Pawn Stars Honest Profit Or...........

I agree, they get estimates like over 60K on shipwreck gold bars,43K melt & offer 25K saying that their final offer .I guess in that town with gamblers who need money for some (not all )of them gamblers....but they in (IMO) take advantage of desperate people who just give in and go for the low ball price.
You can say yes...it was their choice (encased 3cent) stamp was a typical example ! gave the guy 30-35% of the estimators price !
You could do better selling on fleabay !
I think "Rick's experts" are in for the show ,even though they are real experts to some extent in a general wide reaching expertise and low ball the seller .
It to set up TV acting for me to beleive half of the deal are real & actually end up a just "pawns" in the final cash transaction you don't see on TV.

 

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No actually there isn't. A lot of items that are priced pretty high are oddball items, you have to consider in what type of auction you put it in, how much it'll go for, how many fees you pay, and how long it takes you to get your money.

Or, you can get the quick money you were looking for, knowing that it won't be at full retail.

Do you think Rick should start offering $9000 on $10000 oddball items? Honestly, not a lot of people have $10000 to spend, and then the people will start negotiating. Which brings me to my next point, they buy low, put some prices well over retail and let people negotiate down.

In other words all of this together equals one thing for the pawn shop, PROFITS. You think just because this is a TV show, it should be like Full House and everybody gets exactly what they want at the end of an episode? The store is a business, out to make money to pay their 30+ employees. So paying $1500 for something, knowing retail is $10000, and you put it up for around $8000, and sell it for $3000 or even $5000, you did alright. As for the seller who sold the pawn shop the item, that is just it THEY sold them the item, they agreed to it, the pawn shop didn't hold them down and make them accept their offer.

As for that super bowl ring, it is more of a promotional gimmick, nobody in their right mind would buy that for $100,000, a more likely price would be below $10,000. It draws people in the store, and then while they are there, they see something that catches their eye...

 

I dont know, but I like the show and I always search for coins in them when I come upon them. My favorite episode is the one where they are trying to get the old man to get glasses and he doesnt want to, so they offer him a test. They threw a CC morgan into a bucket of morgans gave it a good shake and dumped them out on the desk for the old man to see if he could find the CC one. He failed the first time, and went to get glasses. They dump the coins out again and he finds it. I thought dumping out buckets of morgans to be good entertainment. A lot of CT members are dealers. And Im sure each has a bucket or box for stuff thats just worth melt. I would be curious to know how full do you let the bucket get before it goes to melt.

Steve

 

tmoney is right on the money!:rolling:

unless you are an idiot(and you deserve it) you have to realize what a pawn shop is. its a fast way to get cash. you can't expect to bring in an item that's expensive and will either sit for a long time or have to go into an auction, and expect to get even close to full value. you are getting paid, in cash, right then and there. if you want to get full value, open up your own store, to sell your item in. or take a chance and put it on ebay or another auction. you will have to wait some time to get your cash and who knows how many times you will have to list it, to sell it.

as for staging.. i am sure it happens, it happens in most all shows like this. you can't have the cameras there all the time. also there are sometimes were they have to reshoot something, were someone screws up. it wouldn't be good tv, without it.

you can also tell a fake reality show, from a real one. watch the show "operation repo", then next watch pawn stars.

the graded money is interesting. but hard to prove the tv show had anything to do with that... the lady could have lied or it was taken out and put in the book for whatever reason.

either way i enjoy watching the show. and love pawn shops! there is one in town that lets me cherry pick some items that are up for pawn(people didn't pay). i get the item for just about what the people owed.

 

Reasonable profits are acceptable, i have no problem with that at all
But when i see people getting taken advantage of and the old man
Behind the counter counting that huge stack of hundreds on every
Show you have to wonder, I even wonder if the so-called experts are
On his pay roll talk about a conflict of interest!! Iam not going to open
Up that can of worms!!

 

Scenario (not real but want opinions)

Man walks in shows a pulls out a blue Whitman Folder of Lincoln's all are there it seems from 09 to 58. Look from Fine to EF.
Man want's $200 bucks.
Rick say's he want's an expert to look at it.
Expert say's that they are all real and it's worth $4,000 cause the 55 is a DDO.
Rick say's I'll give you $1,500.
Man say's how about $2,000.
Rick and Man agree on $1,800.

Was that too much? Was the Shop taking advantage of the man?
This is basically how most of these go so it just seems most agree that the shop pay's low and that they should/need to make money it's just how much is where we all disagree.

 

that is just how these kinda placed work. they have to make enough profit to live off of, to pay the shop bills and employees. they make decent money, but pawn shop owners really don't get rich off doing it.

on average pawn shops like to get there rarer stuff for half of what its worth, but on average a they pay a little more. then take into account how long it has to sit and house it, or fees and time for auction. they don't get a return for quite some time. then add up the stuff in the first paragraph and there profits are less great.

its not like they buy something like a $40,000 gold bar from a ship wreck and some guy comes in the next day to buy it. that takes time, money, and effort to sell. and i doubt they will get the full $40,000. its a risk they paid around $25,000 plus all the handling and selling fees to take. so maybe they make $5-8 grand profit off their $30,000 investment, maybe they make a grand or loose money.

this is not all uncommon. places like gamestop will give you $50 for an xbox 360 then turn around and sell it for $160. and xbox's are a lot easier to sell then a rare historical item...

 

Both sides know what they are getting into. People who sell things at pawn shops need money now. That's why they are willing to part with their item for less than it's worth. Like it or not, that is how pawn shops work. Frankly, value is decided by what someone is willing to pay. If you are happy with 20% of action value in cash right now, then that's fine. They are not getting taken advantage of.

 

A TV show staged? really? who would have guessed?
Pawn Stars represents the pawn business about as poorly as Ice Road Truckers represents the trucking business or drivers. Virtually every word is scripted for maximum contrived drama.

For those who think the profit margin is too high in ANY business, open your own shop, find the money to buy inventory and business equipment, pay the rent, pay the salary of however many employees it takes to run the deal, pay the utilities and insurance and security and payroll taxes and payroll insurance. Then come back and tell us what gross sale/profit margin you need to survive. Anything above surviving is in not in your pocket yet either, it has to be set aside for 'bad times'.
Trust me, when its you sitting there counting those $100s, you will be spending far more time worrying about making payroll than about what color your new BMW should be.

 

Well here,s a personal example, This was several years ago when i was of
Lesser means and needed some cash about 6 months earlier i had purchased
A Glock Model#23 in .40 caliber an awsome gun!! I purchased it for $780 dollars
A fair price because that caliber had just been introduced i didnt want to sell
Just get maybe half of what i paid as a loan they offered me $75, Of course
I walked right out!!

 

ok guys you act like this doesn't happen anywhere else. Think of a car dealership. I worked as a finance manager in training at one for almost a year. Seriously. I'm sure every one of you got screwed at a dealer whether you want to admit it or not.

You come in with your trade they give you a low ball offer WAY under black book. People come in with their KBB prices which mean nothing and the price goes up a bit. They get what they think is "acceptable" and you make a deal. You made money on the trade.

Now if they are buying another used car it's even better! Just like this show you mark the things up 3,4,5k if you want. **** I know for a fact we traded one car in at 2500 bucks and sold it at 7500. No joke. But back to the point. You mark up the car and the person who is now happy with their trade price now "haggles" the dealer down on the trade to what they think is acceptable and again the dealer makes money.

Now a pawn shop in ways is a lot like a dealership. In tough times dealers don't make that much money profits need to be cut. In booming times dealers make KILLINGS. In slow times pawn shops make KILLINGS and in good times they are meh. People have money to spend in good times they don't care if people make money on them more is coming. People need money when times are rough they know they are loosing money they don't care and need it.

Get over it. It's a way of life. There are also the smart shoppers who actually do get a decent deal on a vehicle. They do their research (not just bring crap in) and if they aren't getting the deal they want they WALK OUT. I'm sure LOTS of people walk out on the show, but what kind of show would that be anyways?

I'd like to buy your item for X...nope.

I'd like to buy your item for x...nope.

Not a good show huh?

Also look at all your retailers. I worked at Radio Shack for 4 years. You buy a cell phone battery it cost them 6 bucks. You pay 50. How's that for a markup? Some people don't care they pay the price. Others go online and pay 20. This stuff happens every day.

 

oh and if you think you see their paperwork and you got the used car for "cost" there is what they like to call a "pack" on the vehicle. It's only in the back office paperwork and not on anything up front but it pays for the employees pay, fixing the car up, etc. It can range from 500 bucks to whatever they want to make it.

 

Tell me how people are getting taken advantage of?
People come in there, knowing full well what a pawn shop does, and if they are totally clueless, maybe they should do some research themselves, and if they don't need the money immediately, they can sell it elsewhere.
It is a business, and they need to make money to support there payroll, and I imagine that those experts that Rick calls in, are getting paid to do so.

 

bingo. People DO NOT do their own research. If they did they would get a better deal. But everyone still needs to make a profit. He has said it numerous times. If I pay you 8000 and sell it for 8000 why would I buy it? He pays 4 then sells it for 6. He then pays the guy who sold it at least a couple hundred (I'm sure it's a tiered system for profit made or something) and all his overhead and actually made less then a grand.

I remember watching an episode where they sold an old compass from a ship or something like that. all the guy did was pull out a clip to make it work and he got paid 50 bucks. I'm sure they get 25-50 bucks each time they come in. They would have to. Why would they waste their gas and time if not?

 

The paper money dealer who had the large size star note in his inventory before and after the show acknowledged that the entire portion of the show regarding that note was staged.

 

I'd like to see them buy some piece of junk that they think is valuable only to find it's just scrap. I'm sure it's happend but they won't air that!

 

Why not air it, it would probably be pretty entertaining.

 

I saw the new episode last night and Corey bought a fake item, a coca cola advertising wooden board, was pretty funny when he told rick and the old man.

 

they have though. a couple times. Don't remember the items but they did do that. And they also aired stolen goods once or twice.

 

The notoriety of appearing (they always mention who they are and their company name) is the benefit that they receive and is more valuable than a $25-$50 payment.