If you are thinking about pawning or selling your circular saw to a pawn shop, then you need to read this article. We break down exactly how a pawn shop will evaluate your circular saw and what offer they make you based on what they see.
Pawn shops take in all sorts of tools; just about anything you can imagine.
We are talking about drills, wrenches, sockets, reciprocating saws, and yes, circular saws as well of course.
Of course, the first question that I will get when it comes to circular saw is “Do pawn shops buy circular saws?”
The answer is that yes, more often than not, a pawn shop will be happy to look at and make you an offer on your circular saw if it works well and is in good condition.
The next question I will often get about this is “How much will a pawn shops pay for a circular saw?”
Well, that answer is a little more involved and for a variety of reasons that we will have to take a few minutes and explain to you in more detail.
By the end of this post, it is my hope that you will understand exactly what a pawn shop is looking at when they are evaluating your circular saw for a loan or as a sale.
Having this information, you should be able to prepare yourself in advance and give yourself the best chances of getting the most money for your saw possible.
A lot of pawn shops take tools and just about everyone knows it. One question that I will get asked is “How much will a pawn shop pay for a circular saw?” That’s actually a pretty involved question, but overall, pawn shops pay well for circular saws that are in good condition and work well.
What Do Pawn Shops Consider When Evaluating A Circular Saw
When pawn shops take things in, they are either making a loan on those items so that you can get them back or they are looking at the item to buy it outright from you.
With either option, they are evaluating your circular saw based on the fact that they may be in the position of having to resell it to another customer at some point in time.
Yes, this is even true if you are just making a loan against it.
What you have to understand here is that not everyone who makes a loan on their items comes back for them.
What that means is that the pawn shop will be put into a position where they have to resell that circular saw to get the money back out of it that they loaned you, plus any unpaid interest and storage that built up on that loan while it was in their shop.
How Pawn Shops Determine What Circular Saws Would Be Good Seller’s For Them
So with this in mind, let’s look at what a pawn shop will be evaluating your circular saw based on.
What Brand Circular Saw Is It
The first thing that a pawn shop will be taking into consideration about your circular saw is what brand it is.
Just like everything else that comes into a pawn shop, there are better brands and then there are cheaper brands.
Brands like Milwaukee, DeWalt, Makita, and Ridgid will bring a premium.
On the other hand, brands like Ryobi, Hitachi, and Craftsman won’t be so desirable.
Really bad, off-name brands may not even be considered.
It’s not that the less desirable brands or off-brand tools are necessarily bad, but they are typically much more difficult for a pawn shop to sell and are therefore worth much less to them.
How Well Does Your Circular Saw Work
The next thing that a pawn shop will be looking at with your circular saw is how well it actually works.
if there is a major problem with your saw, more often than not, they won’t take it in.
If they plug it in and run it, and it smells like the brushes are burnt, they may also not take it – or at very least – they will offer less for it because it has obviously been well used.
Well used tools just bring less money for pawn shops and are harder to sell, so therefore, they can’t give you as much for them.
How New Does Your Circular Saw Look
If you bring in a good brand name circular saw that looks just about new, you stand to get a pretty good amount of money for it.
On the other hand, even if it is a brand name saw, but it’s older or looks older, then you aren’t going to get as high of an offer.
Why not? Well remember that a pawn shop is looking at your saw like they will have to resell it one day and under those circumstances, newer tools sell faster and for more money than saw that look very rough.
Putting It All Together
Now that you know all of the facts regarding what a pawn shop is looking for, let’s talk about what they might actually offer you.
If we are talking about a great brand name, the saw looks very close to new, and it has all of the parts with it (case, wrench, extra blades, etc.) then you might be looking at up for $40-$60 if you are selling it.
That will come down to about $25-$35 if you are making a loan on it of course since pawn shops can’t offer as much for a loan on items as they can when you are selling them outright.
Now then, if your circular saw is a less desirable brand name, or a better brand name but looks rough, you are going to be talking about $15-$30 on a buy and $10-$25 on a loan.
If your circular saw looks really old, or is a completely unknown brand, missing parts, etc. then you may only be looking at $5-$15 depending on what they feel they would be able to resell it for.
What You Can Do To Get More Money From A Pawn Shop For Your Circular Saw
Now, if you really want to put the odds in your favor when you are taking a circular saw to the pawn shop, you should consider doing the following.
Clean it up – make your saw looks as new as possible. Clean all of the saw dust off and out of it. Remove any large dark marks, smudges, or “Owners Marks” (your name, initials, etc) that you have put on it. You want it to look as close to ‘Factory-new’ as possible.
Bring all of the parts – Make sure that you find the case, clean that out as well. Bring in the blade wrench and consider throwing a few unused (or very lightly used) saw blades in there with it.
Tape up any cuts in the cord – if your cord has exposed wires, a pawn shop may not take it in at all, so tape these up beforehand and maybe they will forgive the cut insulation.
