Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Pawn Stars Rip Off

60% is a decent average around here. Meaning, if what you bring in is worth $1000, $600 is about the highest offer youre going to get on it.

Agreed ! As far as the guy giving the appraisal buying it, it’s not ethical ( as if that matters). Watch Antique Roadshow on PBS if you want honest reality. Generally when selling to a middle man 50% is fair.

I’m not sure if the show is real, but I have a friend who’s an expert in real shows. I’d like to give him a call and have him take a look at it, if that’s okay with you.




P

Next time you're in Vegas, go by the shop. You (and a hundred other out-of-town gawkers jammed in there) will note that the TV personalities are nowhere in sight. Nor are any TV crewmembers, lights, cameras, or sound gear. Yet, on the show, the place is almost empty of customers and other staff.

Does that tell you anything?

To TRH's other contention, that a dealer should spend $3000 to buy and restore an item that MIGHT be worth $3000 tells you what TRH knows about business.

I'd like you to show me where I said that. Ridiculous claim on your part.

"Then again, the seller should have been smart enough to turn to the expert and ask him if he will restore it for him for $1,000.00, and then sell it for $3,000.00. Better yet, he should have asked the expert if he would like to buy it for $2,000.00, or some approximation of same."

That's where you said it.

Not familiar with the meaning of "ask" in the context of price negotiation, I see. It's a starting point in every negotiation.

No that was funny! 😁😁😁😁😁

What many dont realize is the low offers are usually accepted.

Its a pawn shop.

Know a guy that had one. Some people think selling the kids video game system and buying it back, 3 or 4 times....is OK

Expect a ridiculously low offer at a pawnshop, or even gunshop for that matter.

My LGS however, tells people the going price on stuff.
Doesnt lie to em.
And they say wed pay such and such a %.

They are NOT a pawnshop.

They flat out tell em what they can order a new one for and that for best money, its better to sell it themselves to an individual. Or they offer consignment.....if its not something common.

I hate to be the one to break the news to you TRH, but that’s what pawn shops do….

A good one indeed! I always find it amazing how they can come up with an expert on some of the most arcane, rare and generally unknown historical facts about some item that could be a few hundred or more years old that shows up in the shop. "No problem; I'll just call down my buddy who's a renowned expert on ( fill in the blank )".

People buy guns from RK or other places, get hard up for cash and hit my LGS and want to sell it, on the spot, for what they paid.

Seen it over and over.

Never shop there yet think its a friggin bank.

Clueless.

Then you have other people that just change their minds and are content with taking a beating on a trade.

Comical.

I went to a gun show in the Palm Beach area back in the 1990s, and there was a guy there with a table. This guy's routine, when someone came to him with a gun, was to open up the current Blue Book and look up the price based on the year, model, and condition, and offer that exact price. That's not a good business strategy, IMO, but lots of folks were happy to bring their guns to him. The guy must have been independently wealthy, and just enjoyed dealing in used guns.

It's likely they didn't get hooked up like that till after the TV show got big.

Saw a guy doing that, his book was a few yrs old.
Asked him about it and he smiled, said nobody ever asks.

So why didn't you man up and offer her a grand for it?

local shop did about the same thing, lady brought in some gun of her late husband guns and had them place on Consignment, owner said this is what he would sell them for. He sold them for alot more and kept that and still charged her 15% commission. the Attorney General got involved and the owner did some time

Spot on, hookeye. "Ask" may be the start point in negotiation, but "Offered and Accepted" is the end point.

I worked in a pawn shop for six years. Without going into great detail, any offer to buy something over 50% of its possible final sale price will mean a loss. It takes from 20% to 40% markup just to break even, considering the cost of rent, salaries, insurance, taxes, loss to damage, utilities, advertising, and several more expenses. The pawn process is similar with regard to loan/sell back ratios. Typical loan is for no more than a third of the eventual - and theoretical - sale value.

A smart pawn dealer will explain that the lower the loan, the easier it will be for the customer to pay it off and the less interest he will pay. The dealer knows that a high loan is unlikely to be paid off, and he'll get no interest money, then will have to absorb all the record-keeping and storage expenses of an item that may or may not ever cover all that plus the loan and lost interest.

That's actual business.

Wake to the reality of the world around you. Quit being a foucking RUBE. No wonder you get sucked into Happy Camper type fantasy clap and Alex Jones’ conspiracies.

1. It’s mostly (probably all) scripted

2. Pawn shops are never happy, fair places to sell anything.


As an addendum, which I doubt you’ve also never encountered. Blood and plasma donation centers are not cool places to hang around either. So far no reality show on those, yet

Hard to say. Old LGS that I was associated with been around for quite a while. You never inew who in the firearm fraternity would walk in. Been sharing PM’s with a poster here recently about Mr. Aagard’s visits back in the day.

But remembering the old man very well who started the shop and his associates ( all founding members of Texas Gun Collectors Assn back in the 50’s). We knew who to call or talk to when we needed additional info. I was lucky to be able to meet and handle some pretty historical stuff over the years. Did find two of my GGgrandfathers Colts in a private collection of a very famous collector in Waco. One is still in The Texas Ranger Museum at Ft. Fisher!!!