Do you feel guilty buying from a pawn shop?

I picked up a Lincoln SP170 welder cheap this weekend at one of the bigger pawn shops in town. Nice and clean, sitting on a homemade cart with casters,but its missing the entire torch assembly, which I now have on order.

My guilt question comes from two sources- There is a Dymo sticker on the welder that says "Mike", and the missing torch weirds me out- I think is likely still be hanging on the wall of the garage from which it was stolen. The setscrew that holds it in place has lots of marks on it, implying regular removal. Second, I've never seen so many reciprocating saws in one place in my life. My assumption is they are all stolen from construction sites, or pawned by low born employees who then tell the boss they were stolen.

Am I making assumptions and being a bigot? I'm covered from the receiving stolen goods legal situation, since I bought it from an actual store that is supposed to list everything they receive and send the list to the local cops. I don't usually buy at pawnshops, but I'll have a nice little welder for home for well under half price...

See Wally's thread about his train set.

My friend's brother in law owned a pawn shop. Every day, guys would come in with a brand new tv, in the box, with a receipt and sell it for half or less of what was on the receipt. The guys would go into a store that offered an instant credit card and buy whatever cost the closest to their max on the card. Whether they were sacrificing their own credit rating or stealing someone else's, they didn't care. They just didn't care and would turn it into instant cash. The receipt proved that, technically, it wasn't stolen.

Future of America, folks...

I wouldn't. In fact, I'm working on building my tool supply from next to nothing and hadn't even thought of pawn shops until a friend suggested it.

Yes, it's quite possible the tools are stolen. It's also quite possible they aren't. You don't really know the particular situation. What if it was a mechanic who was just down on his luck and had to sell or was just getting out of the business and wanted to liquidate quickly? I sold to a pawn shop once in my life...it was before the days of the internet. I was 19 and had a gold chain I didn't want, so I sold it to a pawn shop. It was in downtown Philly, I have no doubt a lot of stuff they sold was stolen, but the one I gave them wasn't. So you never really know.

The pawn shop should be doing their due diligence, it's not your responsibility.

…avoiding work is hard work.

Personally, I’d determine the highest pawn value to weight / volume ratio and use laptops and such to accomplish the same objective with far less effort.

I buy from pawn shops. However, if I get bad "vibes" from whatever it is, as you got from the welder, I don't buy that. And some pawn shops have bad "vibes" in general. I avoid those.

No. I buy from the all the time and have a couple I stop by regularly.

I've rarely bought from a pawn shop since they are selling stuff at 90% of list price, but it's 10 years old and used up. The pawn shops around here are way high for what it is.

My local pawn shop knows me well and gives me a better deal as a regular.

Any tool I have ever seen in a pawn shop has looked used up.

That said, since the deal is done and the item is yours, just keep going and calm your inner voice by telling it that the welder has a good home.

I really don't see the difference between Ebay, Craigslist ect.... and a pawn shop. At least at a pawn shop as a seller you get instantly paid, rather then waste your time selling it.

I don't, but not from guilt. Anything that I've ever found in a pawn shop around here was available cheaper, and better, on the legitimate used market. I can't tell you how many pawns I went to looking at used guitars that were worth half the asking price.

I have never seen a Pawn Shop in Pittsburgh. There must be around some somewhere.

DrBoost wrote: I've rarely bought from a pawn shop since they are selling stuff at 90% of list price, but it's 10 years old and used up. The pawn shops around here are way high for what it is.

Must be a Michigan thing. I still see them trying to sell tube style TVs for $75 around GR.
Seriously? I could hardly give away the 36" unit I had.

Most of the stuff around here is clothing-centric. There is a seedy looking place in town that has guitars and stuff in the window but I'm not desperate enough for a bargain to deal with the sort of people who decorate with concertina wire and old hubcaps.

I have no problems buying from a pawn shop if the deal is right.

DrBoost wrote: I've rarely bought from a pawn shop since they are selling stuff at 90% of list price, but it's 10 years old and used up. The pawn shops around here are way high for what it is.

+1. Only ever gone in a handful of times but never bought anything.

Grtechguy wrote:

DrBoost wrote: I've rarely bought from a pawn shop since they are selling stuff at 90% of list price, but it's 10 years old and used up. The pawn shops around here are way high for what it is.

Must be a Michigan thing. I still see them trying to sell tube style TVs for $75 around GR. Seriously? I could hardly give away the 36" unit I had.

This welder was the only deal in the store. They still have a whole wall of videotapes, including a row of Disney titles with a "$40 each" sign on them. How long do you keep inventory before you get tired of falling over it?

They also has a Milwaukee 1/4' 18 volt impact kit for $199. I bought the same driver in a kit with a drill for $199 at Home Depot a couple of months ago.

When me Lincoln MIG welder got stolen I went through all the pawn shops in town. All of them felt creepy. One had an old Devilbiss paint gun still covered in paint and they wanted almost full price. But, that same shop had a new looking Ruger Bisley in 32 H&R magnum for a little over $200 and I didn't buy it on the spot. BTW this was years ago.

I've never bought from a pawn shop myself. But I had a coworker (tech) that would regularly pawn his tools and equipment for cash. Most of the time he bought it back though.

Pre-internet I ALWAYS bought from pawn shops - music gear, hi-fi gear, CDs/albums, tools - damn near everything. As other mentioned above, all the area ones now want 90% of retail for old junk.

If you are paying the posted price, you are getting screwed. I offer 25% of posted price plus tax. 75% of the time I walk out with what I'm looking at. My Hobart 140 was $120. My Portaband was $50, wrenches go for a less than $1. My $400 waterproof GPS was $20. There are deals to be had, but you have to be willing to haggle hard and walk if the deal doesn't present itself.

In reply to Toyman01:

You bought a portaband saw for $50?!?!?!? Motherberkeleyer.

You guys have not worked at a pawn shop. You don;t want anything on the floor that you have to sell, you want stuff in the back of the store generating interest on self held paper.

The dingy little one that worked at to help a friend had 2 Million in paper at any given time and less then 5% of the stuff went onto the floor.

Yeah, I understand their business model. Their interest rate is like 100% or more. They don't want to buy and sell stuff, just keep getting the interest. Kinda like banks. They loan you money and the last thing they want is their money back. They want your interest for the rest of your life. Now with student loans, that's happening.

I bought two like new Harley cow-bell horns for $15.