We’ve all been there. Unexpected bills roll in. Maybe a sudden expense. Maybe you just got sick and couldn’t work as much as you had hoped to and you ended up short this paycheck.
So what do you do when that happens? Well one options is to get a short term loan to help get you through this rough period and back on your feet.
One of the options you can use in that scenario is a pawn shop to get a pawn loan. That is where you take in an item of value and they loan you money against it for a short period of time.
When you are in a better position, you can get back on your feet and pay the loan back. Once you pay the loan back of course you will get whatever you pawn back in the same condition you left it with them in.
Sounds perfect doesn’t it. But what if you’ve never done it before? It might seem like it could be a scary process but really, it’s not. it’s actually very simple.
Do you want to learn how to pawn something? No problem – it’s actually really easy to pawn items.
First of all, you’ve got to figure out what kind of items you want to pawn.
Some examples would be:
A car title
A diamond ring or other jewelry
A car title
A gun
Virtually any item of value
After you’ve found some items you might want to pawn, you should follow the ‘3 C’s.’
What Are The 3 C’s?
The 3 C’s should always be followed when you want to pawn or sell something in a pawn shop. Furtunately they are really simple.
Dirty tools will often need to be cleaned before you can pawn them and get the most amount of money possible.
You want to make sure that your items are:
Clean
Complete
Charged (if that applies)
That’s it! Those are the 3 C’s.
Let’s look at them a bit more.
Clean Your Pawn Merchandise
Whenever you are pawning an item you want to make sure that your stuff is clean and looks as good as it possibly can.
It’s it’s something like a diamond ring – clean all around the stone(s) and prongs to make sure that it looks as ‘nice and sparkly’ as possible.
It’s is something like a car title, make sure your car is nice and clean. Wax if, vacuum it out, inflate the tires, etc. A good rule of thumb is this: Clean your car as if you were going to give a ride to the President of the United States.
Yes it should be that good. If you want to most for your item, make it look it’s best.
Thinking about pawning a gun? Take it apart and clean everything up. Even cleaning the magazines can help!
Make Sure It’s Complete
Gold rings are great to pawn for quick access to emergency money.
You don’t want to show up to the pawn shop with parts and pieces missing from your merchandise. That’s about the worst thing you can do, but it happens all of the time unfortunately.
Imagine this – let’s say that you were going to buy the item from someone else. You would want it to be complete and have all of the parts, right?
Well so do pawn shops. So when you take something in for a pawn, make sure everything is there.
That means the remote for a TV, or the chuck key for a drill. If you are pawning cordless power tools, make sure you have the batteries and the handles.
Whatever you do, don’t show up empty handed. Come prepared and you will have an excellent pawn experience.
Charge Those Batteries!
Make sure your item’s batteries are fully charged before you take them into your local pawn shop. They will want to know that your item works.
One of the next biggest mistakes people make is to not have their merchandise charged and ready for use when they show up to the pawn shop.
This is simple – pretend again that you were buying whatever you wanted to pawn. You would want to make sure that item worked right?
Well the pawn shop is no different. If you bring in a power drill they will want to make sure it works properly. So charger the batteries before you leave the house!
If you don’t, then they may turn down your item because they will have no way to test it and make sure that it works properly.
Pretty simple
The Nerd’s Experience
A couple of times in this article I’ve suggested that you pretend that you were buying whatever it was that you wanted to pawn and that really is the best way to look at things.
See when you take something into a pawn shop that you want to apwn or sell, whether it’s a diamond ring or a car or a tool – the pawnbroker will evaluate it as if they were buying it. They have no choice.
Why? Because there’s a lot of people who don’t come back for their merchandise so at the end of the day, the pawn shop is effectively buying those items.
I understand that you may think – ‘But hey, I’m just getting a loan against it and I’ll be right back for it.’
While you may have every intention of doing just that, not every one does. Some people make loans on items knowing that they won’t be back for the items they pawned. Other people pawn things really thinking that they will be back but unfortunately aren’t for whatever reason.
It’s just the anture of the beast and there’s nothing wrong with it.
That’s Doesn’t Make Them The Bad Guy
When you are first learning how to pawn something, it may not make much sense to think about it like you are selling something. I understand that.
However the pawnbroker has no idea if you are coming back for that merchandise or not. They really don’t.
In this business even people I’ve been friends with for years haven’t come back for their merchanise. And it doesn’t matter what it is even…
Diamond rings that cost thousands, drills that cost hundreds and even digital cameras that cost less than $100 new – they are all abandoned at the pawn shop equally.
So when you take your merchandise to get a pawn – remember, they are looking at is as if they had to buy it.
Tips For How To Pawn Something
It’s really the 3 C’s. As long as you keep those in mind, you will do just fine.
Clean Your Item
Make Sure It’s Complete
Charge It & Make Sure It Works
As always, if you have any questions or comments for me, leave them in the comments form below.
Good luck pawning! The Head Nerd
