Are Pawn Shops a Scam?

[realaddiebowley]

Update: I just recently went back to the 3rd shop and the owner was kind enough to explain his offer. He said that I only have $75 worth of actual gold here, sorry for the mistake! I paid $100 for it, but that’s marked up due to people who collect the bars rather than just buy the gold. Of course, they need some margin too, so his offer was $60 (which now knowing I have $75 not $100 worth of actual gold, isn’t bad at all). He did say, for anyone looking to sell smaller amounts of gold, to try selling to collectors instead of shops, who will be more willing to pay the premium for the collectible nature. Thank you to him for his time and knowledge! :)

[DGenerationX]

The best I can do is a $1.75 and I am taking all the risk here!

[JB]

The 1st place was pretty good as the actual value of the gold (not accounting for the premium) is $75-$80

[ventac]

The average price of gold per gram over the last three months was $74.70, with a high of $78.80 and a low of $69.04. $70 was a pretty good offer!

[NovaSuperStar]

“Are pawn shops a scam”
“The 2nd and 3rd ones are”

[Mbhuntin]

We have got three hair dressers about 100meters apart from each other😂😂😂😂

[patrickdenero]

Gold was trading at $78.45 a gram 2 days ago… not $100 a gram. Puts all those offers into SOME perspective

[NO-MAD-CLAD]

As a former pawnshop employee let me enlighten you. Generally they all buy at 1/4 to 1/2 new value depending on condition, Sell at 1/2 to 9/10 new value depending on what was paid for the item to maintain margins. The one I worked at was a bit sleazy so we often sold videogame consoles at over new value. When it comes to things that do not lose value like rare metals; the margins get more flexible. Gold will typically buy at anywhere from 1/2 to 3/4 market value. All of these offers were within normal ranges for pawn shops and I would say the first one that offered 70$ was trying hard to outbid his neaby competitors.

[karlgerardsiagan]

Man, the first pawnshop is giving him a good deal.

[Oldbayisthebestseasoning]

Can't go wrong with that movie. "If ya ain't first ya last"

[xcyber]

Damn, $70 for a $100 piece of gold, I would probably take that offer.

[Faithfultothebay]

Rick Harrison is shaking his head right now

[KikiSoyYo]

If its worth 100$ why would they offer 100$ if their goal is to resell it?

[Michaelzeritis]

Usually pawn shops offer less than the actual price because they need to make profit

[sagekuhlman]

Pawn shops have to pay less than it's worth so they can make money

[davidjtbowie]

My tip with gold for the best price go to more basic pawn shops the fancy ones are fancy for a reason and they need to fund that

[Mr_Cool_Guy]

Ngl, woulda been surprised if they offered 100$
Edit: holy cow how does this have almost 3K likes

[Mr]

They’re right next to eachother for the same reason plenty of similar businesses are. It attracts more business from customers not buying something from one shop or not getting the amount they want, to then go to a different shop nearby.

[nathanl]

Gold has never been worth $100 per gram. Today, July 18th, we hit an all time high of $79.50ish per gram, which has since gone down as of this posting.

[pokebro]

That was your first mistake. Take it to a coin shop.