Members badpenguin Posted August 23, 2015 Members Share Posted August 23, 2015 hey all. As you know, I hunt for my beasties mostly thru pawn shops, and sell the ones unworthy of notice here thru Craigslist. I thought I would give you a quick lesson in bargaining with a pawn shop, since the last 3 out of 4 were around the $50 mark. Ok? Let's begin.... A pawn shop is a business, pure and simple. They buy, or loan and default on it, and resale. What they do, is the same as we do, buy low, sell high. But this is how they do it. Say you bring in a guitar that cost $1000 street price new. The pawn shop, if they know what they are doing, will pay you AT MOST a 1/3rd of the price, say $300 for that mint Studio with case. If there are obvious issue, a little less. Same if you pawn it. A pawn is a simple loan, where you leave your guitar as collateral, and promise to pay monthly on it, paying with interest mind you of about 24.99% (Anything over 25%, if I remember right, is considered loan sharking. A bad thingy.) So Johnny guitar comes in, sells his guitar for 300. They have to hold it a certain amount of time, (It varies state to state) and for that time, the store isn't making a penny on it, it's taking up room. time for it to hit the floor. knowing it's a $1000 axe, they will ask, 899.00. And it sits...... A month later, with no one showing any real interest, they lower the price to $700 or so. Still no takers that month, then a third month comes along. This is where things get interesting. they will lower the price again, say... $650. At that price, they double their initial investment, with a few bucks left over to bargain with. So, guitar is still there, you are drooling over it, and want to make your move. First thing is NEVER pay what they are asking. PERIOD! You bargained for your car, right? Bargained for that house, this is no different. If the sales person says, we can't do anything on the price, walk away. Come back in a few days, and speak to someone else. Best time to do this, is near the end of the month. They have quotas to fill. The store must make X amount to be viable. (NOTE: this is for the chain stores, NOT the mom and pop pawn shops.) So now it's the 29th, you come in again, speaking to a different sales person, hopefully someone who knows jack about guitars, and you pick it up, play it a bit, look at it, then start pointing out the flaws. "The neck needs adjustment, the frets need help, the electronics are scratchy, etc etc," and comment on what it would cost you to take it to your guitar tech to have repaired. Be honest.... kinda. Whining about the strings needing replacing isn't going to cut it. Shaking the guitar, and saying that rattle,(that you KNOW is a loose truss rod cover.) may be a loose or broken truss rod. Then offer less than half of what they want. They can't do that, blah blah blah, but we can go, say 500. "Nah..... too much work needs to go into it, how about 350..." and haggle on from that point. May take you some time, but you can talk them down to the 400/450 range. The longer it's been there, the lower they will go. Hope that helps you all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gardo Posted August 23, 2015 Members Share Posted August 23, 2015 Thanks for the tips. I only know of one or two pawn shops where I live. They are small downtown store front shops that I've always considered to be a bunch of crooks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wankdeplank Posted August 24, 2015 Members Share Posted August 24, 2015 The art of the haggle - good stuff. Trumps Trump's Art of the Deal - Penguin for President!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members badpenguin Posted August 24, 2015 Author Members Share Posted August 24, 2015 No thank you, don't have the hair for that gig! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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