Pawn shop pwnage

[Sapphire Silk]

Went to a local Garden of Olives for dinner this evening and saw the funniest sign:

Attention All Guests:

Please Do Not Park Next Door at PawnAmerican/USA Pawn.

They will Tow Your Car!
They Will Wait Until You Have Parked Your Car And Have It Towed Immediately!

They Will Tow Your Car Any Time Of Day Or Night.

We Are Sorry For Any Inconvenience.

To put this in some context: the parking lot at this restaurant is almost always full. Parking can be a big problem, especially for lunch. It's a popular location. The said pawn shops are in a strip mall next door, their lot is very small and also very busy most of the time.

They will watch you park, watch you go to the restaurant, not say a word and dial the tow company as soon as you go inside.

And you know what? I don't have a problem with that. The pawnshop's lot is clearly marked for customers only. But the restaurant's signs clearly indicate they've faced the wrath of SC's who left to find their cars long gone.

[Kristev]

At least the restaraunt has the decency to warn people.

[emax4]

The trick is to take someone with you who would rather go to the pawn shop instead of the Garden of Olives (I know you're talking about BRAVO!). Park in the pawn shop lot, have one guy look around in the pawn shop while everyone else enjoys a nice Italian dinner!

[PepperElf]

yeah but the chances are, no one's gonna want to browse a pawn shop for an hour (or longer) while everyone else eats.

[Sapphire Silk]

yeah but the chances are, no one's gonna want to browse a pawn shop for an hour (or longer) while everyone else eats.

I wouldn't. Heck, if the parking lot's that crowded, then so's the restaurant. Time to find someplace else to eat.

[the lawsmeister]

yeah but the chances are, no one's gonna want to browse a pawn shop for an hour (or longer) while everyone else eats.

Nah, just pawn your car, go have a nice dinner and then get it out of hock afterwards. Cheaper than going to a parking station and probably better security

Any other Aussies forumites may remember this from a beer ad.

[PepperElf]

i remember that from a joke about a woman who wanted to park her car for 2 weeks while on vacation. took out a loan and left the car as collateral and then paid the loan off 2 weeks later.

tho... never heard of having to leave items behind as collateral for loans before but i guess the pawn idea is fun. except you may still owe a lot more than you expect. heh.

[mhkohne]

i remember that from a joke about a woman who wanted to park her car for 2 weeks while on vacation. took out a loan and left the car as collateral and then paid the loan off 2 weeks later.

tho... never heard of having to leave items behind as collateral for loans before but i guess the pawn idea is fun. except you may still owe a lot more than you expect. heh.

That's what a pawn shop is, mostly - you can sell stuff to them, but most of their business is making loans secured by collateral in the form of stuff that you give them. They make the loan amount based on the value of the collateral, and as long as you pay off loan+interest on time, there's no problem getting your stuff back. And if you don't, then they just keep your stuff and sell it.

[Shalom]

Used to be, before eBay, pawn shops were decent places to buy used camera equipment, musical instruments, hifi gear, etc. There was even a place in the City (3rd Ave and 11th St) that, while not a pawnshop in the traditional sense (as they didn't lend money), made a business of buying pawn tickets off borrowers who'd given up hope of ever redeeming their collateral. They'd then go get the stuff out of hock, and sell it themselves at a profit. I bought a decent lens for my SRT101 there, years back.

Nowadays, though, most pawnshops I see round only deal in jewelry, in which I'm not interested.

(I used to feel guilty about buying stuff from pawnshops, worrying that some poor zhlub would come back to get e.g. his saxophone out of hock only to find that someone had bought it out from under him, but I asked, and it apparently doesn't work that way: they don't sell anything until the loan is in default.)

(Not that I have, or would ever, buy a saxophone. If anything, I'd get a bigger accordion. I don't do reeds. I can't even put a popsicle stick in my mouth without getting the shivers.)

(Yes, I know accordions have reeds in them.)

[EricKei]

Shalom -- also, pawnshops generally offer to buy items outright. How long it has to be kept in storage (so that something can be researched to make sure it isn't stolen -- if an item turns out to be stolen, the shop turns it over to the cops and they're out the money; presumably, then then pursue the seller in court) varies by area, though. I wanna say some go as high as six months! o_O

Also, GameStore seems to have to deal with the occasional SC that tries to get THEM classified as pawn shops, tho, in most jurisdictions, they are exempt (perhaps because game prices tend to plummet quickly as compared to other goods. Please do not take this as an invitation to discuss their trade-in policies/pricing ). See also The Gord ^_^

[mhkohne]

Also, GameStore seems to have to deal with the occasional SC that tries to get THEM classified as pawn shops, tho, in most jurisdictions, they are exempt (perhaps because game prices tend to plummet quickly as compared to other goods. Please do not take this as an invitation to discuss their trade-in policies/pricing ). See also The Gord ^_^

The thing that probably keeps GameStore out of being a pawn shop is that they don't do loans, they just deal in used merch. If you call them a pawn shop, you almost have to call every car dealer in town a pawn shop, which isn't going to fly.