2 MINUTE READ

What’s it like to work in a pawn shop?

It’s like being a gemologist, banker, car salesman, gun enthusiast who guesses your weight and age at the county fair.

We get this question all the time and to be honest I could write multiple books about our daily adventures skirting sanity in the pawn shop.

It has been said many times in our industry, “You don’t have to know a lot about anything, but you have to know a little bit about everything.”  A pawn shop’s main business is making loans. Sure we have really good deals on gently preloved merchandise, but that is just a by-product of loans that didn’t get paid back.  To be able to help as many people as possible, we have to be able to make loans on most everything that comes through the door. In order to make a loan on something you have to be able to put a value on it. What is this thing worth “IF” I have to sell it. When you become a pawnbroker, you truly have to broaden your knowledge base and make loans on most anything you can put a value on.

When there is an emergency and someone needs a loan on a 2 carat diamond ring, we have to put on our gemologist hat, value that ring and make a loan. When someone needs a little extra cash until payday and they bring in the Browning shotgun that has been in the family for three generations, we have to know the current market value and try to help them make ends meet.  I could go on and on about how life happens, but the point I’m trying to make is we have to know a little bit about everything to be able to value merchandise and help people get through some tough situations.

We also have a lot of fun with our customers on a daily basis. We hear awesome life experiences every day. From the stories about how life happened and has them needing to get a loan, to the Lakota ceremonial bow story from Chief Kicking Bull. We have heard it all and it never gets old.

What’s it like to work in the pawn shop? It’s been said, “It’s like being a train conductor, flying a plane underwater.”  But for me, when I help that mom who is trying to decide whether to pay the power bill or buy groceries for the week because of an unexpected expense; when she doesn’t have to decide because I made her a loan on something she didn’t have to have right then...  Well, it kinda feels like being a superhero! 

Yeah, I said it, Pawnbrokers are superheroes!