If you have every wondered if pawn shops will buy or make loans on broken jewelry, then you’re in luck. This is your answer to that all-too-often asked question.
Over the years that I’ve been in the pawn industry, one of the most frequently asked questions has always been “Can you pawn broken jewelry?”
Well, I’m here to tell you that as long as the jewelry that you are talking about is made out of silver or gold, then yes, you absolutely can pawn broker jewelry.
This is of course assuming that the pawn shop that you are working with takes silver in.
I’m just going to go ahead and make the assumption that whatever pawn shop you are working with, any pawn shop around the world, will work with items made out of gold.
But, let’s talk about why pawn shops will buy or accept broken jewelry as collateral for a loan.
What you need to understand what about the pawn industry is that when someone comes to us looking to make a loan on something, we aren’t looking at the item in it’s retail form.
What we are typically evaluating is how much we would be able to resell the items that people are bring to us for.
Now, this is a double edged sword of course, and it’s the dirty little secret of the “Pawn customer” in my humble opinion.
NOTE: This is the only article that I may ever be critical of a pawn customer in, so pay attention.
Over the years, one of the questions that I’m asked most frequently is whether or not pawn shops will take broken jewelry. The answer is yes, you can pawn broken jewelry as long as it is made out of a precious metal that the pawn shop typically accepts, such as gold.
What You Blame Pawn Shops For One Day, You Praise Them For The Next
I’ve probably written a dozen articles on this site about the fact that pawn shops aren’t actually ripping anyone off.
When someone bring something into a pawn shop to make a loan or sell it that cost them $100 when it was new, they act shocked when the pawn shop only offer them $15, $20, maybe $30 on it.
They act like the people working at pawn shops are criminals just out there stealing things from people who have no other financial choice.
I’ve gone way above and beyond to explain that pawn shops don’t really care about how much you paid for something when it was new – all they are looking at is the realistic value for what that item will sell for when used.
So, now you are probably familiar with the pawn industry’s “Reputation” or being a rip-off, but since you are here, let me just ask you… how much do you think your broken necklace or busted bracelet would sell for in a jewelry store?
They probably wouldn’t be able to sell it when it’s right next to the same bracelet that never been wore and is in one piece, right?
But pawn shops will still take it because as pawnbrokers, what we are looking at is the melt value of the metal and the value of the diamonds on the wholesale diamond market.
In the event that someone brings in some broken jewelry, they are so thankful that as a pawn shop, we can still help them get the money they need for their jewelry even though it would never sell in a jewelry store in the condition they brought it to us in.
BUT – if that same person brought us the same item that wasn’t broken, the pawnbroker’s are often chastised for offering them the same money for the item.
People don’t understand that it’s tic for tac.
The same thinking that allows pawn shops to give you money for jewelry, even when it is all busted up, are the very same rules that dictate what we pay for other jewelry, when it’s not busted up.
This is something that you don’t hear people talking about though. They just assume that 5 grams of gold is worth 10 times as much if it’s in one piece instead of two.
Sorry, that’s not the case. It’s still 5 grams of gold!
Anyways, I’ll get off my soapbox now, but none the less, this is the reality of pawn shops.
