Pawnshops - Two Philosophies

Feel like venting on pawn "mentaility"!

Many will defend them, but I think many/most are looking to rip people off. They want 30% or more profit margin on every deal and are not at all ashamed to take advantage of 4000% if the opp arises.

I was watching one of those reality shows "pawn stars chicago" or something like that last night and evidently someone had brought in a black opal ring worth $38K-$40K looking for just $1K for it - didn't know how valuable it was and neither did the clerk who took it pending an offer. They were quite brazen about "call him back and make the deal before he changes his mind". Not, "lets give him $25K-$30K as a reasonable offer". And the guy, unnamed, will now see this show and know how they stole a $40K ring from him for $1K. Sure he should have had it appraised at a jeweler etc. etc. but EVERYONE makes mistakes like that when dealing with something they are unfamiliar with and they shouldn't be preyed upon by these "pawn scum". They will rip people off at any and all opportunities. I loathe people like that and that mentality. Which is why I am staying away from any pawnshop coin deals PERIOD from now on. Rant off!

It wouldn't surprise me if it was real. A lot of the "situations" they do are taken from real experiences - just re-created. And if that was a fake then why "look like rip-off scumbags" on TV? They could easily have "passed" on that vignette/storyline. But regardless, I believe they do it a lot to people - rip them off at any chance.

I did have one of those "gold and silver" buying places ( same mentality at them IMO ) try to tell me that silver coins couldn't be melted by law and they tried to get me to sell my junk silver to them at 10X face when the going rate was 24X(what I eventually sold it for at a coinshop).