Pawn shop robbery

[Dave]

I stopped at one of my favorite pawn shops today on the way home from work just to relax and shoot the bull. I was looking at a pretty nice 6" Model 29 Smith for $450 when two girls came in with some long guns wrapped in a sheet. I watched one of them produce a shotgun I couldn't identify and then whip out a Winchester 1873 in 32-20. It looked pretty good. The proprietor talked to her for a minute or two and offered her $50 for the 73. She said OK. Man!

I had to go so I didn't get to look at it up close. I did ease up on it while they were talking and it looked original and decent. Of course the bore could be a sewer pipe. I like to get a good deal, but man I don't think I have the heart to be a pawn shop man.

[fatoldfool]

Most pawn operators don't have a heart, at least the ones around here. But I can kind of understand it in a way, seeing the people they have to deal with most of the time.

[AJMD429]

You could have given the shop owner $100, and the 'girls' $200, and come out ahead...! OTOH, if you go back in a few days, you'll probably see a much higher price tag than that on the gun...

[2ndovc]

That's just wrong!

jb

[TedH]

Growing up we went to church with a gentleman that my Dad knew from way back. He owned a local restaurant and we would have breakfast there after church regularly. After a number of years, his restaurant went belly up and he opened a pawn shop in town. I used to frequent his shop just to look at the guns and even bought a couple from him. After witnessing him take advantage of a couple different people in much the same way, I lost all respect for him and haven't set foot in that store again. I understand a guy has to pay the bills, but come on, how do these guys sleep at night?

[20cows]

From what I've seen, a pawn broker would like to give half of what it'll bring. High dollar items could be on the shelf a while if he wants to get what it's worth and cover overhead and such.

In this case, however, he robbed the ignorant (don't know if they were innocent).

[Ysabel Kid]

I'd love to hear what he ends up pricing it for!

[Ray Newman]

I think I would stepped in and said it was worth more than US $50.00....

[awp101]

Let me put my asbestos undies on...OK, here we go....

Having been a pawnbroker for a large chain many moons ago, my gut tells me he may have suspected the guns were hot. In TX a pawned item can't be pulled to go out for sale until after 90 days (30 loan period, 60 day grace period). If the item is sold to the pawnshop, it has to sit for 30 days. The local PD gets a copy of all pawn and sales tickets (my understanding is a lot of it is done online now as well) and search the theft reports, etc for matching items.

Once a stolen item is found it is picked up by the PD and held until a hearing is convened for the original owner to claim the item (I was actually a part of a couple of these hearings). Once an item is ID'd as stolen, the chances of the pawnbroker getting his money back are slim and none with slim having just left town.

The rule of thumb I always followed was if the item didn't match the feel of the "owner", make a lowball offer they will likely refuse or if they do accept and it gets tagged as stolen, the company didn't lose much. Naturally, firearms were my "specialty". If two young girls came in with vintage iron it would have pegged my suspicion meter unless they were well known regulars that had brought similar items before. If it was something obviously stolen it was politely declined. My job was to make the company money but I also had to be able to sleep at night.

And yes, after a while it "gets" to you. That's probably why my wife accuses me of not caring when someone gives us a s/ob story (sorry, the filter apparently doesn't like s-o-b) over one thing or another. There's not much I haven't heard in the way of s/ob stories or many names I haven't been called (including honky, yes someone actually called me a honky! ) when I didn't break down and just hand them the keys to the register. And what names the customers missed, Uncle Sam made up for...

[Ray Newman]

awp101: I understand what you're saying. But over the years I've seen too many guys take advantage of unsuspecting children and widows when buying tools, firearms, etc.

The worst one that I ever saw was a fellow master mason take advantage of fellow mason's widow when he bought a pre-war Merkel shotgun for US $250.00. Of course, this guy never told her what it was really worth because that's all she wanted for that old gun....

[Nate Kiowa Jones]

From what I've seen, a pawn broker would like to give half of what it'll bring. High dollar items could be on the shelf a while if he wants to get what it's worth and cover overhead and such.

In this case, however, he robbed the ignorant (don't know if they were innocent).

That's close to what I do.
I don't do pawns but I do take guns for trade or just buy them out right. But, I first offer to sell the item for them for a 13% commision. That will be the best return for them and i don't have any money vested. But, If the person doesn't want to wait for it to sell I will offer 60% of book with the explaination that it's certainly worth more but I really can't afford to tie my money up for less return.

BTW, I never make the first offer. I always ask what they expect to get for it first. If they don't have a clue, out comes the book.

[mescalero1]

A master mason is NOT supposed to conduct himself like that!

[Alan Wood]

A master mason is NOT supposed to conduct himself like that!

Not that I'm a mason but from what I have heard no mason is supposed to conduct themselves like that!

[mescalero1]

The master is SUPPOSED to set an example for the others to follow.

[Gun Smith]

Steve that sounds very fair. When I 'smithed buying was 50% of the book adjusted for condition. The commission sales were 25% of sales price. Most folks just sold for cash.
I don't think I ever bought a "hot" gun. But that was 50 years ago, and a lot has changed since then.

[Ray Newman]

mescalero1: I agree. And I took the same oath as he, but obviously some people don't place much value on their word....

[Tycer]

The worst one that I ever saw was a fellow master mason take advantage of fellow mason's widow

I do hope the other part of your oath, to council an erring Brother, caused you to put a pointy boot in his backside.

[Idiot]

I wish I could have picked up the '73 for 50 bucks. Shucks....

Now I've got to get to the pawn shop and buy that 45/70 I've been talking about. I sure hope they paid $50 for it and give me plenty of room to "wheel and deal."

[edsguns]

Growing up we went to church with a gentleman that my Dad knew from way back. He owned a local restaurant and we would have breakfast there after church regularly. After a number of years, his restaurant went belly up and he opened a pawn shop in town. I used to frequent his shop just to look at the guns and even bought a couple from him. After witnessing him take advantage of a couple different people in much the same way, I lost all respect for him and haven't set foot in that store again. I understand a guy has to pay the bills, but come on, how do these guys sleep at night?

I really like that you all knew him... from church

[Dave]

I went back by on my lunch hour to take a harder look at the Model 29. I asked him about the 73. He didn't want to show it to me. He said wait and see if they come back for it. If they don't then we can talk about it. To his credit he gives guys a lot of slack on guns if they pawn them and are about to lose them. As long as you come up there and tell him you can't make your interest payment on time he will give you more time. A lot of people pawn stuff cheap so they can get it back easily. I would have liked to have taken a real good look at that gun. We will see.

[awp101]

This thread has brought back some memories for me. It's been almost 20 years ago that I was on the other side of the counter but here's one that proves the pawnbroker doesn't always win...

Around 1993-94 we had a rifle come out for sale that I wanted. I don't recall if it was a Winchester Model 70 or a Remington 700 but I DO recall it was a .264 Win Mag with a Leupold scope. At the time I didn't know squat about good scopes and of course the Blue Book didn't address scopes at all.

Since I was the go-to guy on firearms I got to price it and I priced it low enough that I could afford to put it in layaway after it had been out for sale 5 days as required by company policy. It wasn't out 3 hours when one of my regular buyers came in, spotted it and bought it right then. THEN he told me the price I had on it wouldn't even cover the scope.

What had I priced it? $359.95....