If you happen to have a watch laying around that doesn’t have a battery, you may be wondering if a pawn shop would still buy it? Well, get the answer to your question right here!
Pawnbroker are realistic people, and they know that watch batteries go bad.
In fact, many pawn shops will offer free battery replacement for their customers in most cases as an extra service.
That having been said, do pawn shops buy watches that don’t have batteries?
Well, in many cases, a pawn shop will buy a watch, even if it isn’t running because of a dead battery.
However, keep in mind, that if they aren’t a pawn shop that has a lot of watch batteries laying around, then they can’t just put a battery in it and make sure that’s really the reason that it’s not running.
Because of that, they will probably be a little leary of the watch in general. You have to keep in mind that pawn shops have a lot of items come in every day that have problems that can’t be repaired.
So in the case of your watch, it may just be that the battery needs replacement, and the pawn shop might suspect that’s all that’s wrong with it as well – but they can’t really be sure that there isn’t a larger problem hiding beneath the surface.
If you have a watch that has a dead battery, pawn shops may still buy it! That having been said, depending on how much more they will offer you had it had a working battery and been running, it very well may be worth replacing the battery yourself.
The Best Way To Sell A Watch Without A Battery To A Pawn Shop
If you take your watch into the pawn shop and they see that it’s not running, that’s probably going to be the first thing they say to you.
It’s not to insult you. A lot of people don’t realize that their watches aren’t running until it is pointed out to them.
The reason being of course that people tend to just leave watches laying in their dresser drawer for months, or years, without ever looking at them until they decide to take it to the pawn shop and sell it.
What To Do If The Pawn Shop Won’t Take It Without A Battery
So, if the pawn shop immediately says that they won’t take the watch, kindly ask them if they wouldn’t mind evaluating it as if it was running just so you know if it would be worth your time to get a battery for it or not.
You may find that a pawn shop that was previously unwilling to deal with your watch because it was missing a good battery makes a you very reasonable offer – assuming that you have a new battery put into it.
On the other hand, if the pawn shop does make you an offer for your watch, even though it isn’t running, follow that up with another question.
Ask them if they would offer you more for you watch had it be running, and if so, what that price will be.
Much like the scenario where they wouldn’t take it at all, you want to see what the price difference is.
If it is significant, (more than the cost of a battery) then it could very well be worth you time to just buy a battery for the watch and put it in.
For reference: Most watch batteries cost between $3-$6. If they pawn shop is going to give you an extra $20-$40 for the watch if they see that it’s running well, that’s an easy way to pick up some extra money with very little effort.
But What If You Don’t Know How To Replace A Watch Battery
The next big objection to this is that not everyone knows how to replace a watch’s battery.
Well, fortunately, there are videos on youtube showing you have to replace the battery in just about every watch imaginable.
If you go to Youtube.com and search “Replace battery [watch name]” you will normally see several results all showing you how it is done.
What If I Don’t Want To Replace The Watch Battery Myself
In case you just don’t want to do the battery replacement yourself, or you aren’t comfortable with the idea of opening the back of your watch – then you still have yet another option.
Most watch stores will replace batteries for just the cost of the battery itself.
Failing that, jewelers are always another option, although they typically charge $10 to $15 to do it.
In these cases, you are really going to have to look at the scenario and determine if the replacement will pay off depending on what the price difference from the pawn shop was for the watch if it was running.
