Pawnshop chainsaw

[LD1]

I saw something in the pawnshop yesterday that almost made me sick.

An almost bran new looking dolmar 7900 with a 36" bar and chain.

Guy was asking $600 but said he'd take 500 and no lower. The sickening part is that he told me he only gave 300 for it. I didn't buy it.

I had concerns about if it was hot or not. He told me he expected it to come up hot but it didn't. He said they use this computer system that is linked to the police and the enter serial #'s and find out in an instant. But I have little faith in this system. We had all our saws stolen back in january. 5 of them. 3 were in the pawn shop right away (maybe the report and serials hadn't been entered into "this" system yet). But out two 7900's didn't hit the pawn shops till about 2 months later and were on ebay. How was that possible with this system???? Like I said, I have my doubts and that is on of the reasons I didn't buy. Also, since this guy just got the saw two days ago, maybe the owner doesn't realize it has been stolen or hasn't filed a report yet.

Which is kinda why I am posting this. If you live in central ohio and own a 7900 with a 36" bar, you may want to go check on it to see if it is still there. I also posted this on AS as well. If he still has the saw in a month and the serial is still clean, I may try to buy it then.

 

[smstonypoint]

Excuse my ignorance, my only acquaintance with pawn shops is watching "Pawn Stars" on the History Channel.

I guess this varies by state, but are pawn shops required to obtain and maintain records of the IDs of the folks who bring in items to pawn or sell?

It seems like I remember that after the increase in copper prices a few years ago, some states began to require scrap dealers to maintain records of the IDs of the sellers and to withhold payment for some period of time.

Just curious.

Steve

 

[Bird]

I guess this varies by state, but are pawn shops required to obtain and maintain records of the IDs of the folks who bring in items to pawn or sell?

As you said, it probably varies by state, but generally, yes, they are supposed to obtain and maintain records of the IDs. Probably most pawn shop owners are honest about it, but not all, or not all the time.

 

[Travelover]

I did some plumbing work recently and scrapped out the old copper pipe and brass fixtures. I had to show ID to get my cash. This was in Michigan.

I've never dealt with a pawnshop.

 

[Transit]

I would not pay any more than 25% of the original value of anything from a pawn shop. Remember the Golden Rule.
He who has the gold rules.

 

[LD1]

Yes the pawnshops are required to get I'ds of the people who sell to them. But that doesn't seem to stop the thieves. The thieves sell to the pawnshop, get their cash, and if questioned, they just say that they didn't know it was stolen and that they ought it from someone else. Nothing ever comes of it. The pawnshops don't loose out either cause in order to get the stoled goods back, either you or your ins. company has to pay the amount that the pawnshop gave for the item.

For example, in this case, if the saw is stolen and the owner files a claim with the insurance company, the owner usually has two choices, get a new saw paid for by the insurance company less the deductible. OR the insurance will get the saw back from the pawn shop by paing the pawnshop $300, then give you the saw once you pay your deductible.

In our case, we had 5 saws stolen @ a value of ~3200. We decided not to get the saws back as our ins has replacement value and NOT what they were worth. Some of the saws were old. Less the deductible, we got 2700 to buy new saws. If we wanted, we could have gave the insurance company $500 and they could have paid the pawnshops and got our saws back, or bought us new ones. We could buy saws cheaper than the ins. company (who would have bought them out of california ad had them shipped) so we took the 2700 and replaced them ourselves.

It kinda sucks to see your saw sitting on a shelf at a pawn shop or on ebay and know that you have to pay just to get them back just because some low-life thought he'd help himself around your garage, but that is just the way it is.

You cant really fault the pawnshop either though, causethey didn't know they were stolen, and if no one has filed a report yet, there is no way for them to know either. If I was a pawnshop owner, I'd hate to have to "eat" the money as a loss everytime something came up stolen, provided it wasn't listed as stolen when it was pawned,

 

[Jim Thompson]

Had a couple of friends who ran pawn shops here in FL. They were required get proof of identity, hold all purchased items for 30 days and furnish a list with serial # to local law enforcement before the item could be resold. Even so, a very small percentage of property is ever recovered. I was a victim of the theft of about $4000 worth of weed eaters, blowers( including a Little Wonder parking lot blower), and edgers about 4 years ago. Furnished s/n on all equip to investigator. Have yet to hear anything.

Jim

 

[doall]

Some pawn shops may be straight up law abiding, I don't know. Years ago I was in a mobile tools business(Matco) and every friday after the mechanic had changed jobs and I couldn't find him, I could ride to all the local pawn shops and find my tools that he had paid 10 percent or so down on. I could either buy them back or cry at the loss. I got out of the business for this reason and the ones that just "couldn't" pay this week. I learned a great life lesson; don't get into a credit based investment(job). Don't think I'm talking about all mechanics, some payed like clock work. When I was wrenching I never bought anything on a truck acount, I WAS CLUELESS.

When my brother and I were about 15 and 18 we bought an 026 to cut fire wood to sell and make some money. after about 3 months we found our missing saw in a pawn shop(no rules back then) he said tough luck, I'll give you a deal since its yours-$200 we didn't have it. Don't care for pawn shops.

 

[seymojo536]

ld1,

I just saw this saw listed on CL. It's the shop on east main st. right?

 

[edjones72]

I worked in pawn shops for several years while in college. We would go out of our way to not take a stolen items. Shops in Georgia are required to report daily all items accepted for purchase or pawn to local law enforcement with proper ID and model and serial number info where applicable. If it were reported stolen to the police, they would call us and place a hold on the item. Within a few days a detective would come by and collect the items and get the original signed receipt. At that point we were out the merchandise and the money we paid for it. The only course we had was to then file charges against the person also to get our money back. This rarely worked since they were now in jail. Most times we could tell if the person was not the owner of the item. We would ask them questions like "Can you start your saw for me?" If they fumbled with the controls it was obvious they had never used the saw and we would not take it. One guy had a nice camera and and I wrongly said "wow this is the model with the new double reflex triple coated optics", he quickly agreed "you're right!" and he had no idea how to even turn it on. I let him keep "his" camera. The big problems we had was when family stole from family and would not press charges against their sweet little meth/crack head thief. They still wanted their stuff back but did not want the law involved. We would offer the stuff back for what we paid for it and they would get very angry. Our response: go file charges against you're family member and the police will get you're stuff back and someone goes to jail. They usually came up with the money. A study was done in Georgia several years ago that showed less than 5% of stolen items end up in pawn shops. Most of it goes to flea markets where there are no records. The new thing with nice stolen jewelry is ship it out of the country to be sold elsewhere. The bottom line: the deadbeat criminals are ultimately responsible and now there is no where to put them so they are back on the streets very quickly.