Stainless Steel Jewelry is one of those things that some pawn shops will take in for a loan or offer to buy directly from you, but not all. The reasons vary – sometimes a particular pawn shop knows that they have a customer base for stainless steel jewelry while other pawn shops don’t.
The truth of the matter is that stainless steel jewelry is just not a huge item that a lot of pawn brokers get really excited about.
It’s not that there is anything wrong with your jewelry or that it’s not nice – the fact is that there is a lot of nice stainless steel jewelry out there.
But when it comes to pawn shops, there are two major problems with stainless steel jewelry.
The first big problem with it is that it’s everywhere you look.
You can find stainless steel jewelry on eBay, Amazon and a million other websites. Often times, they are the same styles of rings over and over again and rarely is there every anything that’s really unique.
It’s just the nature of the stainless steel jewelry market – they make a lot of it! And it’s normally made in China to boot; it’s rare to see an American made piece.
The second big problem with it is that stainless steel isn’t a precious metal like gold or silver is. You can really melt stainless steel and get your money back out of it.
That means that it doesn’t have a high ‘intrinsic’ value. It’s not something that’s worth money purely based on what it is in other words.
For instance, anything made out of solid gold will always have a high value because the price of gold itself is high.
Anything made from silver will also have a higher value because the price of silver, while not as high as gold, is still substantial – particularly in quantity.
But stainless steel on the other hand isn’t worth a whole lot just as a metal. The only thing that makes stainless steel jewelry valuable to a pawn broker is if they know that they can sell it at a good price and that’s it – it really doesn’t have any value above or beyond that.
These are the two major reasons that some pawn shops won’t take stainless steel jewelry.
That having been said, if you find a pawn shop that will accept here – here are some rules to follow when approaching them with it.
How To Pawn Stainless Steel Jewelry
Some pawn shops will take stainless steel jewelry in on loan or offer to buy it.
The first thing you need to do when looking to pawn your jewelry is to make sure that it is as clean as possible.
Nobody really wants to take in jewelry that is full of soap and dead skin. Clean it up, it’s not tough to do. Use a little soap and a toothbrush and scrub away. If it has areas with dark or black enamel, take some care with them and don’t get too aggressive – you don’t want to damage it.
The second thing you should do is consider polishing it.
Now for this you will probably have to find someone with a buffing wheel. Sometimes you can get lucky and find someone.
Hit it with the cutting compound to take out any deeper marks and then thoroughly clean the ring. Then use the polish compound with a new, clean wheel and you should have a ring or piece of jewelry that really shines. But be careful – if you’ve never used a buffing wheel before, now isn’t the time to learn. Let someone with experience do it.
Also, take care not to damage any enamel and be cautious around any gemstones that may be on the jewelry. You don’t want to rip them out and send them flying.
The Nerd’s Opinion
In my experience, not many pawn brokers are really eager to deal with stainless steel jewelry. It’s just not a big item for them most of the time.
That having been said, there are many that still do.
Your best bet is to call your local pawn broker and check to see if they are willing to work with it or not. It’s no big deal and often times they will be glad you called. In addition, you will be glad you called as well because if they don’t take it then you will have saved yourself a potentially wasted trip.
Loans On Stainless Steel Jewelry
If you do find a pawn shop that will take stainless steel jewelry in on loan, my advice would be to not expect too much.
Like I said, it’s not made out of gold or silver. It doesn’t have a whole lot of value in and of itself. It’s really only going to be worth a percentage of what the pawn shop thinks that they can sell it for.
So go into this with reasonable expectations and you might be surprised.
