Pawn Shops—What are They?

A pawn shop is a store where you can purchase items for a fraction of what they cost new or sell things that you no longer need.  When you sell items you will generally only get a fraction of what it would sell for if you sold it to an individual yourself.  These types of stores have been around since Ancient Greece but had different rules for how they worked.  Generally when you visit a pawn shop Freehold, and want to pawn something, you can either sell it outright or get a type of loan on it.  If you get a loan you will usually have a month or two to get it back by paying the shop the money they loaned you plus a fee, like an interest charge.  Both have to be paid before you can get it out.  If you find you cannot get it out in the time frame they may give you an extension but you would have to talk to the store. If you do not redeem it within the time frame or talk to the owner about an extension the owner of the shop has the right to sell it.  The owner cannot sell the item you have pawned before the specified date you have to redeem it.  In some cases if someone comes in looking for a specific item and the store owner knows there is one on hold they may contact the person to see if they would like to sell the item instead of redeeming it.  If the item is in high demand the owner may offer a little more money to the customer. In some shops the owner may take in items on consignment. This means that instead of offering money outright for the item they will only offer them money if the item sells.  Most of the time the profits are split between the seller of the item and the shop owner but it depends on the policy of the store.  If you sell an item on consignment instead of pawning it the one selling it may get more money from the sale. No matter what, the owner of the pawn shop Brick or pawn shop Freehold will generally offer far below the market rate for any item that is pawned.  The reason is that the shop can because if a person has to pawn something it is generally because they need the money now and cannot wait to sell it at fair market value other places.  In some cases the pawn shop may purchase an item that they cannot sell or sell for the price that they want.  When they offer lower than market value it can help offset money lost on these items.