can sell them for 10 bucks.

Pawn shops have to make space for the item, display the item, and maybe pay taxes on the item if it doesn't move fast enough. So of course they are going to undersell you, so they can maximize their margin.
Best thing to do, IMO, is try selling it on Amazon or Ebay, cut out the Pawn shop altogether.

Hayward0
K A R - 1 2 0 C
Premium Member
join:2000-07-13
Key West, FL

2 edits

Hayward0 to Mr Neutron

Premium Member

to Mr Neutron
No hocking it likely offer you even less because know you are desparate and likely you won't pay it back and get it for even less.

But even sale the are looking at a 100% mark up (50% value) if you don't have an item of unique readibly salable value and do some bargaining.

Have you never watched Pawn Stars

Again not in a hurry private sell it and cut out the middle man looking for his profit too.

ow on the shopping side Pawn Shops can be good deals, but only because they have screwed the seller orthey defaulted on a hock.

BurntAgain
@rr.com

BurntAgain to Snakeoil

Anon

to Snakeoil
said by Snakeoil:

I have an 18 carat gold chain. It's about 21 inches long. I took it to a pawn shop and he said the "salvaged" gold value of the chain was 75 bucks. I had paid 400 dollars for that chain, back in the 80's. Needless to say, I kept the chain.

"Scrap value" is all you are going to get regardless of the store you take it to, high end jewelry or Joe's Pawn Shop.
BurntAgain

BurntAgain to Hayward0

Anon

to Hayward0
said by Hayward0:

Have you never watched Pawn Stars

Or any of the half dozen or so other Pawn Shop shows.
Aranarth
join:2011-11-04
Stanwood, MI

Aranarth to Snakeoil

Member

to Snakeoil
said by Snakeoil:

I have an 18 carat gold chain. It's about 21 inches long. I took it to a pawn shop and he said the "salvaged" gold value of the chain was 75 bucks. I had paid 400 dollars for that chain, back in the 80's. Needless to say, I kept the chain.

Don't forget that there is also wholesale and retail price. For instance the local Meijer store (michigan's version or Walmart) sells jewelery all year long but suddenly around the x-mas holidays the stuff is 75% off. A friend of mine is an amateur jeweler specializing in scrap gold, silver, and semiprecious stones and he thought that even at 75% off some of the items would still carry a profit of about 15-20%. In other words that $1000 ring probably cost the retailer about $200. Markup on jewelry is incredible.

oldas
@comcast.net

oldas to Mr Neutron

Anon

to Mr Neutron
just some general rules from the junk business:

preference is always for name brand new items to purchase, cause they sell instantly
anything used could sell for 50% of new retail quickly.
don't do anything unless you can double your money.
so if something popular that was $100. new retail is used, it should sell well at $50.
so to make profit, they don't/can/t pay more than $25. for it.

if something is not in big demand, and no immediate buyer is in mind, expect offers of $10. of retail, so to still make double even after a year of shelf/storage/advertising/police reporting/stolen losses/etc adds to it's cost.

the way to find those costs is to figure the expenses of running the store, divided by the total square footage of the display shelf space. that gives a cost per each square foot, per month, of the displaying.

yes, things in demand, like standard tools, big tvs, game consoles, can bring more.
yes, if you are pawning it, where the shop only makes money on the interest and fees, it's better for the shop to offer you more, since that raises their profit.

Robert
Premium Member
join:2001-08-25
Miami, FL

Robert to Mr Neutron

Premium Member

to Mr Neutron
Well, according to Rick Harris, it's "not a penny more"

Mr Neutron
Impassioned Gibberish
Premium Member
join:2005-05-30
Gorham, ME

Mr Neutron to Hayward0

Premium Member

to Hayward0
said by Hayward0:

Have you never watched Pawn Stars

I've seen a few episodes of the programme here and there, but not all that many.

I dimly recall doing a back-of-the-envelope calculation on a few of the transactions and the pawnshop on that show seemed to pay out ~30% of an item's value (though someone who watches with some regularity and crunches the numbers might have a more accurate number to offer).

At any rate, I'm sceptical of using Pawn Stars as any sort of guide because, well, it is a TV programme, after all, and seems to have more than its fair share of hard-to-find (if not unique) items vs. a run-of-the-mill pawn shop of the type someone not in TV Land is likely to encounter.

Kilroy
MVM
join:2002-11-21
Saint Paul, MN

Kilroy to Aranarth

MVM

to Aranarth
said by Aranarth:

For instance the local Meijer store (michigan's version or Walmart) sells jewelery all year long but suddenly around the x-mas holidays the stuff is 75% off.

Go to any mall, Lakeside has about a dozen of them, and look at the jewelery stores. They are always running 50% to 75% off sales. I don't think I've ever seen one without a sale sign.

Snakeoil
Ignore Button. The coward's feature.
Premium Member
join:2000-08-05
united state

Snakeoil to Aranarth

Premium Member

to Aranarth
Agreed that Jewelry mark up is incredible.

GroovyPhoenx
Premium Member
join:2006-05-22
Gloucester, ON

GroovyPhoenx to Mr Neutron

Premium Member

to Mr Neutron
Pawn shops from my experience at least in our town typically go for about 30% value of the item, they then resell it at a much higher mark up. It's also pretty much what I see in value in most TV shows that are "pawn" shows, people offering usually 30% at least to start, then they will move up if they really want it.

Pawn shops pawning will offer maybe 50% of the value because they are loaning you and your item is collateral, usually pawning something they get value+ interest (10-25% in some places so a 100$ loan = 125$ in their pocket) a WEEK! it's highway robbery, they get to keep your item if you didn't at least pay interest after 90 days. so they wind up making a TON of money and your item, so in the end they win either way.

That's my view on it anyway.

TheBionic
Funkier than a mohair disco ball.
Premium Member
join:2009-07-06
united state

TheBionic to Mr Neutron

Premium Member

to Mr Neutron
I haven't used a pawn shop in a decade, but I remember one owner telling me they offered 25% of what they think they could get out of it on a pawn. If you were selling they would go higher. I don't know how accruate that is big picture, but it's how he did business.

The last time I was in a pawn shop just killing time their pricing seemed way off. I was looking at the video game accessories, and a lot of their used merchandise had full retail price listed (Wii Fit plus board for $99, which was the same price as new at the time). They had older game consoles, but I'm confident you could get them cheaper from ebay or craigslist with a little effort. This was maybe 2 or 3 years ago, I haven't been back. I am not sure pawn shops are still all that relevant outside of reality tv and selling jewelry.

wondering
@charter.com

wondering to Mr Neutron

Anon

to Mr Neutron
You be lucky to get 1/3 of the value.
Sell your item on Ebay or Itsy for the price you want not what the scammers in a pawn shop are willing to pay!