What's up with Pawn Shops?

.The Pawn Shop is as shady as a mangrove.
Why does a filthy 15-year old drill cost $80, twice as much as a new one at Sears? VHS tapes for $7? Even though you have 6 ratty cardboard boxes of them on the floor? I don't know what wafer-thin 14k gold medallions of the BVM are supposed to go for, but $129 still seems steep to me. And jewelry that has been personalized already? Unusual names etched permanently into metal. No reduction in price. Cell phones from back when they were called car phones? They got 'em. They don't need a competitive price because there's no competition. The car phone and beeper market is sewn up by pawn shops, so they'll charge what they please. Old Clarinets? Check. $300. Crapping you negative. Nice case, but no mouthpiece. Was it made by Ernesto Stradivarius?

You're supposed to talk them down.
Yeah, yeah. Maybe Jesse Ventura can talk the price down. I can barely convince them I was just curious about the whether the clarinet was $30 or $300. They were disgusted with either me, or their own sloppy handwriting, and I thought I should leave. There are always a BUNCH of people in the back.

What's with all the really big knives?
Are these knives really for field-dressing animals? Why is that a human skull on the holster then? These are stabbin' knives. That there is such an aftermarket for these things implies that there is a market for them. I guess it's cheaper than a pit bull, motorcycle, leather jacket, or tattoo. Don't tell the purchaser that these very same gothic knives are sold in renaissance fair catalogs alongside floopy velveteen hats for men and Harry Potter wands.

Figure it out about the Pawn Shops yet?
There was a video game place by the airport, except the people there hated it when kids came in to play the video games. Nothing would irritate them more. Have you ever been to a laundry where none of the machines worked? And no one ever went there, but it stayed around forever?

I guarantee you their balance sheets did not show heavy losses, as would normally be indicated by lack of patronage, but fat earnings from a legitimate extant cash-based business.

Pawn Shops deal in knives and guns. They have no interest in their own ridiculous inventory. They don't advertise and their personnel are ill equipped for sales. A bunch of people hang out in the back room doing nothing all day. Pawn Shops in Chicago and Milwaukee are gangster owned and shill operated to launder drug money, protected by corruption and apathy. Not that I care.

Where's all the stolen stuff crackhead burglars sell for crazy cheap?!
If I ever figure it out brother, I'll let you know.
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