I meant buying something at market value and selling it to them for above market value because they make a mistake about market value.

With digital cameras and watches this probably doesn't happen but I thought it might happen with obscure stuff.

As far as negotiating skills you seem to pick them up as you go along just like any untaught talent with an on the job training. You learn how to be more open with the customers and speak your mind than to be more timid and worried your going to lose a sale if your not straight with them.

I use to work for circuit city where the customer is always right and can almost always get what they want if they put up enough of a fuss. I love this job because most of the people come into OUR store because they need OUR help. When people bring in something to sell they're doing it for 2 reasons:
a. they dont need it anymore
b. They need money for something else

When you look at it in this sense you are the person doing them a favor and you aren't begging them for their business. No matter what they bring in you should never be ashamed to state what you would pay for it even if it may appear insulting to them. If they dont like the price then they can take it to another place and try to sell it. There are at least 3 times a day where I will be sitting in the back hearing my boss and a customer converse back and forth and I will always hear the customer say I can take this to the pawn shop down the street and get double what you offer. That always gets my boss going and will typically get you kicked out of the store as well.

On a side note from all of the questions, we also have another employee that works part time with us, does kind of the side paper work keeps my boss entertained etc. He's flying to Vegas in March for vacation. To make a long story short we have this miniture John Wayne brass statue in our shop that is valued around $10,000. He messaged pawn stars and told them his story of how he works at a shop and has this piece. They told him to bring it in and they'll appraise it and prob make him an offer and if its a good enough bit (which i'm sure it will be because he's is the funniest guy i know) they'll put him on tv. So needless to say he's going to bring it in dressed up as a cowbody. Ill keep you posted on this story as it develops more next month.

How often are the items that people bring in actually quite rare? Obviously on pawnstars, most of the items that they show people bringing in are rare or prospectively rare, but that can be expected based on what the viewer is most interested in watching.

this thread > that thread already IMO.

Fav item that someone brought in?

Do you/your boss say annoying sell lines like they do on Pawn Stars such as "I can give you $100 bills" (oh really? we have a deal then. if you would of said cashier's check you wouldn't have had a chance)

The rare items (no pun intended) rarely come in. We never get stuff like on pawn shops from WWI or negative stills from an Apollo mission. Most people that would have such a rare and valuable item certainly wouldn't want to bring it to a local pawn shop. They know they're not going to get there best value for it there so waste their time. The rarest thing that we got over the past 2 months was a Harley Hog for a pawn. We're pretty sure the guy had nowhere to store it over the winter so he just used common sense and is storing it in the back of our shop for 20% on what we pawned it for. Not to bad of a deal when you think about it.

As far as the RAREST item that I've seen to date would be two very old guitars. An old (60's) crackhead male came into our store about 4 months ago with two guitar cases. Immediately we could tell they were gold mines from just the cases alone. The guy obviously had no idea what he was actually holding because he called the first guitar a banjo, which was actually an electric frying pan guitar (first electric guitar ever made). they were made very small and meant to be played across your lap with a slide bar. the second guitar we actually still aren't sure of. we know the case is for a gibson somewhere from the early 40's and the guitar we believe is an acoustic electric possibly a national from around the world war time when they were in the process of moving factories and changing names in Chicago. The guy wanted 100$ for both of them and my boss offered him 75$, needless to say the guy was ecstatic and took the deal. We sold the frying pan guitar on ebay so far for 1200$ and we still have the national guitar with the case. We were told it would be smarter to separate the case and guitar and sell them separate. We've been told that the case could sell for $3000 alone and the guitar for another $2000. We're still waiting for the right offer to walk through the door for that one

Cheers, thanks for the compliment,
Definitely the two guitars would be my favorite items so far. Although, ever since I started working there I have had a fond interest in pocket watches and their mechanical engineering. I've been trying to do a lot of research on them because we carry so many in the shop and I always find myself messing around with them in our free time. I'm considering starting a collection soon even though I know it wouldn't be a cheap interest to start. If anybody knows a lot about them and could help fill me in on the basics of collecting and the top brands it would be greatly appreciated.


HAHAH YES, my boss says the same speech every time he tries to jewelry sale off of somebody. "you see those fancy jewelers at the mall with their suits and b.m.w.s and half million dollar houses? That's because of the markup they put on their jewelry. I've been in this business for 2 years so I cant afford to have that kind of markup and thats why i wear flannels and drive a pickup." OR if he's trying to close a sale he'll say " ill pay you right now CASH, and I'll pay the tax on it cause i'm a nice guy plus you dont have to drag it back to your car (if its a big item) and continue to shop it around, you can take the rest of the day off now". I know it sounds cheesy but it actually does close a lot of sales that I think normally wouldn't get closed.

And to add to the note about Jewelry store markups, THEY ARE RIDICULOUS. I went into this job knowing absolutely nothing about gold, silver, and diamonds and the information that i've learned so far and continue to learn still blows my mind. If I was to buy two identical pieces of jewelry from our shop or the local mall their would be over 500% most likely at the mall. especially on diamonds. People think that cause they paid over $3000 on a diamond that they can certainly get at least $500 back for it if they had to in case of an emergency. NOT TRUE AT ALL. Granted not all jewelry stores are horribly priced but you will def get a better deal at any pawn shop. Most of the time when we buy a ring off of somebody the first thing we are concerned about is gold and then if we buy it we just smash the diamonds out of it so we can scrap it and everybody makes a big deal about all the smashed baggets. DIAMONDS ARE OVERRATED.

how did you (and the owner of the shop) learn to appraise the value of the different items you get?
2 years ago i wanted to start working at a pawnshop with the intention to open an own pawnshop because it sounds like a business that can make a lot of $$$ if this business is handled right...

but i didn't want to make a apprenticeship as a goldsmith to learn to appraise jewelry... (is it even necessary?)

sorry for the bad english!

Learning to appraise comes with time and general experience. My boss worked at a coin shop before this pawn shop so coins are his thing if anything currency comes through the door. He goes picking at flea markets, estate sales, thrift stores etc. so he has a knack that he's also developed to see what sells good and looks unique. You cant be knowledgeable at every market so a lot of the stuff you just have to wing on the spot. He is completely clueless on new technology items. He would pay the same price for a 1st gen ipod as he would a brand new 4g smartphone (that's why he has me there most of the time).

If he doesn't know anything about an item he doesn't make an offer or he makes an offer that is so microscopic that the customer can't except it. The way that my boss gets the best deals is that he tells all of his customers to bring in ALL of their old just in their attics and basements. Old fishing tackle boxes, old clothes, OLD JUNK. Then the customers pile up their cars and bring tons of boxes of it over that they were just planning on throwing away and lug it in the store. At this point they are so exhausted that they will pretty much take anything for it. In their minds they're getting paid to take out their own garbage and complete some spring cleaning. 90% of the time my boss will find at least 1 or 2 gems throughout all the junk that will sell decent on ebay. The rest he brings to his weekly flea markets and sells for a $1 or $2 a piece and still makes a killing in those. Finally if all else fails and we don't know anything about an item or have never seen it before...WE GO TO EBAY. Its become the universal market tool that can tell you exactly what everything has sold for before and ideally tell you closely what you can most likely get for that item. One of the biggest reasons we keep our cpus in the back of the store is so the customers cant see what we're going to get for it on ebay once we buy it from them and list it.

How much do you think a typical pawn store earns? I read somewhere that the average transaction is something like $80. Assuming you get 4 customers a day to transact * $80/pawn (not including sold items) * 30 days = $9.6k lent on pawn * 20% - 30% (depends on State I guess) = $1.92k - $2.88k per month for interest on the pawned items. If one or two of those transactions a week are for a sale instead of a pawn, and you make some good money on those than maybe it is a $50k - $75k biz? Of course, I imagine it would vary widely based on location, biz savy of owners, use of ebay, etc., etc.

Do you ever get depressed working there and interacting with a bunch of desperate people?

Does your boss watch a ton of porn on his downtime or does he actually think of ways to improve the biz?

Do people ever bring in illegal weapons to try to sell?

To be completely honest I have no idea what we pull in monthly. I know by the numbers its a business that has its peaks and valleys and definitely depends on several factors (economy, location, seasonal time of year etc.). One great day can honestly make you month which is why my boss if very conservative with his revenue because he knows that every month won't always have its "deal busters". Your numbers don't seem to far off and very logical to what I've seen from our location. I think the funnest part of working at a pawn shop is that at any day of they year you can come into work and lose x amount of money or come into work and make a couple thousand in 5 mins. I'd say the number one factor, like most businesses, is location location location. My boss always says that his coin shop failed because he was in an area where traffic was horrible and not a lot of coin collectors could notice his store so his marketing went straight down the shoot.

As far as getting depressed while watching the deadbeats come in and out by bunch, its not that bad depending on how you look at it. I mean yes you have to see the poverty in the world as you do everywhere a lot more but it all depends on how you look at it. Most of the time we're giving people a chance to pawn there small items in order to give them some cash at hand so they can make their mortgage payment and not lose the big picture. As far as porn...cmon he's a guy.

We don't buy guns so as soon as we notice somebody with a firearm we have them leave. We also had a guy dressed as chewbacca and try to sell us a lightsaber...don't really know if that constitutes as being illegal.

fak8629,

Do you ever have people come in to get cash to make payroll for business? (ie a guy with a CNC machine or other high value item that can't get a loan from a bank.) I've heard about this happening because the economy has been pretty unsteady for the last few years. I was wondering if you had seen that happen at your pawn shop.

Also, does your boss have an upper limit that he is willing to loan to someone for a pawn? (ie not lend out more than 10,000 or so for a single transaction.) Assuming the item(s) is legitimate and high value enough to be collateral for a large loan. Thanks for the thread a very interesting read.

I have had a very bad experience with pawn shops so far. The workers I have dealt with so far have indeed been smart ass, know it all jerks. I do not look forward to visiting them.

Lol. Something wrong with:

Customer: I can get more elsewhere
Boss: Do it

I doubt he actually kicks people out, that would be pretty dumb.

How is working at a pawn shop different from other retail-type jobs? I've worked in a huge chain retailer and a smaller store, and I'd like to know what varies. One more question, do you work on commission as well; if so, how does that work? I receive a commission at my current job on top of the wage, but I find that it's getting to be more and more stressful trying to be "good enough", beating sales goals and such.

I am owner of an pawn shop and don't think to work in a pawn shop is a dirt-bag skummy job. Pawn shop is that place which offers secured loans to people, with items of personal property used as collateral.

Good bump had a couple questions but it seems like the op wwent missing. Anyone else have experience in the pawn shop industry?

Every dirtbag profession has some narrative or pretext about how it's really not what it seems.

The reason pawnbrokers are such dirtbags and exhibit such consistent behavior is because its one of those 'Psychopath-Capitalism' professions where the bigger ****bag you are as a human being, the more you'll profit.

How can you sleep at night given that what you do for a living is to rip people off? Have you ever had an ethical consideration about this business? How would you feel if a close relative of yours were treated the same way your company treats its customers?

Besides jewelry are there items you really think people would be much better off buying at a pawn shop versus your typical outlets?

You're likely trolling but the customer doesn't have to accept the price of sale or pawn if they don't want to. With the availability of the internet today ignorance shouldn't be an excuse.

Just need to get this guy to post ITT:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/members/258438/

what measures do you take against handling stolen goods? buying 2 vintage guitars off a crackhead doesnt sound very ethical

So can you explain to me why you think he's ripping people off?

Lol this thread is the number one search on google, when asking questions about a pawn shop.