Anyone ever done a shop on a pawn shop? I have just had available opportunities come up in my area (one for an inquiry and one for an actual pawn). The pay is pretty good and it is right by my house. However, having never used a pawn shop, I'm a little nervous about accepting them, esp. because both require you to be looking for a $100-200 loan and I have no idea what value items would qualify for that. Anybody ever do any of these and have any thoughts?

I have never done one but I heard about one a year or two ago. You were sent two items to take in and pawn, you needed to return and recover one of them to send back to the company. I don't remember anyone finding the shop terribly difficult or disaster prone. Would, in general, not be one I would choose to do because of personal bias.

Actually in this scenario you actually have to pawn one of your own items and then retrieve it within 7 days (and in the application you have to tell them what you are going to pawn). In the inquiry only scenario I'm not sure if you have to actually take the item in that you are inquiring about or what.

The timing of it was not terribly convenient for me so I'll probably wait and see...

Your scenario at least reduces your risk exposure. I would have been uncomfortable receiving and returning the MSPs property. There are just too many ways that could go sour. Certainly I have garage sale and estate sale 'finds' that could be pawned for significantly more than I paid for them and if something happened to them I would not be particularly upset.

What if someone else buys it before you can get it back...7 days. I've never heard of this, and a little confused, but you still get the money so you won't be out anything. I'd also perfer to pawn my own as having to mail something not mine can be a little risky.

I gather there are two 'levels of service' with pawn shops. One is to buy your item outright from you. The other is to float you a very high interest loan using your item as collateral. It is this later service that would be being evaluated I feel sure.

I have gotten these in my inbox as well. Kind of tempted to try one. If you decide to do the job let me know how it goes as a first timer? I am kind of nervous as well. I have never even stepped foot in a pawn shop, not sure how it works.

I visited a number of them in my area years ago when I was trying to recover my stolen viola. Most of the merchandise on display appeared to be new stuff they would sell on an EZ payment plan with no credit check and substantial interest. Then there is stuff that people take in to sell to them. This is part of pawn shops' shady reputation because historically pawn shops were where thieves took stolen property to sell. That has changed a lot because goods acquired that way need to go into a property registry for a period of time (a week?) to be checked against police reports of stolen property. Then there is the stuff that is taken in as loan collateral. There is a time period during which it can be reclaimed by paying off the loan and interest. If the loan is not repaid, the item(s) become the property of the lender and can be sold.

I gather thieves were getting loans on stolen property that they then never reclaimed. That was the reason for my multiple visits looking for my viola. Of course the pawn shops hated to see me coming because if it turned out they had my instrument, they would need to turn it over to the police as stolen property and would be out anything they had paid to buy it or loans they had made to acquire it.

To a great extent eBay has replaced pawn shops for the more sophisticated burglar.

Today pawn shops will buy your stuff for X amount of days. Sort of like a loan and then you come buy it back. It is collateral for the loan until you return the money.

Flash,

Inspite of the police registry system, burglars are still bringing items to pawn shops in all boroughs of NYC.

Yup. That was why I was visiting the places looking quietly for my "stuff". Police indicated that I was unlikely to find it as the shops that received stuff that was likely 'hot' were likely to move it out to more distant locations. Police recently told my sister after a break in at her place that thieves these day bang up jewelry and such to a non recognizable form and the scales are set up at night to weigh gold and silver items the fences purchase that get melted down quickly. Why they don't shut down THOSE operations is just annoying, since they know they are happening and there is no pretense of legitimacy. Police estimates were that if they didn't catch the burglars within 24 hours any jewelry was likely melted to unidentifiable state already.