Pawn Shops - Ever Used One?

JupiterKid

I was reading up an article on the Journal.ie and it was all about the three surviving pawnbrokers in Dublin, which are apparently doing a very good trade thanks to the recession.

Link:
http://www.thejournal.ie/in-pics-dublins-pawnbrokers-559185-Aug2012/

Many younger members here have probably never heard of pawn shops outside of the TV show Pawn Stars. Basically, if you need a quick money loan, you take a valuable item to the pawn shop (often a wedding or engagement ring, gold chain etc.) and then the pawn broker will lend you a certain amount of money against the value of the item that they keep. If you don't pay back the loan within 4 weeks, the item will be auctioned off by the Pawnbroker.

Pawn shops were very common in the early 20th century when banks only lent money to the wealthy. Families would literally pawn off their clothes and meagre possessions to raise money to feed themselves until pay day at the end of the week and reclaim the items at the pawn shop only to pawn them off again at a later stage when cash ran scarce. Often, they lost the items to the pawnbroker because they couldn't afford to pay the loan back.

Have any boardsies been inside a pawn shop? Has anyone here ever pawned off their goods?

saiint

well their fuking usless now
went to one recently
the prick asked me for a receit of the item i was giving him?
doesnt that defeat the purpose of pawning it?

themandan6611

yeah, paid €60 for a blow job and ride

Colmustard

Never I am told you can get some bargains in them.

DEFTLEFTHAND

I've never actually been in one in Ireland. In the USA they're quite common, every small town seems to have one.

summerskin

saiint wrote: »

well their fuking usless now
went to one recently
the prick asked me for a receit of the item i was giving him?
doesnt that defeat the purpose of pawning it?

No. Unless you're a criminal.

admiralofthefleet

i used to use the ones on capel street when i was single

saiint

summerskin wrote: »

No. Unless you're a criminal.

if it was a phone id understand but it was a gold necklace which was 8 years old
why would anyone keep a receit that long off an item they dont expect to return it to its shop?
brought it to cash for gold got my moneys worth their
pawning **** in this day and age is stupid in ireland
they ask for a receit? give you a price which is a **** lot lower then what you bought it for and they know it because of the receit
then they sell it for a price just below the actually price of said item

no point in pawning anything
adverts.ie way to go

Jimoslimos

Was moving abroad so had to get rid of a tv and freeview box. Got £20 for the lot. In fairness although they were only a few years old they were cheap Argos crap - the tv was one of those old style CRT jobs.

Taxi fare to get the stuff to the shop was £15 - so £5 profit. Thinking back I should just have given them free to whoever came to collect

bobin fudge

handed in my gold chain to one and got €30 for it and paid closer to £300 for it, forgot about it and went back almost 2 years later and it was still there

his estimation must have been right -2 years there and nobody bought it - tee hee

JupiterKid

Apparently in America people often pawn off guns as collateral to raise loans.:eek:

I've never actually been inside a pawn shop but I know the unusual symbol of the three brass balls that hang over their shopfronts. It always seemed to me that the clientele of pawn shops where people who were financially hard up and only went there as a last resort.

It also seems that these cash for gold and other cash "converter" places are the modern equivalent of pawn shops - basically places where you go to trade assets for cash.

Krieg

Are cash converter type stores not pawn shops?

seven_eleven

Yeah they've popped up all over the place in the past 5 or so years. I wonder do you get dirt for what you're trading in? Like in gamestop where you might trade in your ps3 for €50, then they put it back up on the shelf for 5 times the price. :rolleyes:

phasers

I haven't but my Dad has, he pawned his gold chain that matched my Mam's. I want to get it out for him but the eejit lost the receipt.

Jimoslimos

Krieg wrote: »

Are cash converter type stores not pawn shops?

Yeah same thing. The BBC did a documentary a few years back called Skint about the lives of people who frequent these shops. Pretty sad to watch. Many have serious mental health problems aswell as drug issues.

A neverending cycle of selling their possessions, then getting them again on buy-back (at a higher price of course).

The Amazing Spiderman

saiint wrote: »

if it was a phone id understand but it was a gold
brought it to cash for gold got my moneys worth their


no point in pawning anything
adverts.ie way to go

lol

GalwayKiefer

Cash Converters are all over the place here, I've never pawned anything but I've bought a fair bit from them. A few guys at work use them to get some cash for old games and dvds they don't want anymore.

Ficheall

Aye, there are at least two in Galway, though they don't seem to be as busy recently as they were - perhaps the recession is over, eh?
I buy DVD's in there for about 2euro each. Got a passable beginner's accordion for 130, and found my bike, which had been stolen from outside my office a fortnight earlier, in one of them.

Grayson

Never sold anything in one and I don't think I could buy anything there. Especially jewellery. I'd just be thinking about how much it hurt someone to hand the stuff over.

cloud493

Do they still have cash converters here? Back in Liverpool, they were just frequented by junkies and thiefs/

Ficheall

Grayson wrote: »

I'd just be thinking about how much it hurt someone to hand the stuff over.

Don't worry - it had probably been nicked.

mackg

I've bought stuff in cash converters.

shruikan2553

There's a place in Galway I've visited. As some one interested in video games it's a good place for PS2/Xbox games. I would rather sell my stuff on ebay or to a friend

Darkglasses

I buy a fair few things in Cash Converters, very cheap DVDs/Electronics/Music Equipment. Nice guy who runs it as well, much more decent than the kind of person some people might expect to run a pawn shop.

Where To

No, I'm not really into seafood.

Lyaiera

Where To wrote: »

No, I'm not really into seafood.

What exactly does seafood have to do with chess, young man?

JupiterKid

I think posters here are confusing cash converters and pawn shops proper. They are not quite the same thing.

A cash converter just buys your goods and sells them on At a profit whereas a pawn broker will give you a loan against the collateral
of the item you have pawned off to him and you can then claim back within 4 weeks by paying back the loan plus a small fee or else the items are auctioned by the pawn broker.

Pawn operations are strictly regulated and for any items that sell at auction above the reserve price - the difference is supposed to be paid back to the pawner.

A reputable pawn broker is apparently a much better deal for the pawner than a cash for gold operation.

Pawn shops were very common in my grandparents' day.

Where To

Lyaiera wrote: »

What exactly does seafood have to do with chess, young man?

They are both potentially fatal when not done properly.

Tope

saiint wrote: »

no point in pawning anything
adverts.ie way to go

shruikan2553 wrote: »

I would rather sell my stuff on ebay or to a friend

But the point of pawning stuff is that you don't want to sell it – it's a means of borrowing money with the intention of getting your collateral item back when you have the cash.

Which is why it's often sad if they're desperate enough to have pawned something of sentimental value like a wedding ring or family heirloom - they would have had every intention of getting it back at the end of the month but obviously it wouldn't always work out that way.

(Edit: JupiterKid explained it properly above!)

D1stant

Grayson wrote: »

Never sold anything in one and I don't think I could buy anything there. Especially jewellery. I'd just be thinking about how much it hurt someone to hand the stuff over.

Anything you buy in a Jewellers has a long line of extreme exploitation behind it. Pawn broker ihard-lick stories dont come close

ADonoghue

I worked in a pawn-shop in Liverpool when I left school in the early 60s aged 15 , a life experience .

My first Monday morning the boss told me to unbolt the two big front doors and be careful not get " knocked over in the rush " I thought he weas joking , he wasn't they would pawn anything to old clothing , shoes wedding rings , radios , my own Mother knew the boss on first name terms thats how they survived in a poor area .

Tuesday the local police called with a list of stolen items which includied serial numbers of radios etc .

THe Wednesday I was given a box of DDT to go upstairs and delouse all the old suits and clothing , the fleas were jumping , the first thing I did when I got home was strip off and have a bath .

On the Friday I asked for my cards ,I made some stupid excuse why I wanted to leave what a life experience it made me realize at a young age it wasn' for me .

Wacker The Attacker

saiint wrote: »

well their fuking usless now
went to one recently
the prick asked me for a receit of the item i was giving him?
doesnt that defeat the purpose of pawning it?

Isnt it to prevent stolen goods being pawned

Wacker The Attacker

ADonoghue wrote: »

I worked in a pawn-shop in Liverpool when I left school in the early 60s aged 15 , a life experience .

My first Monday morning the boss told me to unbolt the two big front doors and be careful not get " knocked over in the rush " I thought he weas joking , he wasn't they would pawn anything to old clothing , shoes wedding rings , radios , my own Mother knew the boss on first name terms thats how they survived in a poor area .

Tuesday the local police called with a list of stolen items which includied serial numbers of radios etc .

THe Wednesday I was given a box of DDT to go upstairs and delouse all the old suits and clothing , the fleas were jumping , the first thing I did when I got home was strip off and have a bath .

On the Friday I asked for my cards ,I made some stupid excuse why I wanted to leave what a life experience it made me realize at a young age it wasn' for me .

Thats liverpool alright

EoghanIRL

Never been to one. I watch pawn stars all the time though

JupiterKid

I see that an online pawn service, Pawngo, is offering cash strapped 2012 Olympics medal winners the "opportunity" to pawn their medals for ready cash.

Would an Olympics athlete, unless driven to being down and out, really want to pawn off their medal?

Link:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/8/pawn-site-offers-break-for-financially-strapped-ol/

tuxy

EoghanIRL wrote: »

Never been to one. I watch pawn stars all the time though

I've only watched a few on youtube. Isn't the whole show staged?

EoghanIRL

tuxy wrote: »

EoghanIRL wrote: »

Never been to one. I watch pawn stars all the time though

I've only watched a few on youtube. Isn't the whole show staged?

I'm not sure. You learn a lot about history on it though . I find it quite interesting

EoghanIRL

JupiterKid wrote: »

I see that an online pawn service, Pawngo, is offering cash strapped 2012 Olympics medal winners the "opportunity" to pawn their medals for ready cash.

Would an Olympics athlete, unless driven to being down and out, really want to pawn off their medal?

Link:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/8/pawn-site-offers-break-for-financially-strapped-ol/

To answer your question some athletes do sell their Olympic medals. For two reasons usually.
The main reason is they give it to charity by Auctioning it off and donate the money to them.
And I guess some athletes might be in debt or simply don't want them.
Olympic medals aren't as valuable as you think. It's only worth about 500 euro for a gold. It is only gold plated with a small amount of gold. The last real gold Olympic medal was given in out in the early 1900s. They were much smaller however. If Michael phelps was alive back then he would be a rich man ( he probably already is).

MadsL

EoghanIRL wrote: »

To answer your question some athletes do sell their Olympic medals. For two reasons usually.
The main reason is they give it to charity by Auctioning it off and donate the money to them.
And I guess some athletes might be in debt or simply don't want them.
Olympic medals aren't as valuable as you think. It's only worth about 500 euro for a gold. It is only gold plated with a small amount of gold. The last real gold Olympic medal was given in out in the early 1900s. They were much smaller however.

Poland Olympian Zofia Noceti-Klepacka, who captured bronze in the women's RS:X windsurfing competition at the London Olympics, has said that she is going to sell her medal to help a young neighbor.

Noceti-Klepacka promised her 5-year-old neighbor that if she won a medal, she would auction it off to help with the girl’s cystic fibrosis treatments.
http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-blogs/sailing/polish-olympian-auctions-medal-to-help-neighbor.html?chrcontext=community-support

They raise quite a bit more than 500 though. Especially after my mate who knows a lot about Gold Medals has had a look, I'll give you $100, cash. My best offer.
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/136386

If Michael phelps was alive back then he would be a rich man ( he probably already is).

About $40 million last estimate.

JupiterKid wrote: »

Apparently in America people often pawn off guns as collateral to raise loans.:eek:

Why do you find that shocking? Guns have very low depreciation.

meoklmrk91

Bought my old iPhone in a cash converters, saw it on Donedeal and thought I was just buying it off a fella until I arrived.

Tried to sell my PSP in one as well but it had been sitting around for ages before I took it in and forgot to charge it, they wouldn't take it because they didn't know if it could take a charge, handed them to the charger and told them to plug it in, still wouldn't take it took it down to game and they took it no problem.

saiint

saiint wrote: »

brought it to cash for gold got my moneys worth their

I sincerely doubt you got anywhere near the worth there

eth0

I had an ould chess set with a few pieces missing so I restocked it nicely. Still had to go into the king shop after to complete it

Beefy78

JupiterKid wrote: »

I think posters here are confusing cash converters and pawn shops proper. They are not quite the same thing.

A cash converter just buys your goods and sells them on At a profit whereas a pawn broker will give you a loan against the collateral
of the item you have pawned off to him and you can then claim back within 4 weeks by paying back the loan plus a small fee or else the items are auctioned by the pawn broker.

Pawn operations are strictly regulated and for any items that sell at auction above the reserve price - the difference is supposed to be paid back to the pawner.

A reputable pawn broker is apparently a much better deal for the pawner than a cash for gold operation.

Certainly the ones in the UK do. I assume it's the same in Ireland.

http://www.cashconverters.co.uk/we-loan/pawnbrokers/

Pawn shops were very common in my grandparents' day.

I could be wrong but I think most Cash Converters-style places will offer a traditional pawn-brokers service.

Ficheall

JupiterKid wrote: »

I think posters here are confusing cash converters and pawn shops proper. They are not quite the same thing.

A cash converter just buys your goods and sells them on At a profit whereas a pawn broker will give you a loan against the collateral
of the item you have pawned off to him and you can then claim back within 4 weeks by paying back the loan plus a small fee or else the items are auctioned by the pawn broker.

Pawn operations are strictly regulated and for any items that sell at auction above the reserve price - the difference is supposed to be paid back to the pawner.

A reputable pawn broker is apparently a much better deal for the pawner than a cash for gold operation.

Cash converters do give loans against collateral, and sell the collateral on if the item is not reclaimed within the agreed length of time.
Rather than auctioning the items though, they just put them out for sale and any profit goes to the shop, which is fair enough...

garv123

tuxy wrote: »

I've only watched a few on youtube. Isn't the whole show staged?

When they aren't filming there its dark and dreary and a kip that's floor space is mostly taken up by their rack of pawnstar t-shirts.

Thwip!

Ficheall wrote: »

Aye, there are at least two in Galway, though they don't seem to be as busy recently as they were - perhaps the recession is over, eh?
I buy DVD's in there for about 2euro each. Got a passable beginner's accordion for 130, and found my bike, which had been stolen from outside my office a fortnight earlier, in one of them.

And how did you go about getting your bike back? Did you have to pay? Or could you prove ownership?

Degag

tuxy wrote: »

I've only watched a few on youtube. Isn't the whole show staged?

Certainly most of the interaction between the crew is staged - Chumlee isn't as stupid as is made out - but everything else is real. Really good and interesting programme.