If you have a stainless steel watch and are wondering if that is something that a pawn shop would take, then you need to read this article!
When it comes to pawn shops, everyone knows that they love buying, selling, and making loans on jewelry.
With that in mind, a lot of people will ask me: “Do pawn shops buy stainless steel watches?”
It’s a reasonable question, as most of these type are, because it’s sometimes tough to know what a pawn shop will take in versus what they won’t.
However, the answer to that question isn’t so straight forward unfortunately.
The reason is that there are lot of stainless steel watches out there!
Everything from watches that cost $5 when new from Walmart, to $5,000 Rolexes.
When there is that kind of variety in a “Product type” out there, it’s hard to give you just one answer that will apply for everything.
Because of that, we really have to break this answer down into separate categories to fully explain whether or not pawn shops will buy your stainless steel watch.
A lot of people ask us if pawn shops buy stainless steel watches. The answer is going to depend on the watch to be honest. Just like everything else, there are very inexpensive stainless steel watches, while there are others that are much more expensive like the Tag Heuer shown in this picture.
What Kind Of Stainless Steel Watches Would Pawn Shops Buy
So, what this really comes down to is what type of watch you actually have.
If you have a cheap watch that came from someplace like Walmart, Target, or a kiosk in the middle of the mall, it’s pretty unlikely that a pawn shop will buy it from you.
However, it’s not impossible.
The reason is that people still love watches. If your watch is pretty inexpensive but looks interesting or the pawn shop thinks that they would be able to resell it without much trouble, they may buy it from you purely based on it’s style.
That having been said, they aren’t going to pay you a whole lot for it, because in the end, it’s not worth a lot just because it looks cool.
A cheap watch is still a cheap watch, no matter what it looks like.
Now, on the other end of the spectrum, you have watches like Rolexes, Tag Heuers, and the like that are also made out of stainless steel.
These watches can cost $1,900-$6,500 or more in some cases when they are new.
If you have one of these, sure, it’s not gold, but a pawn shop will likely fall all over themselves to make you an offer on it.
How To Get The Most For Your Stainless Steel Watch At A Pawn Shop
The next thing we should cover is how to get the most money out of your watch from a pawn shop. After all, in the end, isn’t the money what this is really all about anyways?
So, there are some things that you should do before taking your watch into the pawn shop.
Clean It Up
The first thing that you want to do is clean your watch so that it looks as good as possible.
Typically speaking, using a little 91% rubbing alcohol and a tooth brush will get rid of most of the dirt and grim that has built up in the watch while you’ve worn it.
Make sure that you clean all of the debris off of the back of the watch, and around the face and dial.
The part that most people miss is the band however. Over time, dead skin flakes off and gets in the links of the band of your watch it is has a bracelet or link-style band.
You’r want to take your tooth brush and get all of that out from in-between the links and the clasp. Doing this can make your watch look much more desirable!
Find Extra Links
If you had links removed from the bracelet when you bought the watch, you will want to find these and have them with you.
A pawn shop will appreciate having all of the original links and will almost always pay you more for a watch that has them versus one that doesn’t.
The reason is pretty simple. They don’t know how large the person who might be interested in buying that watch will be, but if the band is too short, it won’t matter.
So having all of the links will make the watch easier for the pawn shop to resell, and that’s normally worth paying a little extra for to them.
Find The Box & Paperwork
This is critically important with higher end watches that are often counterfeit.
You will want to have the box and paperwork with you as it will help legitimize your watch to the pawn shop employee looking at it.
Additionally, just like having extra links, having the box and paperwork for a watch makes it easier for a pawn shop to resell it, which as previous discussed, is something they will also normally pay a little extra for.
