So there you are with your radio head unit and not sure what to do with it. Maybe you sold the car that it went to? Maybe you just need some quick cash to get you through a rough period of time.
Whatever is going on, you might think that taking it down to your local pawn shop to see if they will buy it would be a good idea and I’ve got to tell you, you might get some mixed responses.
First of all, not all pawn shops deal with head units. It’s not that there is anything specifically wrong with them but let’s just be realistic about something here for a moment.
People steal thing. I know, a big shocker here right? Well they do and for years an incredibly popular thing for people, and especially kids to steal were head units out of cars and with good reason.
A lot of times even factory radios from cars like Mercedes or BMW’s will bring a lot of money from the right buyer. But that having been said, even after market head units can be worth an absolutely mind boggling amount of money.
Because of that, they were a hot item for people to take because there really wasn’t much to it to be honest and with that in mind, a lot of pawn brokers just stopped taking in head units all together in an effort to try to stop stolen property from coming into their stores.
To this day, some pawn shops will still refuse to take in head units, unless of course you happen to have the new factory box with all the manuals and maybe even a receipt to show that it wasn’t just stolen from someone’s car.
On the other hand though, there are pawn shops out there that love to take in head units and do so on a daily basis – and as many of them as they can get!
If you have a head unit to sell then you might want to consider seeing if your local pawn shop will buy it as they will probably pay you more for it than just about anyone else.
How Much Do They Pay
Well, like all things in a pawn shop, the pawn broker is going to take a look at your item and first make sure that it works properly.
After verifying that it works they are probably going to go to a site like eBay or Amazon and attempt to determine a fair 2nd hand value for that head unit in similar condition and completeness to the one that you brought in.
They will then offer you between 40-60% of that 2nd hand price determining on how comfortable they feel with the head unit and if you are making a loan against it or just selling it outright.
TIP: If you need the most money possible out of your head unit then you will want to sell it instead of making a loan against it to get it back.
Now there are some things that are going to seriously affect the value or the amount of money that a pawn shop offers you for your head unit.
Tips For Pawning Your Head Unit
Now once you’ve decided that you would either like to pawn your head unit or just sell it outright to a pawn shop there are some things that you should do that will help you get the most money possible for it.
Call Ahead – The first thing that you should really consider doing is going to Google.com and searching the phrase “Local pawn shops.” Google will return a list of pawn shops in your area and their phone numbers that you can call one-by-one to make sure they take in head units and if it is something that they commonly deal with.
Have Everything With You When You Go – The next major thing that you should be sure to do is to have everything you can with you when you take your head unit down to the local pawn shop. That means the deck itself, faceplate, remote (if it has one), wiring harness (very important!) and if you still have the original packaging – you should take that with you as well.
Having something like the original box and packaging can make the pawn shop feel more comfortable about working with you on your head unit and very well may result in you getting more money for it.
If you are missing other parts of pieces than you can expect your offer or value to be seriously degraded as there will be things that the pawn shop will need to find and buy just to sell your radio.
Clean It Up – Last but not least, make sure that you at least first clean the faceplate of the radio so that it looks very clean and presentable. Nobody want to buy something that’s all marked up or dirty so doing this little thing can really help you out in the long run.
If you follow these three tips you should find that you will have excellent luck selling or pawning your head unit to a local pawn shop.
Mandy Dormain started working for Pawn Nerd in 2020. Mandy grew up in a small town in northern Tennessee. But moved to New York for university. Before joining Pawn Nerd, Mandy briefly worked as a freelance journalist for several radio stations. She covers politics and economy stories.
