What is it with Pawn Shop and over price music equipment?

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Ablord

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quote:What is it with Pawn Shop and over price music equipment?:mad: I'msoory folks but I hate to see newbies or girlfriends of newbies get exploited(Hey pretty Lady,pretty lady :D ) Uh -Umm sorry I had a flash back ,but I'm back now!!hehe :p Anyway I frequently patrol pawn shops nlooking for diamonds in the ruff (regarding music equipment,computers,video equip..etc) So today I saw a studio logic controller(61 keys I believe) and a Kawai K4 keyboard. So I figure well let me look in to this b/c this is the same shop I got smy alesis midi/microverb 4 processors pretty cheap and 45 bucks a piece literally... So the price that they had on the SL was $975.usd I was like what he// No!!! and this girl(pretty ladie-sweet latin momma:D ) was check out the the k4(which was price at 600. no joke/no BullSh$%:mad: She explain here boyfriend newbie was looking for a keyboards to make some beats with... At this time some RedNeck hot shot wanna be pawnshop worker came over and said well this would be a good board 4 him b/c its a new pro model(:mad: ) keyboard with excellent sounds perfecting for makin hip hop beats and such""This is what the rappers today like 50 cent em Dem use":mad: So obivously she been check this board out for awhile and decide today to come put it on layaway for her boyfriend... which would have came up to 625.in some change. so see saw me playing with some of the stuff and ask my opinion while pawnshop boy was standing there!! So I went ahead in check out the sounds just to see what the sound s sound like. Not bad !!16 bit quality not bit!! But I told her that was way to much $$$ and wasn't worth it just for the internal(b/c there wasn't card with it) and that she would be paying for 625 for just a midi controller(with decent banks sound) and could do better going to the guitar center or on ebay...After explain what I was talkin about a few times she understood and was very angry at pawnboy who in return was very angry with me..And wanted to band me from the shop. after all the money I gave that shop!!! I hate some pawnshops and pawnshop boys!!!Anybody else feel me??? Please give me your feedback and experiences!! I was only trying 2 educated pawnshopboy!! Not phuck with your paper!!!Peace Ablord...
 
Well you have to remember what a pawn shop is.
Their job is not to be knowledgeable about the stuff they're selling, their job is to sell an item for a good price.
If you were that pawnshop seller (that didnt know much about synthesizers, midi, bank cards, etc) you would use all the knowledge you have to sell that item to someone who doesn't know anything at all :)

You did good by educating that fine lady (even a little) but i don't know what i would say if the pawn guy was standing right there..
 
[Shizo] said:


You did good by educating that fine lady (even a little) but i don't know what i would say if the pawn guy was standing right there..
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Hey shizo, I here what you saying!! Thanks .. But it just get to me to see people taken advantange of!! See I've been dealing with this particular pawnshop for awhile.Actually me and the owner is pretty cool!! But I know for sure that -that keyboard was probably pawn for about $65.00 dollars and defaulted!!! So they already making hugh profit.. They could've sold that keyboard for 365.00 and still made a hella of profit of 300% :mad: Even in a business where you know your profit margins is going to be HUGH!!! I think you still need to have some codes of Ethics!!imho But I generally deal with another shop where I'm on first name bases with all of the employee... in fact I'm the first person they call when a pro end piece hits the floor... and even though the have a hella mark up they are very fair and ethical.probably b/c must of the employee are inspiring musicians... So Chuck and Rob if you out there reading this, keep up the good work and holla @ me!!! Peace from da beast in da East... ;) Oh Shizo fyi- I just told pawnboy "man you come straight out of a comic Book" Peep the reference from E T D...LMAO!!!! :monkey: I guess thats easy to say when you are towering over someone....P-Boy you want a piece of me???LOL!!LOL!! I'm just joking ,,,
 
I didn't read any of the post but I did read the title. I HATE PAWN SHOPS! They think people are stupid... however, you can haggle them usually pretty damn well. Usually if I'm in there I'll get at least a 1/3-1/2 price reduction. You should see my mom too -- she tears em up! You just have to make them your b*tch and come in w/ authority. Make them scared of you and rip them off instead of the other way around.
 
While I understand you might not care for the Pawn Shop personnel while you shop there, did you ever walk into Wal-Mart and simply ask someone, anyone for help? The long-haired high-school drop-out will usually disappear if given the chance. Then there's the fast-food attendant who has to ask you 3 times if you ordered a taco and then you find a cheeseburger in the bag??!
Personally, I have worked in the same family-owned Pawn Shop for almost 20 years. I am not the owner, just the proud manager of a very up-scale shop. Together, with my co-workers we learn all we can, to be knowledgeable of the merchandise we have on sale, and if we don't, I often check online for any info that might help us in helping our customers make an informed decision concerning their purchase. I am not happy with the sale unless my customer is happy with me, and what I have to offer.
My knowledge of the items in my store have come from years and years of reading articles, on hand experience, and going back to when I was young and reading the latest "Stereo Review". My knowledge of musical equipment deserves the same credit, going back to the early 60's when my family collected music equipment, which also led me to keeping up to date with most music equipment, new and old. I can say the same for video and audio equipment. A Pawn Shop’s jewelry expertise speaks for itself. You will never find a lower price on jewelry at any of the name brand jewelry stores, bar none! Their prices will easily be 3 to 5, and sometimes 10 times what you pay at a Pawn Shop.
Now if you want a bit of the truth about the candor you speak of with any one person coming in and you offering your opinion;
#1. Although it happens, people like you come in quite often and think they can teach customers something they don't know, but you wouldn't stand a chance if I were the salesman. I would be grateful for your previous purchase, but that would in no way give you the right to step in on my business. While it's true that you will find in most Pawn Shops, some items too pricey, and as you said yourself, "diamonds-in-the-rough", I am a bit more careful at the way I price my merchandise. Be that as it may, you have no right to impart your ideas in my store to my customers. If you owned a restaurant, would you allow me to come in and tell everyone where they can find a cheaper steak?
#2. I pay a fair price for the items that are on display. I've heard that Pawn Shops are crooks and that we are "ripping people off" when we buy their wares. Nothing could be further from the truth. I pay pretty much a "set amount" for whatever comes in; just for argument's sake, let's say a DVD player sells for $69 new. I look at that purchase any number of ways. First, if I'm buying it, what will be a decent price for the DVD in 30 days, which is what the law requires for waiting period, what sort of mark-down from original price will look to be a good bargain for a potential buyer? And what, with the price of players dropping day by day, will be a good investment to me? If I pay too much, by the time I get it to the showroom, I may be selling it for more than what it is new. It's a tough gamble. That's why you see Pawn Shops littered with older stuff. But somehow we keep the lights on and are ready to make a deal. You stated you can haggle/barter the price down to 50% sometimes, maybe, but unless you've been walking into a hole-in-the-wall Pawn Shop, that doesn't happen as often as you think. The Pawn Shop has too much invested into the item, and the price is probably already pretty good bargain, it's often the other way around. The seasoned returning customer is often more than willing to pay the price if it looks like a great deal and it means not having to pay full price for the same item of equal quality. That is not to say that those items that have been lying around for too long won't go at a bargain basement price. Those are the sales Pawn Shops love the most because with every one, it teaches us a lesson. It redefines our skill and our approach should the same type of item be brought in once again to be sold to us.
While there are always exceptions to the rule for every point in the Pawn Shop business, most of what I've mentioned hold true in all of them. At least the ones that want to stay open.
I hope I have shed a light on your misconceptions of Pawn Shops, and one further note concerning your run-in with this customer and the K4 keyboard; have you checked the Orion Blue book value of vintage keyboards? You would be surprised with what you might find. Analog is on it's way back in, if you hadn't noticed, and the analog synths are hot sellers, many models demanding higher prices than when they were new!!! So while you're at it, get your hands on the old guitars while you can, at whatever the cost, and don't cry foul at the high price. You might be surprised to know that Fender guitars that were made in Japan, and considered almost worthless because they weren't made in the U.S, are now demanding much higher prices now. The cheaper Fenders will be found made in countries such as India, Indonesia, Korea, Mexico to name a few. Japanese Fender prices are going up. And most certainly U.S. Fenders.
Maybe you weren't giving that lady the help she really needed. Who knows, if she had bought that synth, in a few years, it may sell for a hefty profit.
Leave the business to the ones who know it best.
Pawnshop boy? I guarantee you would love it from this side of the fence.
Not to be insulting, but if you think you know so much, try asking for a job in a few Pawn Shops and see how far you get.
Oh! And Hey!...make those fries well-done.
 
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disagree

i disagree, when i was in a pinch, i tried to pawn my korg triton for 500, and the guy at the counter said the korg was useless and non operational without the included diskettes, which is complete bull****. When i brought him the disk, he tried to tellme he wouldnt give me the 500 because the deck wasnt worth that much. Now im not a pawn shop owner or employee, But I know when im being taken for a ride. Especially when im told "the keyboard is approximately 10 years old" and I still had the original purchase receipt in hand, which he claimed was a forgery. Coincidentally, this same chap tried to sell someone a mossberg shotgun that had a plastic stock. He claimed it was a "pro" model and worth 1200 in any gun store. Brand new those same rifles are 119.00. So, aside from your obvious biased defense of pawn shops, for the most part, they are all willing to take someone if they can. With all my dealings with pawn shops, I've found very few who were what you would consider "knowlegable" about their products, in particular music gear. You on the other hand, may be the exception, your store may offer products at a "FAIR" value, but that doesn't give you the go ahead to defend all the other shops that in my eyes are no better than someone on the corner trying to hussle a watch they just stole.
 
Be that as it may, you have no right to impart your ideas in my store to my customers. If you owned a restaurant, would you allow me to come in and tell everyone where they can find a cheaper steak?
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I believe Ablord had every right to say his piece. She approached him and asked for his opinion. If "Pawn Boy" new as much about the K4 as he pretended to know, he would have gotten the sale, regardless of what Ablord opinion was on the features for the price.

I don't shop at pawn shops often because I can find the same used equipment for half as much as most are willing to sell it for. I have found a deal or two, but I got it at such a cheap price because I was at the right place at the right time.

As for outrageous mark-ups....that's true. I tried to sell a $600 bass guitar at a pawnshop and was asking $300. I felt it was fair. With all the scratched up guitars this shop had and the price they were selling them for, he could have sold my mint bass for $500 easy. But I know that he would have marked it up to $700. Greedy place of business.

Anyways, I feel most pawnshops aren;t crooks, but are just as bad as car insurance companies....hehe. They do business in a manner that pretty much will rip you off one way or another. There are a few shops out there that are the exceptions, but not to many. Anyways, good for yu Ablord. You help someone out that was less knowledgeable about equipment and gave them some info and let them make the judgement.


Oh yeah...a pawn shop employee offering a fair price for equipment they buy? Yeah....whatever.
 
yo imma just be real wit it. pawnshops are the same as retail stores, all of em are in business to make a "PROFIT". pawn shops will bend you right over the counter and give it to ya in the A S S. i do research on every piece of music equiptment i buy and i stay very abreast of the equiptment thats out new and vintage.(having a family forces me to do that --- i aint gotta dime to waste). but like most user on fp i can run the specs on just about everything out, but pawn shops kill me hopping on their lil computers to check out ebay to give me a phucked up price and try to tell me about my equiptment like imma smoker. I know they gonna give me a bulls h i t price, i just sell privately now. as for buying. yo man phuck what you heard most of them cats in pawn shops dont know s h i t about what theyre selling, and thats the just the actual factuals. then try to gas it up. imma end this with a quote from Stetsasonic "LIES THATS WHEN YOU HIDE THE TRUTH, THATS WHEN YOU TALK MORE JAZZ THAN PROOF, AND WHEN YOU LIE AND ADDRESS SOMETHING YOU DONT KNOW , ITS SO WHACK THAT ITS BOUND TO SHOW". thats pawn shops in a nutshell. end of discussion

:monkey:
 
Well I just found a shop on the internet selling Pioneer DJm 300s at $1200!
 
dam:D i didn't think a thread about pawn shops could get this heated. Maybe i'll go in one this weekend and start up some trouble of my own, lol
 
Ablord said:
quote:What is it with Pawn Shop and over price music equipment?:mad: I'msoory folks but I hate to see newbies or girlfriends of newbies get exploited(Hey pretty Lady,pretty lady :D ) Uh -Umm sorry I had a flash back ,but I'm back now!!hehe :p Anyway I frequently patrol pawn shops nlooking for diamonds in the ruff (regarding music equipment,computers,video equip..etc) So today I saw a studio logic controller(61 keys I believe) and a Kawai K4 keyboard. So I figure well let me look in to this b/c this is the same shop I got smy alesis midi/microverb 4 processors pretty cheap and 45 bucks a piece literally... So the price that they had on the SL was $975.usd I was like what he// No!!! and this girl(pretty ladie-sweet latin momma:D ) was check out the the k4(which was price at 600. no joke/no BullSh$%:mad: She explain here boyfriend newbie was looking for a keyboards to make some beats with... At this time some RedNeck hot shot wanna be pawnshop worker came over and said well this would be a good board 4 him b/c its a new pro model(:mad: ) keyboard with excellent sounds perfecting for makin hip hop beats and such""This is what the rappers today like 50 cent em Dem use":mad: So obivously she been check this board out for awhile and decide today to come put it on layaway for her boyfriend... which would have came up to 625.in some change. so see saw me playing with some of the stuff and ask my opinion while pawnshop boy was standing there!! So I went ahead in check out the sounds just to see what the sound s sound like. Not bad !!16 bit quality not bit!! But I told her that was way to much $$$ and wasn't worth it just for the internal(b/c there wasn't card with it) and that she would be paying for 625 for just a midi controller(with decent banks sound) and could do better going to the guitar center or on ebay...After explain what I was talkin about a few times she understood and was very angry at pawnboy who in return was very angry with me..And wanted to band me from the shop. after all the money I gave that shop!!! I hate some pawnshops and pawnshop boys!!!Anybody else feel me??? Please give me your feedback and experiences!! I was only trying 2 educated pawnshopboy!! Not phuck with your paper!!!Peace Ablord...
Click to expand...

good lookin out man
 
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