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The posting of yet another stolen tuba prompted me to write what I read and heard concerning pawn shops. The pawn shop business may be undergoing a change which will make it more difficult to pawn a stolen tuba and more difficult to track it when it is pawned.

Three companies are buying up pawn shops, the mom & pop store is 'going to be a thing of the past,' a direct quote. Cash America, EZ Corp and First Cash Financial are buying individual and groups of stores at a fast clip.

What makes a tuba hard to pawn is that it may not fit the 'profile' of what the chain of stores is selling, this from a former musician who now manages a pawn shop for one of the above companies.

What makes it hard to find if it is pawned is that it can quickly be moved to another store, city or state and still fullfill the letter of the law about holding the item for 30 days.

When a chain's pawn store is asked if they have a particular item, they can honestly say "we have no item of that description in our inventory." You have to ask the right question, "did you pawn or broker the pawn of this item?"

As a personal experience, I have noticed a decrease of brass and ww instruments in the stores I used to cruise (I once bought 4 Loree and Selmer wood oboes).

There's nothing we can do about it, I am wondering if this truly is a national trend. Anybody with experience of corporations buying up pawn stores in your areas?

As a repairman and reseller.... I maintain a database of every music instrument that passes through here. However... I am only a very small player in this business. All I can offer that might help get rid of some of the 'crooks' in this business is to make sure of who you are dealing with and ask about the origin of what you are buying.

If it looks too good to be true... it's probably stolen!

Alex C wrote:What makes it hard to find if it is pawned is that it can quickly be moved to another store, city or state and still fullfill the letter of the law about holding the item for 30 days.

When a chain's pawn store is asked if they have a particular item, they can honestly say "we have no item of that description in our inventory." You have to ask the right question, "did you pawn or broker the pawn of this item?"

Except that:

a) pawn brokers are still required to report all merchandise, including serial numbers, received to their local law enforcement agency on a daily basis; and

b) most jurisdictions require pawned merchandise to be held in a secured area ON SITE in the ACTUAL SHOP it was received, for the duration of the holding period.

Nothing to see here, folks. Move along ...

My father was a career "old school" pawnbroker who worked at his cousin's shop his entire adult life after spending WW2 in the navy. Even back in those days, pawn shops were required to report serial numbers and such to the local police department on a daily basis. When a pawnbroker takes in stolen goods which are then returned by police to the owner, the pawn shop loses out whatever cash they loaned, therefore he was very careful about what he took in. For example a guitarist or sax player hocking his instrument would always be able to play something on the instrument. Dad was always telling stories about some "kid" or another who brought in various instruments which he knew right away were stolen. Bari sax...contrabass clarinet...etc...He would usually show them some interest in the axe and ask them to play a little bit...which they were never able to do. He would make up some reason not to take it..."we have too many of those on hand"...etc...

Like many people who've spent their lives doing one job, he seemed to have a sixth sense about "hot" merchandise, and whether or not an item was legit...in the same way that a baker knows his ovens, the dough, the humidity, the flour and whatnot.

Chain pawn shops didn't exist back in those days.

Hi-
I know that in NYS, the Vice Squad of all things for each city police department has a small section that deals with pawn shops, and looks into items that may 'be a bit warm....' I see a big increase in small pawn shops--everyone is trying to 'buy gold'--they all seem to be part of a larger organization, so Alex C's info now makes perfect sense--reminds me of the small take out Chinese restaurants that are a chain--like 'China King' in this area...brass & woodwind instruments very rarely show up in these shops these days
mark

Pawn shops have been really famous since a long time. Early pawnbroking was unregulated and the rates of interest charged were very high. Nowadays, pawnshops offer loan over a valuable range of items and the interest rates are too quite low. Still, while dealing with the pawnbrokers you should be able to negotiate for a deal.

I've always been weary of buying a big ticket item like a tuba from a Pawn Shop from the standpoint that if it is indeed stolen and you have it and it is tracked down you would be by law required to return it to it's rightful owner. Getting your money back from the pawn shop might prove difficult especially if they go under or just disappear. That is true for CL & FleaBay sales that turn out to hot merchandise as well.

While I live in an affluent community I've noticed a huge increase in small pawn shops on our fringes in small towns in an 8-15 mile radius from us. I wonder if that is a result of small towns having small (under staffed)/less sophisticated police depts.

I think the Peter Smith post was blatant SPAM.

MartyNeilan wrote:I think the Peter Smith post was blatant SPAM.

Heh. Someone named "Peter Smith" who isn't a native English speaker.

I see some decent student models around here, but not at attractive asking prices. There's a shop 20 miles from here with several trumpets (an okay King, a Yamaha with a crunched 2nd valve slide, and two low end Bachs) and two Conn trombones. But they are all priced well above the Ebay range, so they just sit there. On the other hand, a friend recently bought a heavily dented but playable Besson tuba in another shop in the same town for $40.

peter smith wrote:Pawn shops have been really famous since a long time. Early pawnbroking was unregulated and the rates of interest charged were very high. Nowadays, pawnshops offer loan over a valuable range of items and the interest rates are too quite low. Still, while dealing with the pawnbrokers you should be able to negotiate for a deal.

I'm wondering why a thread posted in 2011 suddenly pops up again. I agree with Marty, this looks like blatant spam to me, too.

Since Friday, Dec. 19 is Peter Smith's first day on the board I'm sure we all want to encourage him to post on other topics he's interested in as well as four year old threads.

Alex C wrote:

peter smith wrote:Pawn shops have been really famous since a long time. Early pawnbroking was unregulated and the rates of interest charged were very high. Nowadays, pawnshops offer loan over a valuable range of items and the interest rates are too quite low. Still, while dealing with the pawnbrokers you should be able to negotiate for a deal.

I'm wondering why a thread posted in 2011 suddenly pops up again. I agree with Marty, this looks like blatant spam to me, too.

Since Friday, Dec. 19 is Peter Smith's first day on the board I'm sure we all want to encourage him to post on other topics he's interested in as well as four year old threads.

-----and share with us his breadth of knowledge!