OJ, leaving out most of the boring details myself and wife #1 bailed out of CA in the early '80s and ended up in AR. I was bleeding money here every month working as an auto mechanic. She got to know a couple in real estate who had a local pawn shop listed for sale/with property. It seemed like a impossible to lose deal. As it turned out the property was a bad deal, would have been far ahead to start out as a new shop but took a while to discover that news. Did owner financing, 2nd morgage, and agent 3rd. I think PO really expected to re-possess. Fooled them, as things turned out. Wife left with son & step child back to CA. Struggle to meet payments. Decide it may be better to divorce in AR rather than await same in CA. Present wife appears (has a job). Sun comes up. Pay off notes/ house, build new building/ property condemmend. Become renter, move & pay off new house, live happily ever after.
Parents were quite suprised to hear I was considering this type of business but were supportive of the endeavor.
I've been giving moral support to a PP member who's thinking of taking the plunge into the second oldest profession but I can understand any reluctance on his part. It's certainly not for everyone but it beats crawling under cars.
Jim

interesting story about the biz. always enjoy going in a pawn shop. never know what your gonna find. yes i have been watching a few installments of pawnstars and they have had some unusual stuff show up.


we used to have a place here called the jewel box downtown phx on central ave. more guns than i had ever seen as a kid. ended up buying a couple from him over the years. the place was always busy and was clean as a whistle. owner knew his stuff backwards forwards and had the values down to a gnats ass. very competitive and had a gunsmith on premise to check out firearms.


the ones i really enjoy are pawn shops in backwater areas. including the indian reservations. talk about some cool stuff! rugs/kachinas/jewelery/sandpaintings/old guns etc.

i dont think i have ever had a dull moment in a pawn shop.

Funny... There is a parallel thread on a guitar forum about this show.

Wanna see where the guitars come from? Would you be surprised if it was one of the big Vegas dealers?

"** WATCH FOR COWTOWN GUITARS ON EPISODES OF "PAWN STARS" on THE HISTORY CHANNEL !!!!

Cowtown Guitars

Glen I have only seen AM pickers once but I liked it... Reminds me of going places with my dad.... He would love it if he could make a living doing that...


Jim I can see my old man having a pawn shop if he could handle dealing with the lowlifes more.....

"if he could handle dealing with the lowlifes....."

I guess I've managed not to look at them quite like that, plus my town is only about 15,000. I wouldn't be doing this in an inner city.
Maybe because I've been down on my luck before I can see myself in their position. But they come to me and have to play by my rules. I mostly get the same people over and over; I have a good memory for someone who sticks me with a faulty widget. You're in real trouble when your're 86'd from a pawn shop.
Have your father drop in should he get this way, it may not be like he expects.
Jim

There used to be a pawn shop near my parents house that billed itself as "the worlds largest pawn shop." I have no idea if it was but it was huge. It took an hour to wander around and see the stuff. The owner knew every piece of crap he had. When he died the place was gutted and bulldozed. Now it is a Walgreen's.

Glen don't you hate ppl that can do inventory like that... My dad does that with everything spread out over the 10acres.... the other day he told my uncle that there was some silver paint in that cabinet over there.... That one with stuff in front of it that hasn't been moved in 5yrs? Yup... Paint? Its there... left over from his body shop that he shut down in the mid '80s.... :eek:



Jim I guess I phrased that wrong I wasn't looking down on anyone... It wasn't so much a statement about the class of people but the type... You know.... the ones that pawn their wedding rings to fund a habit be drinking, drugs, or the casino... I've got family that has done that....

American Pickers almost seems like a spin off of "Hoarders". It would be great if those guys showed up at some of those sh** hole on Hoarders. Not sure they'd find much though. Maybe a petrified cat or two.

Those American pickers guys seem like scum bags to me. The first episode, they knocked on some guys' door in rural Iowa--he was an elderly farmer/WW2 vet. They basically threw a camera in his face and went rummaging through his barn--finding Japanese swords that he had brought back from his time in the occupation force of japan--ended up buying them for under what they were worth and then bragged about it when they found out the "true" value--nothin like taking advantage of an elder, and a vet no less.

Hope they both get bit by rattlers

I like watching Pawn stars--just to see what comes through the shop--I just can't understand why folks sell certain items there after finding out what the true values are--do they need the cash right then and there, or is it scripted?

The Dutch east india Company shipwreck bell, the cobra body/chassis--if these people would take a little time to advertise in the right spots, they could make way more than the quick bucks for selling to the shop.

I felt my spidey-sense tingling on that one; methinks TV money exchanged hands to make that happen. A tow driver should know people. . .

I like the show but then I stop by pawn shops from time to time.

I do too Joe... Just not around here... The ones out here never seem to have good tools, spoons, or electronics... Not sure how they make any money....

I once thought I could find a great buy on a custom or collectable cue in a pawn shop, so I started cruising them. Not to be...seems every pawn shop owner has a copy of The blue book of pool cues. :(

Being knowledgable of one's inventory is necessary for a pawn shop to stay in business.

There is on exception: one of my friends trades in vintage video games. He makes a small fortune every year and buys most of his inventory at pawn shops and garage sales. It turns out that video games tend to depreciate rather rapidly once their system has been retired, but once they are 2-3 game systems out of date, some real standout titles will start to appreciate again.

Then there are these:

The Holy Grails of Console Gaming - The Rarest, Most Valuable, and Desirable Games Ever - racketboy

PAWN story is a set up....I know one of the sellers, who happens to be a nationally known Trapdoor rifle guy...he sells a TD to Pawn buddies for $1500 which is retail...this seller has lived in LV for 40 years and just has to have met the Pawn Buddies who have been here forever as well.

Pickers...well you might decide to sell some stuff if you were gona get your 15 of fame on TV...

I have known a lot of Art and Antique Pickers in LA...some of the guys doing the picking are what you would consider to be rich, famous and are doing it mostly for themsleves...like me for instance..Part of the fun of dumpster diving is finding that treasure..

A friend of mines wife runs estate sales out in Sun City, CA...the best well the only deal so far is that I bought a 1000 rounds of Lake City Green Tip 223 and a 1200 round can of 45 ACP for $200.00.

Always lookin for a deal...

Everybody has a copy of every blue book imaginable..so to slip one over on a Pawn Shop guy just ain't likely to happen..or on anyone in the business for that matter.

I have not been to a Pawn Shop in years, in LV I don't even frequent the estate type auctions...it is rare to have a gun auction...there was that huge estate of 5000 guns and 750,000 round of ammo several years back...there was some good stuff that went relatively cheap and some junk that went for outrageous money...I don't go t antique stores, nor Gun Shows except for the Beinfield at the Riv...I don't even go to Gun Stores on a regular basis...there is one old timer that hits 4 gun stores for times a week for 40 years and spends about 40K a year in each store..so when those boys get sumthin in they call him...

I just watch the auctions across the country and know my relative price limit..and sometimes you hit and sometimes ya don't.