Quote:
Originally Posted by LimpDitka
When it comes to selling merchandise, some people don't want to deal with the hassle of either A) listing it on eBay or B) listing it on craigslist and dealing with potentially dangerous individuals. So the pawnshop charges a premium for that service.
This is the major point that people miss. I buy motorcycles on craigslist and also used parts from dealerships to resell. I negotiate to get the bikes for as cheap as I possibly can. I'm generally buying non running bikes and picking them up. If I pay $100 for a bike that I can part out for $1200 I sleep just fine. Items sit around for months at a time and there's a learning curve on evaluating the condition and value. There's also listing fees, shipping, packing, storage, and of course my time. These are all things a pawn shop must also account for.
I ALWAYS bring extra money because people just want to get rid of stuff. I purchased a bike from a guy who said "you can have all these boxes of parts for $150 also". I saw some nice plastics, so I took a chance and bought them not really knowing if I would even get all my money back. The boxes contained new crash guards I sold for $300 , plastics I sold for $500+ , and around another $500 in misc. This guy was a mechanic who knew what all these parts were, he just wanted them out of his garage. He has called me several times since to buy more parts.
Some people would just prefer to take less money and have their items sold by someone else.