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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.
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
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Originally Posted by Pete_J
this thread > that thread already IMO.
Fav item that someone brought in?
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.
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Originally Posted by faarcyde
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)
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.