My pawn shop experience.

Have patience.

 

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I have a friend that is in the pawn business. He say's that 75% of all pawns end up being his.
And he looks at it like this: at 20% per month that a person that pawns his stuff almost always pawns it again so after 5 loans on the same items the pawn shop got the full loaned item for free other then the 5 month loan.
It is tantamount to putting yourself into indentured servitude. But at the same time think that is is up to the person to show the self restraint to not use such a service.

 

I said it before, saying it again... He would have been better off putting the coins up on the BST - but no doubt that would have resulted in some new drama.

 

And that's $15 for each month of the pawn.

 

You should have payed the bill late!!! That way you would have only hurt your credit score instead of risking losing your coins. HAHAHAHA!!!!
Why would you even consider a late payment as an option?!?!?!?!?

I think this thread is the straw that broke the camels back for me about you.

 

At first, I was thinking Tim was trolling. How on Earth could anyone, even Tim, say that a pawn shop is probably the best way to get money when you're in a bind? They offer you pennies on the dollar for your wares and then charge you 20% interest in a single month for the money they lend you. My first thought is: "Run Away!" But the more I think of it, I do think Tim might have found his niche. He does seem to enjoy bartering, he likes to buy old stuff and try to flip it for a profit, etc. I suppose it's possible to get a job working in a pawn shop, but most of them around here seem to be family run.

I do know a couple that owned a pawn shop for a few years and did very well. They had really good business smarts and they worked their butts off, but they did very well in the end.

For example, they didn't just sit behind the counter and wait for business to come to them. They went out and hit yard/garage sales bright and early on saturday mornings. They'd buy CDs & DVDs for $0.25-.50 each and sell them in their store for $3-5 each. They'd buy up children's clothes and furniture for pennies on the dollar too.

And the way they got their store up and running was nothing short of awesome. The first business they owned was a used car lot. Shortly after getting that profitable, they built a car wash next door to their used car lot. They ran those for a few years and did pretty well. They eventually sold the used car lot to buy the land on the other side of their car wash and they built a small strip mall. Since most of the spaces in the strip mall were empty and were probably not all going to be rented for a couple of years, they opened a pawn shop in one of the vacant units. They got it up to speed and when the rest of the strip mall filled up, they sold the pawn shop to another family. Not only did they earn a good profit on the sale of the store, they got a tenant out of the deal too. Now that's what I call good business sense.

How many pawn shops do you have in your area Tim? You should inquire at all of them to see if they want to hire some help. Get some experience, find out if its something you'd enjoy, bank up some money, and then open up your own pawn shop. Maybe even advertise that you specialize in coins. Just imagine: People come to you to pawn their coins for pennies on the dollar. If they actually come to buy them back, you've made a tidy 20% profit in one month. If they don't, then you just scored some coins for dirt cheap.

 

It doesn't matter how much, or little, knowledge a pawn shop has on numismatics.

They've decided on a value based upon what similar items, in same condition, have sold for. They offered you a percentage below that value, that they are willing to risk loaning you. If you fail to pick up your pawn before it expires, they will sell it at a price that will cover not only the principle but the interest accrued as well, so they're not out any money on this pawn.

 

And from how Tim explained it, the value they determined was essentially the "worst case" scenario. Which also makes good business sense.

 

That's certainly the approach I try to use when I'm bidding on eBay lots.

 

I wanted to keep them. Not sell them.

 

Unless the coin was irreplaceable I would have just sold them. I might have felt differently when I was your age - but life happens and you realise that aside from your family and loved ones, that everything is replaceable. As noted earlier I sold off a rather decent collection of Libs and Saints and most of my foreign gold back a dozen years ago or so. That is the benefit of this hobby vs. my other hobbies like model trains etc - coins have a much greater liquidity - especially if they are easily bought and sold like your coins are/were.

Pawning stuff is a real risk, see the statistics above in the thread that something like 75% of pawned stuff ends up in the brokers possession.

 

With any luck, 30 days from now you'll have the money to get them out of pawn. If not, then like it or not, you just sold them...

 

Pawn store customers are from all walks of life and tend to borrow only what they need, as indicated by the average national loan amount,” said Kevin Prochaska, president of the National Pawnbrokers Association. The Trend Survey indicated that over 85 percent of all pawn loans are repaid, which is consistent with the national average in 2010. “The increase in the average pawn loan amount indicates that American families were seeking financial relief by turning to their local pawnbroker.”

-http://pawnshopstoday.com/News.html

 

LOL

Not to pile on, but ... am I a bad person if I admit I don't believe this?

 

Because the president of the National Pawnbrokers Association is totally non-biased.
There is no such thing as an "average national loan amount". Most places offer micro loans, offering loans as little as $20 all the way up to $100k after which it's a regular loan. Assuming you have decent credit one could borrow for 1-4% easily these days.
Guy

 

The above may be true, Tim, but remember, you totally fail to fit into any statistical mold.

 

Don't we all...

 

64.8% of all statistics are fabricated.

 

And the rest are twisted to buttress the argument.

 

15.2% of all fabricated statistics are by people named John or Anthony.