A lot of people want to know if pawn shops buy iPods and the answer is that more often than not, yes, pawn shops are happy to work with you on your iPod.
Do pawn shops buy iPods? Maybe. But what about if that iPod is old? Will a pawn shop buy it then?
Both are good questions and honestly, it is going to really come down to the pawn shop that you are working with.
Not all pawn shops operate by the same rules. It’s not as if they are big box stores with corporate policies in most cases and as a result, every pawn shop tends to be a little different.
Pawn shops are owned and run by people known as pawnbrokers and like any small business owner, each pawnbroker has their own ideas about what items would be good for them to take in.
Some pawnbroker just aren’t comfortable dealing with some electronics for whatever reason, iPods being one of those types of items.
Maybe they are afraid of the iPod being stolen, or if it’s too old, they might be worried about being able to sell it easily.
Whatever the reason is, the bottom line is that while a lot of pawn shop will be happy to make you an offer of some sort on your iPod, there are also a good number of shops out there that will tend to avoid them.
If you are looking to sell your iPod, you may find that a pawn shop would be very interested. Even old iPods can have a good amount of value, but like all things, it will depend on the condition and completeness of yours.
How To Find A Pawn Shop That Will Buy Your iPod
In order to sell your iPod to a pawn shop, you’ve got to determine which shops in your area are comfortable dealing with them.
The easiest way to do this is simply to go to Google.com and search the phrases “Local pawn shops” or “Pawn shops in my area.”
Google will return a list of pawnbrokers in your immediate area, along with the name of the store, the address, phone number, and maybe even some reviews.
You will want to go through this list and give three or four of them a call and ask them if they deal with iPods.
While you have them on the phone, be sure to ask a few other questions like:
What else do you need to bring with you? (charger, usb outlet, earbuds?)
What you need to have personally in order to make a loan? (State ID, Photo ID, something else?)
Before you get to the pawn shop with your iPod, there are a few things that you should do first.
If your iPod is newer, then you will want to make sure that the activation lock via iCloud is turned off. You can verify that at icloud.com
If your iPod is a little older, you probably won’t have to worry about this set, but it’s never a bad thing to double check just in case.
Additionally, you will want to clean your iPod up before taking it into the pawn shop. By that, I mean make sure to remove any significant marks or debris that may have developed over time and things like iPods can get pretty dirty, pretty quickly.
If the back of your iPod is badly scratched or dented, there’s not much you can do about it, but it definitely will affect the value that the pawn shop offers you for it.
Things That Can Negatively Affect The Value Of Your iPod At A Pawn Shop
When you are presenting your iPod to a pawn shop, there’s a variety of things that they are going to look at, some good and some bad.
Of those things that can negatively impact the amount of money that you are offered for your unit, things like any cracks of obvious damage to the screen will be the most obvious.
If the screen of your iPod is too badly damaged, the pawn shop may not want to take it in at all since most pawn shops don’t want to be in the “Repair” business, so to say.
Additionally, if the polished chrome back of your iPod is dented in at all, that is another thing that will be a serious red flag for most pawn shops right away.
In most cases, pawn shops are able to deal with other problems, like normal wear and tear, assuming that the iPod itself isn’t activation locked like we talked about earlier.
Older iPods Hold A Secret
Now, with all of the above having been said, when it comes to older iPods, they hold a little bit of a secret.
The iPod ‘Classic’ as it is known is a hot item with consumers right now, particularlly the later ones with 120+GB of storage.
Apple stopped making this unit and people still want them, badly.
So if you are holding onto an Apple iPod Classic that storage in the range of 80-160GB, you may be surprised to find out that they can be worth a significant amount of money, but we will cover that in another article.
Mandy Dormain started working for Pawn Nerd in 2020. Mandy grew up in a small town in northern Tennessee. But moved to New York for university. Before joining Pawn Nerd, Mandy briefly worked as a freelance journalist for several radio stations. She covers politics and economy stories.
