Pawn Shop Owners Share Best Reactions They've Seen

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mattstaff
Mar 21, 2020 9:00 AM EDT

Someone on AskReddit asked for pawn shop owners to describe the best reactions they've seen from people that tried to sell worthless stuff. People are prone toward losing their minds, when they find out that that possession they were trying to sell, is in fact worthless to the pawn shop owner. It can be a humbling process. 

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  • 01
    Text - Nikkysikk • 2y Not the owner but I worked in a small pawn shop for about three years and my personal favorite was a greasy guy came in and dumped out a garbage bag of broken computer fans and a few assorted computer parts. We laughed for a few minutes and realized this guy was serious. My boss asked him how much he wanted for it all and the guy said he didn't know how much it would be worth but he heard there was gold in computer parts. We had to break it to this guy that the plastic comp
    via u/Krahz
  • 02
    Text - rydencyborg • 2y My dad runs one. One guy brought in a huge bag of wheat pennies expecting to walk out with a big pay day but really they aren't worth all that much. I think he offered the guy like $20 and he stormed off mad.
    via u/Krahz
  • 03
    Text - SplendidTit • 2y Oh man, my great uncle owns a pawn shop and some of the shit there is hilarious or heartbreaking. People trying to sell free old TVs they got on craigslist for hundreds of dollars because now they are "vintage." • Obviously rented instruments for their kid's band class that have tags on them from the rental place. And oh geeze, do people get pissed about engagement rings. He literally has a bag of engagement rings, they so easy to come by. Women tend to be sad when they f
    via u/Krahz
  • 04
    Text - banjohusky95 • 2y I buy and repair typewriters. Its an odd niche hobby of mine more than anything. Typewriters can go for a lot of money! But, most aren't honestly worth what people want. 85% of typewriters are worth no more than $125 in prestine condition. Many times people will try to sell their inherited typewriters for $50 to $1000 more in some cases than they're worth. Ive seen one person try to sale a typewriter to me for $650 because he saw one online for $700 in a different color.
    via u/Krahz
  • 05
    Text - SkyGuy182 • 2y Having worked at a pawn shop before, I can say there are plenty of amazing stories of customers and their antics. Usually the best stories revolve around jewelry. This one woman came in with a big gold-colored ring and wanted to get a few hundred dollars for it. Picking it up and looking at it I could tell it was super fake, and I tried to explain that to her. She wouldn't buy it because "the street vendor told me it was solid 14kt." | went and picked up our huge earth magn
    via u/Krahz
  • 06
    Text - lostintheblue • 2y The best one I had was a lady trying to pawn her grandmas antique DVD player She said it was like 50years old and wanted $100. I showed her the stamp on the back that said it was made in 2009. And she said oh I grabbed the wrong one.
    via u/Krahz
  • 07
    Text - Guitarfoxx • 2y I don't own one but I did work in work for a couple of years, the most memorable one was only about 30 seconds. Large sweaty man walks in with a belt sander, set it down on the counter in front of me and plugged right in. Made direct eye contact and switched it on. The sander immediately made a loud popping sound and smoke begin to rise. Unplugged it, turned around and walked out without a single word between us.
    via u/Krahz
  • 08
    Text - Thomasrdotorg • 2y I used to work in a surf shop. We used to throw the shitty boards, ones we couldn't sell, were broken or were projects for later in the backyard of the shop. One night someone stole some of the boards- unbeknownst to us-and then he came round and tried to sell them to us. Yes, he tried to sell as the boards he stolen from us. My boss just laughed and said "these are so terrible we will just throw them in the backyard". So now he had stolen boards that no one wanted and
    via u/Krahz
  • 09
    Text - NUMBerONEisFIRST • 2y I own a similar store. People still think their beanie babies have value. People also tend to think what items sell for online are what they will sell for at the same price and speed locally.
    via u/Krahz
  • 10
    Text - MadPat • 2y Hey! I was the dummy on this one. I looked into a pawn shop store and there was a sign saying "Why are 1968 pennies worth almost $20.00?" I look through my penny collection and found a 1968 penny. I walked into the shop and showed him my penny. Then he began smiling and smiling and snickering and giggling.. And, all of a sudden, I realized I did not have one thousand nine hundred sixty eight pennies. Thad one penny. That guy was a real smartass. I do not frequent pawn shops an
    via u/Krahz
  • 11
    Text - djf1207 • 2y I worked in one for a few years. Not really a "best reaction" but a girl came in already in tears holding an engagement ring. Everyone at a pawn shop feels obliged to tell you why they are selling/ pawning and she told me she had recently moved across the country and had just found out that her fiancé had married her friend back home. The big problem was that I could tell it was a fake as she was walking in the door. All I could tell her was "if you thought he was an asshole
    via u/Krahz

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