If you are asking yourself if a pawn shop in your area will buy your skateboard, then you need to stop what you are doing and read this article!
Let’s me tell you, I love the pawn industry. It’s one of the best businesses that I’ve ever worked in and I love just about every minute of it to be honest.
That having been said, a lot of random things do get offered to pawn shops on a regular basis.
One of the more random of those things in my opinion has to be skateboards.
Surprisingly I’m often asked if pawn shops buy skateboards and the answer is often harder to give then you might imagine.
You have to understand that to an extent, the pawn industry is very much a local industry still.
This is a tough concept for a lot of people to get their heads around with the ever growing globalization and standardization of so many businesses, but pawn shops are still one of those that are going to operate outside of normal parameters.
If you live someplace like California, where skateboarding can be done year round and there is a huge following for it, you will find that pawn shops out there are far more likely to take skateboards in to begin with.
That having been said, if you are talking about a pawn shop in the middle of “Nowhere, Ohio” where it is winter and snowing 5 months out of the year, there’s a much lower likelihood that a pawn shop will get very excited about the thought of loaning on or buying a skateboard from you.
That having been said, not all hope is lost.
If you are wondering if pawn shops will buy skateboards, don’t worry, you’re not alone. That having been said, while many won’t, there are some that will. Some pawnbrokers realize that value and expense that can sometimes be involved when building a good skateboard and therefore will make you a loan against yours or offer to buy it from you.
Pawn Shops That Take Skateboards Are The Smarter, Better Pawn Shops In The Area
You see, if a pawn shop in your area doesn’t take in a skateboard that’s loaded with premium parts and in good condition, then they are a fool.
Skateboard parts and construction can be very expensive. It’s just like anything else in that a skateboard isn’t just a board, but a culmination of the parts that make it up. The deck, the trucks, the wheels, etc.
So with that in mind, if a pawnbroker in your area refuses to even look at your skateboard, then you may have dodged a bullet because, in my humble opinion, they aren’t taking their business seriously enough.
Pawn shops should be open to taking in all sort of merchandise as long as it has value and the ability to be resold; if not locally at least online.
Skateboards that are made with awesome parts very much do fit that description.
That having been said, just be prepared for the fact upfront that not all pawn shops will welcome your skateboard with open arms.
How To Find Pawn Shops That Buy Skateboards
The best thing for you to do at this point is just to sit down with a piece of paper and Google the local pawn shops in your area.
Just use the search terms “Local pawn shops” or “Pawn shops in my area.”
Google will return a list of result of pawn shops around you. Make a list of them, complete with their phone numbers and give them a call one-by-one and ask them the following:
Will you consider skateboards if they are in good condition and made with expensive parts?
What do I need to bring with the skateboard?
What do I need to have to make a loan or sell you something (driver’s license, state ID, random picture ID, etc.?)
Hopefully you will find a few pawn shop willing to take a look at your board. If you do then the next thing you need to know is…
How To Get The Most For Your Skateboard At A Pawn Shop
This is really the next most important thing right? After all, the whole reason that you are selling your skateboard to a pawn shop is because you need money, so let’s talk about how to get the most money possible.
Clean It Up – Make your skateboard look as good as possible. Obviously if you ride hard, there are going to marks and scuffs that you can’t fix, but that’s life. Do you best despite those marks.
Develop A List Of Parts – This is really the most important thing, particularly if you custom built your skateboard with custom parts.
Most pawn brokers aren’t going to really know what they are looking at, so you are going to have to educate them a little bit.
Know what make and model deck you have, trucks you have, wheels you have, etc.
You want to itemize this entire list so that they can look up used values of all of these parts. That way they can evaluate your skateboard based on what’s one it, not just on the fact that it’s a used, kind of beat up looking skateboard.
