I agree 100%. If I were going to go to a pawnshop to look for a sweet deal on a guitar, I would start in Baytown and head north from there. The pawnshops inside the loop and down Westheimer west of the Galleria....if they put a sweet guitar deal up on the wall at 10AM, it would be gone by 2PM, guaranteed.
There used to be a place in Chicago called Ray's that had some good deals. I bought an electric piano there for $2,000. He showed me that there was nothing wrong with the action on the keyboard. As a matter of fact, he even threw in the black keys for free!!
ebay and craigslist have made the pawn shop obsolete for me. Much the same way as Netflix, DVRs, and Video on demand have made the video store obsolete. Actually, you can buy most DVDs on ebay for about a $1 or $2 more than rentals from Blockbuster. I suppose you can buy dvds at pawn shops too. But, it seems like there's a lot of crap to sift through to find the good stuff. I agree about not buying electronics at pawn shops. i bought a TV at one about 10 years ago. The picture started turning green the day after i bought it. I'm sure it was a pre existing condition, but it looked fine for the minute or 2 I spent checking it out at the Pawn shop.
*LMAO* The Pawn shop has become like the Tombs of retail places to maybe find the things lost in the anals of time Rocket River
I bought a TV at a pawnshop and it lasted me a long time almost 4 yrs. My roommate bought a Mp3 player which worked fine for a year until he lost it. I also bought a VCR 3 years ago which just now crapped out. I have generally been lucky with such purchases but I wouldnt buy anything that costs over $100 at a pawn shop.
I agree that ebay has destroyed the pawn shop. Especially looking at it from the other side... Why pawn anything when you could put it on ebay? It benefits the buyer and seller. But there is nothing like that special feeling when you stumble upon a steal (no pun intended) at the pawn shop that you must have.
Was talking about pawn shops at the job today . I doubt they gotten better Between Amazon and EBay . . . . .. How are Pawn shops still open Actually i think the Pay Check Advance Loans seem like more of a competitor now Rocket River
They make "loanshark" rates on their loans. The resale of the security for defaulted loans isn't the core of what they do.
