Tricking out your car is not only fun – it’s expensive as well. When you need a little quick cash you might turn to those new rims as a potential item to pawn. But do they even accept that kind of item at your local pawn shop?
Unfortunately it is not extremely common for pawn shops to take in car wheel rims in for pawn as collateral for a loan.
That’s not to say that no pawn shops do of course.
There are some pawn shops out there that love to take in rims because they have a customer base always looking to buy them.
Unfortunately for most pawn shops – they just don’t have customers interested in that type of merchandise so they tend to stay away from making a loan against them.
However it never hurts to call around to your local pawn shops and ask them if they deal in car ‘Rims.’
You may be surprised and just happen to find a pawn shop that does.
Before You Take Your Rims To The Pawn Shop
Make sure that you inspect them thoroughly. It’s common to find a little ‘curb rash’ on them, but anything really severe may limit your ability to pawn or sell them.
Check out the condition of your tires if they are on the rims.
Make sure that you follow the number rule of pawning something – clean it up first!
Areas Of Rims Pawnshops Pay Attention To
Obviously as mentioned above, there is curb rash. If you’ve marked up your rims you may not be able to do anything to repair or cover the affected area up.
That’s okay though – there is still plenty to clean.
The most common problem is brake dust. You want your rims to shine when you take them in, so spend the 20 minutes to really scrub all of the brake dust off the rims when possible.
The same goes for any other ‘marks’ that you can get it off. The general rule of thumb should if – if you can get it off, take it off before you go to the pawn shop!
The Tires On Your Rims
The tires are important to. Do a good job cleaning them up and removing any brake dust from them as well.
Once you’ve removed the brake dust, take any other marks you can find off the tires so that the appear as close to new as possible.
If they have white walls, focus on cleaning those really well. There is nothing worse than seeing white walls that are actually more brown and grey because of the dirt and grime that collects on them.
If you have any white shoe polish, you can carefully apply it to the white walls and give them that extra glow.
Make Those Rims Bling
Once you’ve clean them properly, it’s not a bad idea to polish the rims if they need it. You don’t have to go crazy, but the nicer they look the more money you are likely to get out of them.
When it comes to the tires, they make products which will give the tires a ‘glossy’ look and wouldn’t be a bad idea to use. Armour All can be used if you have nothing else handy.
The Nerd’s Experience
With so few pawn shops taking in rims and tires, it can be hard to really get a loan against them. But if you do find a shop that will take them, don’t expect to get more than $50-$200 on them depending on what they are and what kind of condition they are in.
That can be quite a shock to someone that just spent $1000 on the rims and another $600 on tires, but the reality is that rims and tires aren’t a really hot seller for most pawn shops.
When they do take them in they have to be careful how much money they invest into them when making a loan against them.
Of course, if the pawn shop in your area happens to have a big market for that kind of merchandise you might be in luck. Unfortunately those are few and far between.
Wrapping It Up
You should now have a pretty good idea what to do with your rims and tires before pawning them. If you have any questions or comments, leave them in the comment field below and I’ll be happy to get back to you.
Thanks as always,
The Head Nerd
