Golden Deer Pub Community Forums

Ummm, what is a pawn shop...?

It's called a profit margin. They need to make money too, or they dont male money and dont stay in buisness. And your friend is amazing.

In case anyone is still wondering about the process of pawning, I will explain.

When you walk into a pawn shop, there are three things that typically happen. Either you buy something, sell something, or "pawn" something. Buying doesn't need an explanation. If you sell something, then as Zamisk says, the lovely people at the pawn shop are going to sell it for more than they paid you so that they can make some cash.

"Pawning" is a lot like taking out a loan. However, the people at the pawn shop aren't interested in your credit score because they can't afford any chance of a default. So, you bring in an item as collateral, and the people at the pawn shop will loan you out as much money as they think the item is worth and hold on to the item until you pay the loan back (with interest, of course). If you can't pay the loan back, the shop now owns the item that you put down as collateral and can sell it to make the money back.

^ Yes, and some places are more reputable than others. I had a roommate once who worked in one. When people would turn in items of a certain value (like guns, large electronics, jewelry), they would check the police report database for items that had been reported stolen to make sure what they were receiving wasn't on that list. So, if you're going to the nicer places, you can assume what you're buying was turned in by its owner. As far as the games go... I bought Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap for $3 at one. That was pretty nice, saved about $22-27. Perfectly legitimate. If it's a properly run place, they won't accept copied games, and you can clearly see the disc when you buy. They also check to make sure the games/electronics/whathaveyou actually work before they accept the item, and most will have a return policy for items that turn out to be defective.

There is some reputable ones out there. Interstingly though I went into one with a friend of mine. The place was HOT. The had to many tools and things of value. I told my friend we needed to leave. It was full of mechnic tools. My friend was a mechnic. I asked if alot of shops had closed because there were just to many tools. I later found out my hunch was right.
I prefer second hand stores myself. It is safer and just buys and sells.

I don't want to buy in those places... :X
And I just created a piracy topic before seeing this...
I think I messed up...
Anyway, I am a legal buyer.
I just can't take it when something is being copied and sold without the consent of the original maker. (Did I sound blurry?:l )

I don't see why not. Most of the Pawn shops I go to have been there for years and have return policies if they don't work.

I tend to buy mostly older games at Pawn Shops but that tends to be once in a blue moon as those tend to be nothing but sports games. I very rarely ever purchase any current gen games there.

Selling on the other hand... no no and no. Games tend to be their small section of the store and tend to be all priced the same by system. I would get barely anything for selling them for cash at one.

-And there's always a risk of second hand items of it being perhaps not a genuine product, even if it's not a shady place of business.

Haha. Sorry if this conversation is long dead and I just revive it. But in my Opinion its alright to buy in buy and sell, or pawnshop or any similar places, you just have to understand the things that comes with it. Like when you buy a second game either its legitimate or not its still "secondhand" means you shouldn't expect anything like when you buy the original directly from the main. Pawnshop are great anyway, in my country its hard to get games, even with amazon, as a die hard fan it pains not to be able to get some thankfully like the saying goes "garbage to others can be treasure to some" of course I can't expect it has those freebies. I hope this will help others who come across this topic

Calling back to basics:
The ideal situation is to pay the original creators of a game directly.

Down from there, we can buy from a wide range of distributors who represent those creators in varying fashions. The original creators may receive some of the money you pay through a distributor, but all distributors grant the original creators some publicity.

I'm thinking of the value of that publicity versus possible payments to the original creators. If they'd never receive a 0.01$ from you anyway, then what's to lose? When is it not okay to pawn/resell/copy/steal such a game? I say whenever it gives the game or its creators an unfavorable reputation.