How do pawn shops work?

They advance you money on an object of value that you have, you have then a certain amount of time to recover your item at a higher rate, if you do not recover ( re buy ) your item then the pawn shop can sell it to make its profit.  more

They pay send dope addicts out to steal and plunder good stuff then pay them next to nothing for whatever they haul back. not all pawn shops do this but almost all of them do. By doing this, they can underpay you for whatever you sell and not budge or negotiate a cheaper price.  more

Basically pawn shops prey on the poor and those who, for whatever reason, are unable to get credit by conventional means. You take something valuable to them, they value it and give you a proportion of the value in cash as a secured loan. When you want it back you pay more - it works out at a ridiculously high rate of interest and, if you don't pay it back within a fairly short space of time, you lose the item altogether. There are some very unscrupulous shops in England called Cash Converters. They are to be avoided like the plague, either as a borrower or a shopper. As a borrower you are going to get ripped off, and as a buyer you are going to get what was the property of some poor soul who fell on hard times.  more

Let's say it's three days until payday and you are out of money, but you have a valuable watch on your wrist...Take it in and the pawn shop will look it over, figure if they can sell it, then offer you a price. That's how much they'll loan you. You come back in within the loan period, which varies but can be weeks or a couple months, and you can re-claim your watch for the loan amount plus a fee. If you don't re-claim your watch before the end of the loan period, they put it up for sale. If you want it back, you'll have to pay the sale price. Who uses them? Well, just about anyone in need of money right away. Probably young people, maybe some older people now and then. Some people use the pawn shop like a bank--get some money for a watch or stereo or guitar, then pay back the loan plus the interest charge. A pawn shop is like a bank for small loans (at high interest) with collateral (whatever you pawn).  more