So of all of the various things that pawn shops do and do not take in on a regular basis, one of the items that I’m pretty frequently asked about is if pawn shops buy binoculars.
The truth of the matter is that there is no one-size-fits-all answers that I can give you that will cover every pawn shop across the country.
You see, pawn shops aren’t like Walmart or Home Depot where they are big stores with corporate policies that apply to all stores.
Pawn shops are owned by small business owners that may have just one pawn shop, or they may have a small chain of them but the bottom line is that what applies to one pawn shop in your area may not apply to another.
So with that having been said, the fact is that there are a lot of pawn shops out there that would be happy to look at your binoculars and see if they can make you a loan against them or just offer to buy them outright from you if you decide that you would want to sell them instead.
There are some things that you should probably know about pawning binoculars, so I’m going to give you all of the details as well as some tips that may help you get the most money possible for your set.
While not all pawn shops will, there are many pawn shops that will be happy to buy or make a loan on your binoculars.
How To Pawn Binoculars
There are a few steps that you should follow when attempting to pawn your set of binoculars.
Find A Pawn Shop That Takes Them – The first thing that you need to do is find a pawn shop that will work with you on making a loan for yours or offer to buy them outright. The best way to do that is to go to Google.com and search the phrase “Local Pawn Shops.”
Google will give you a list of pawn shops in your area as well as their addresses and phone numbers. You should call several of the pawn shops near you and check to make sure that they take in binoculars to begin with so that you don’t waste a trip and know where to go right from the start.
Clean Them Up – Make sure that you take a moment to clean your binoculars before you take them down to the pawn shop. Remove any heavy dirt or debris from the surface and take a soft cloth and clean the lenses if possible. The goal is to make them look as new as possible so that the pawn broker has a favorable view of their real condition and resale potential.
Make Sure You Have All The Parts – Now, when it comes to binoculars, there really aren’t that many parts and pieces. That having been said, there are things like lens cap covers that you should have.
If the binoculars have a night vision feature that requires batteries, make sure that you have a fresh set of batteries with you so that the pawn shop can check and make sure that they work just as they should.
Now the next big question on your mind is probably going to be how much you might get for your set of binoculars when you take them into your local pawn shop.
Binoculars are going to be inspected for the condition first and assuming that there are no significant problems, they will probably then be compared to other binoculars on eBay or Amazon to get an approximate value for a used set like yours.
If you are going to do a little home research on your own, make sure that you look at the “Sold” listings on eBay and not the offers or buy-it-now prices – which really don’t mean anything to pawn shops. What they are looking for is auctions that ended in a sale, not the price that someone just happens to be asking for a set that may never sell.
You can expect to get between 40-60% of whatever a similar set of binoculars sold for on eBay in most cases. There are exceptions to this rule – particularly if you live in an area where hunting is very popular – and you may get more than that for them. However, on a national average, the 40%-60% rule is typically the correct estimate to expect.
