So, can you just sell things at a pawn shop or is it simply a place where you go to get a loan against your items?
Well the good news is here, folks! If you go to a pawn shop you will have the option of either making a loan against your items to get them back, or selling them outright.
Now, you might be curious why it is that a pawn shop would be willing to buy your items instead of making a simple loan against them.
If you don’t understand what it is that pawn shops do then this may seem confusing to you at first. That having been said, what you have to appreciate about pawn shops is that in most cases, they are little else other than buy and sell shops.
Pawn shops do most of their business reselling the items that they either buy, or that have forfeited after a loan has gone bad.
While it is true that there is a significant portion of their business that is dedicated to making pawn loans and collecting interest from those loans, their focus really does tend to be on the resale of used items.
Cleaning out your attic or garage? You might be tempted to load everything up and take it to a pawn shop. But wait, can you just sell things at a pawn shop?
Will Pawn Shops Buy Anything
I would love to sit here and tell you that yes, a pawn shop will buy anything and everything that you bring into them, but unfortunately, that is just not the case.
You see, pawn shops aren’t like Walmart or the Home Depot. Pawn shops are owned by thousands of individual small business owners.
All of these business owners have a different idea of what is good merchandise to take in at their pawn shop versus what might not sell so well for them.
Some of this has to do with their familiarity with merchandise that you may want to bring into their stores. In other cases, it will have to do with their customer base and how easily they are able to resell those types of items.
Unfortunately, there is no one steadfast set of rules when it comes to operating a pawn shop. That having been said, there are certain items that pretty much any pawn shop will be willing to accept.
What Are The Most Common Types Of Items That A Pawn Shop Will Accept
When it comes to the types of merchandise that almost every pawn shop will accept, you can put gold jewelry right at the top of that list.
Gold jewelry is normally very easy to resell. In a worst-case scenario, a pawn shop may have to melt that gold jewelry to get their money back but they will pretty much always know that they will be able to recover whatever money they put into an item.
In addition to gold jewelry, a lot of pawn shops will also deal with silver jewelry. Just like gold, silver is easily melted down for its scrap value. Because of that, it is often times very easy for a pawn shop to recover whatever money they bought something for.
Beyond just jewelry, pawn shops will often times taken things like tools. While they may not take in every type of tool you can imagine, most often it is a good bet that they will take in professional brand name power tools such as the DeWalt, Snap On, Ridgid, Milwaukee, etc.
They may not be able to take in large power tools simply because they don’t have the space to store them. What we’re really talking about here are things like power drills, impact drivers, and reciprocating saws.
In addition to that, many pawn shops will also deal with consumer electronics. Typically these have to be newer, complete, and in very good condition.
What we are talking about when it comes to consumer electronics is things like TVs, laptops, video game systems, and musical equipment such as guitar amplifiers.
Of course, they will often times take in all sorts of musical equipment such as guitars, flutes, and clarinets. Just like consumer electronics, musical instruments should be complete and in good condition.
How To Get The Most For The Items You Sell To A Pawn Shop
There are really only a few simple rules that you can apply in trying to get the most for your items at a pawn shop.
The first thing is that the items should be in good condition. What that generally means is that you want to clean them off before you take them in.
That’s not to say that you have to go crazy with this, but you should at least try to wipe them down and clean off any large debris. The better you can make your item look, the more likely it is that a pawn shop will pay more for it.
The second thing that you should be sure of is that it is complete. That means that you have all of the accessories, power cords, controllers, or other accessories that came with the item when it was purchased new.
Having all of the parts and pieces will make the item easier for a pawn shop to resell in the future. This is something that most pawn shops really take into consideration when deciding how much to offer for an item.
As long as you follow these two simple rules, you should have very good luck when trying to sell your items to a pawn shop.
