For Mr Lee

[Hoz]

There's a show on cable called "Pawn Stars". Have you seen it? If so, what do you think about it?

[Mr Lee]

There's a show on cable called "Pawn Stars". Have you seen it? If so, what do you think about it?

No pal I have not seen it yet but friends have told me about it and those in the business say it is way too phony but I would have to see it to comment. We did have strange things pawned when we had that business from a Rolex off the wrist of a guy driving a Rolls Royce to the gold tooth pulled right out of a guys mouth that I did not want to take but he said he really needed the money so I just made him put it in the envelope and would not touch it and gave him $10 to help him get to pay day and he became a regular because of it. The ten cost him $15 because it was the minimum interest to cover the cost of the paperwork, stamps to the police and all that is involved but he did not care because we were the only ones who trusted him enough to not touch it and to trust it was real without testing it but I knew my gold and could pretty well tell just by looking at it and no one makes fake teeth out of fake gold that I ever heard of because it would not last and would corrode. What things on there interested you and maybe I can comment on them?

[Hoz]

I just wanted to know if you have seen the show, since you used to be in the business. It's a Las Vegas pawn shop and they deal on just about anything from Grandma's old jewelry to a Volvo tractor trailer. A few weeks ago he bought an authentic Hotchkiss cannon that had been used in the Wounded Knee Massacre. Sometimes it's a reverse Antiques Roadshow with sellers coming in with something they think is worth thousands and after he has an "expert" appraise it they wind uptaking fifty bucks. I agree some of it is phony especially the son and his stupid sidekick, but I guess that adds some "comic relief".

[Hoz]

no one makes fake teeth out of fake gold that I ever heard of because it would not last and would corrode.

That would give the saying "old green teeth" a new meaning wouldn't it?

[Mr Lee]

I just wanted to know if you have seen the show, since you used to be in the business. It's a Las Vegas pawn shop and they deal on just about anything from Grandma's old jewelry to a Volvo tractor trailer. A few weeks ago he bought an authentic Hotchkiss cannon that had been used in the Wounded Knee Massacre. Sometimes it's a reverse Antiques Roadshow with sellers coming in with something they think is worth thousands and after he has an "expert" appraise it they wind uptaking fifty bucks. I agree some of it is phony especially the son and his stupid sidekick, but I guess that adds some "comic relief".

Thanks for the info, I just never seem to get to see much TV and find it very hard to sit for long periods of time unless something really holds my attention. I have also seen how most shops work and try to rip people off. I had two pocket watches left after I closed and there is one very big shop in town that said they specialized in pocket watches, so I figured that since gold went up quite a bit and since the wife and I had nothing better to do one day that we would play around with them and one full page add buyer who was set up in a hotel and listed pocket watches like I had for $1000 and up. Both places tried to steal them for less than the gold content, so they were not happy making a buck, they both wanted to make a ton and probably looked at me in blue jeans with my younger wife and figured I was in need of cash, wrong and I laughed and told them how much was in the cases in just gold and then they both got mad at me and we just walked out. Many are crocks and lie and steal but with a license so they try to make the killing each time, so the cannon the guy bought that might have been worth a $1000 but why pay that when he could get it for $50 and that was why we made so much money in such a short time, because we paid top dollar and we were satisfied making a little a lot of times instead of a killing every time. Overall I had to work harder for the same profit but I did not have to sit around like a shark waiting for the one kill of the day and went home and slept well at night.Actually nowadays each area can only take what they are sure to make money on, guns, gold top brand generators etc, and so many get stuck with so much junk nowadays because of sales in retail stores. I stopped to see a friends store and he had a large flat screen TV on sale for $1200 that I could have bought new for under $800 but I sure did not tell him that. Prices change on most things but guns and gold go up all the time and if you do not make it on the gold by melting then you can always retail it, now gold coins can be a real can of worms and you have to own your own gold coins to buy gold coins safely, so if you buy one then you sell one and if you buy 20 then you sell 20 the same day or even minute or gamble, and you have to hold your personal inventory for the long run or you can end up getting buried when priced fall and they always correct eventually. All from my personal experiences over life and I do not claim to be an expert in much about anything.

no one makes fake teeth out of fake gold that I ever heard of because it would not last and would corrode.

That would give the saying "old green teeth" a new meaning wouldn't it?

:as-if: yes it would.

[Hoz]

I have always suspected pawn shops of being unscrupulous and I seldom go in them. I wouldn't buy sofisticated electronics from one, but the occasional hand or small power tool yes. Growing up, the shops in my area had a reputation of being fronts for stolen goods, but I think that has been cleaned up. Actually, the pawn shop owner bought the Hotchkiss cannon. He had it authenticated by a military historian and they test fired it in the desert to make sure it worked. The price was $30k. If you don't know about the Woonded Knee Massacre, it was the "get even" operation conducted by the 7th Calvary after Custers last stand. A small group of old men, women and children were coming into the fort to surrender. It was winter, the people were starving, sick and weak from exposure. The army surrounded them, wanting to take their weapons. When one man resisted, (he was deaf and didn't know they were being confiscated), a soldier shot him, causing mass confusion. They then opened fire on the village with the cannons, killing everyone. The frozen bodies lay in the snow for days before they were buried in a mass grave.

Edited December 26, 2009 by Hoz

[Mr Lee]

Actually, the Hotchkiss cannon was sold to the Pawn Shop owner. He had it authenticated by a military historian and they fired itin the desert to make sure it worked. The price was $30k. If you don't know about the Woonded Knee Massacre, it was the "get even" operation conducted by the 7th Calvary after Custers last stand. A small group of old men, women and children were coming into the fort to surrender. It was winter, the people were starving, sick and weak from exposure. The army surrounded them and wanted to take their weapons. When one man resited, (he was deaf and didn't know they were being confiscated), a soldier shot him, causing mass confusion. They then opened fire on the village with the cannons, killing everyone. The frozen bodies lay in the snow for days before they were buried in a mass grave.

I am not much of a history buff so I have only heard briefly of it.A lot of owners of pawn shops have personal passions, one of my partners collected antique guns and knives, I collected coins and modern guns I could shoot, he made out much better than I did when the items were sold but he has since passed away (may he rest in peace) and his wife and daughter gambled all their money away, so in the end, I made out better than he did. Sometimes the lure of easy come easy go never hits home and people do not realize that things in life are always cyclical and good times are never here to stay. Some friends I still have who still own pawn shops are hurting while others are prospering, the difference is the ones who saved and built their businesses know to buy in bad times and slowly sell but then strike it big again when good times come back and of course knowing what to buy and what will at the least hold its value in your own area is key to survival. The pawn business is a great business because of all the unusual things that come in, that an owner and employees can end up getting for themselves and for better prices than the general public, and it was a great place to sell second hand personal items that we no longer wanted to own. Where else can a person trade up on their TV's or take a few year old computer that basically had no value to sell and sell it for $100 to a parent who could not afford to buy a few hundred dollar one for their kids to learn on. Every item had a home, from a coffee pot to an alarm clock could eventually be sold but nowadays with all the Chinese junk on the market, it would make it harder but still not impossible to sell most anything given enough time. All it takes is money and knowledge of many items and a computer program and computer research to give you general knowledge of other items and of course reading the newspaper sales each day to know what items are on sale for less than you are selling them for. How about Hoz and Lee's Cebu pawn shop. Joke lang! I have been asked more times than I have fingers to come back to work or go into partnership with some of the people who know me and while I have done people favors and covered their stores for free for a day or two here and there when they had a funeral or something important to do that they just had to go, I could just not bring myself to get back into a daily routine again or run it as most people seem to feel they must.

[TheMason]

My father worked in pawn shops for years. First he was an executive for a chain of pawn shops in Florida and then he opened up 3-4 shops of his own. You have to remember that pawnbrokers are lenders, not purchasers. Most of them don't want your jewelry, TV, car, etc. They want you to pay back the money they loan you. The fastest way for a pawn shop to go out of business is to loan too much money so people don't come back and pick up their items. Pawnbrokers cannot afford to have all their capital tied up in inventory. They need to keep it loaned out so they can collect the interest. I've looked at the pawn shop business and if done right, it can be a gold mine, especially in these tough economic times. Lower income people have a need for financial services and with banks and traditional lenders tightening qualifications, the pawn broker is an attractive lender to many people. You don't have to be a carpetbagger to earn a good living and provide the financial services people need and want.

[Mr Lee]

My father worked in pawn shops for years. First he was an executive for a chain of pawn shops in Florida and then he opened up 3-4 shops of his own. You have to remember that pawnbrokers are lenders, not purchasers. Most of them don't want your jewelry, TV, car, etc. They want you to pay back the money they loan you. The fastest way for a pawn shop to go out of business is to loan too much money so people don't come back and pick up their items. Pawnbrokers cannot afford to have all their capital tied up in inventory. They need to keep it loaned out so they can collect the interest. I've looked at the pawn shop business and if done right, it can be a gold mine, especially in these tough economic times. Lower income people have a need for financial services and with banks and traditional lenders tightening qualifications, the pawn broker is an attractive lender to many people. You don't have to be a carpetbagger to earn a good living and provide the financial services people need and want.

Absolutely their a a right price for items but pawn shops also buy items and from my personal experience, so a pawnbroker has to be able to read if a person is a seller or an actual pawner or someone on the fence in between. Many people walk in and say they want to pawn, after all it is a pawn shop and many have no idea what the real meaning is when doing it for the first time, so my policy was to give two prices, one to buy and one to loan on the item and the sellers usually took the higher price and the item could then be sold after a 30 day hold (for the police to clear it) instead of after a 60 day hold and then start looking for buyers for it so when bought it was most often gone way before the 60 days if it was a gun or a nice piece of jewelry or just plain old heavy gold. There is a cost of money being out on the street and unless a person is very rich and has unlimited money, I found that it was always better to make a little less and be able to turn the item over and make the customer extra happy. There was also many a person who would walk in and ask for $100 for an item they wanted to sell that they had a long time that might have been worth a few hundred dollars for us to offer them, so knowing the value of what you own is very important when trying to deal with anyone you wish to sell it to. The sad part was when people would walk into a place like Mayor Jewelers and buy a chain that had a little Mayor emblem on it for say $5000 that they could have bought in our store for a few hundred dollars and then they think because of that silly emblem that no one but them gets to see that their chain would somehow be worth more than the one we were selling. Gold is gold and while their chain might be worth closer to actual content and bring a little more to another silly person like them, it was not worth what they got robbed for and paid and they just could not figure out why. Sort of like the dressed up cars that some dealers put on vinyl roofs and gold pin strips and call special editions and then sell for thousands more, all just hype and can be redone for hundreds and not thousands.