Seattle pawn shopFor countless numbers of people who may have lost their job, are having their home foreclosed upon, simply can’t make ends meet, cannot get a loan at their local bank for small amounts to pay the electric bill or gas bill or even put food on the table, the answer for these people comes in an unlikely place, their local pawn shop.

 

A Seattle pawn shop, as well as every other pawn shop in the United States, works in one of two ways: first the pawn shop will purchase an item of value such as gold jewelry, electronics, and band instruments, work out or camping equipment or anything a pawn broker deems of value they can put a price on and resell in their store.  The second way a pawn shop works is as a small loan company.  A person brings in an item of value like a piece of old gold jewelry and the pawn broker assesses its’ value and offers the owner an amount for a period of one to three months plus interest.

 

An individual has a choice at the end of the loan period and that is they can either bring back the loan money, plus interest and they will receive their item of value back or they can leave their item of value at the pawn shop and keep the money, at which time the pawn broker has the right to sell the item of value in order to recoup their losses.  If you tell a pawn broker upfront that you want to make a loan on the valuable, depending on their existing inventory and the value of the item, it may have some bearing on the amount of the loan the individual receives.

 

People who never thought of themselves as pawn shop visitors are now going through their jewelry boxes and finding old gold jewelry to take to these local pawn shop dealers in order to sell gold for cash for groceries and other necessities, and they are finding that the experience is not all bad or shady like portrayed on television.