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Life Of A Pawn Broker

Craigslist is a wasteland…..

Ok..Ok more stories. Gather round I’ll tell you a story about a big bad company. Not once upon a time but right now there is a huge company that pretends to be your friend when really it is the biggest facilitator of stolen stuff I have ever seen.

Let me back up a few years.. I started the pawn shop in December of 2009 with a 5000 sq ft building and literally nothing else. So in the first couple of days we opened at 9am and waited and waited, well you get the idea.

I panicked. I really thought if I turned on the pawn sign I would be overrun with customers…uh, not really.

So where do you get good merchandise, cheap and right now? Well how about Craigslist.

Craigslist was my savior so I thought. Eric and I got on the computer and started offering every pawn shop friendly item about half of what they wanted. We made about 200 offers per day. We got lots of replies and I thought our problems were over. Holy cow was I wrong. I stumbled onto the largest criminal enterprise I’ve ever seen, bigger than any crooked pawn shop.

Pawn shops don’t have the greatest reputation. Matter of fact is between Hollywood and pawn shops own bad characters, the last 50 years or so have been suicidal PR for pawn shops. Only recently with Pawn Stars and other related reality TV shows has it recovered…some.

Back to 2009….So Eric and I are getting great results with making offers. We are having a hard time believing anyone would take some of the offers we were making. In the beginning we made the initial contact through a personal gMail account and once we got an interested seller we would send back a message that looked like this…..

“ I own Big Tim’s Pawn Shop in Pinellas Park so you will have to bring it in. I would prefer to give you a loan as that is my business but we will straight buy it if we can make money and it helps you. Let me know. The directions and hours can be found by clicking here .

Tim

Big Tim’s Pawn

5193 73rd Ave N.

Pinellas Park, Fl. 33756

727-828-1388”

Now let me make myself clear.

1. we made offers on stuff

2. the sellers would get all happy and accept said offer

3. we would make a time and date that worked for everyone

4. then and only then the seller would get the above response

Then at least 30% of the time they dropped off the earth. Really it didn’t strike me as weird at first. We were so busy with emails that I didn’t track it well. It wasn’t until I paid a guy in Russia to write me a program that searched Craigslist every 5 minutes for our stuff and auto emailed the seller. We were doing 1500 emails per day and really could not keep up with the response. Emails were flying out but we couldn’t keep up with responding.

Then I found Google autoresponse. There is a really cool add-on to gMail that allows you to store pre made emails and with the click of a button your email is done. Autoresponse changed the game for us. The back and forth of emails between sellers and us was really very typical. We made an offer, they countered, and we would close or not. We developed 20 or so emails that could automate probably 99% of the possibilities in getting stuff off Craigslist.

So I had this really cool process that let us buy a lot of stuff. Thousands per day, it was really effective. But it gave me more time to look at the process and why we couldn’t buy more stuff. Specifically the stuff that we would lose was really cheap, good stuff. iPods, laptops, cool guitars surely they couldn’t have all sold. So I went on a mission to find this stuff and why I was missing it.

The program let me usually be the first response. I can’t tell you how many people said there stuff was on CL for like 5 minutes when they got the email. Of course when you use computers things happen fast, I had a sincere advantage. But somewhere in between the seller agreeing to actually getting the stuff I was losing them. Then I started looking at the time stamps on the emails and where I was losing them was when they finally found out I was a Pawn Shop, but why?

It wasn’t until I started another Craigslist account and made the similar offers for the same items that I discovered the truth. All this stuff was stolen. Really.

I took three days and started going out of the store to pick up this stuff. Laptops with no cords or the password were unknown or didn’t make any sense. And when you would look at the cameras or laptops the pictures really didn’t make sense. One guy had five GPS units three had no cord and all five had home addresses in the same neighborhood, obviously stolen. So being the honest guy I am I bought them all for $40 and returned them to the owners.

I kinda gave up on that soon enough as the pawn shop started to take off but we still heard horror stories about how people were getting ripped off with it. In the store we were buying stuff and telling people to use CL because by the time we bought it and resold it they would lose out. Every single person had a story about how they or someone they know had been robbed, or ripped off because of CL.

Type “craigslist robbery” into Google right now and be amazed.

The story comes full circle now because in the last few weeks an explosion of CL scam artists have been blowing up my email. How it starts is typically you get a response to an ad on CL that looks like this

“do you still have the __________.”

Great I’m thinking I have a potential sale! So I reply …

“It’s at my store if you would like me to hold it for you please call or email me. I will need to know when you are coming for it. If the ad is still up we have not sold it. Even if you don’t buy it I will give you two free dvd’s of your choice for coming in. Just bring this email with you.

the store is Big Tim’s Pawn click on that to get the hours and directions.

Pat Andro

Big Tim’s Pawn

5193 73rd Ave N

Pinellas Park, Fl. 33781

727-828-1388

more info

Mon-Fri 10-8

Sat 10-6

Sun Closed

Pat is a fictional character in the pawn shop when anyone asks for him/her we know it’s coming from an ad.

The scams start when you get this type of response…..

“I appreciate your response, the price is good and am going to buy it

from you, and I would like you to consider it sold. I would have loved

to come and see it but my schedule will not permit me I’m a busy kind

of person. You can get back to me with more pics if you still have

more it so that we can proceed with payment arrangements and pick up.

Please do withdraw the advert from Craigslist to avoid disturbance

from other buyers. I want you to know that i will be paying via bank

certified check .I will like you to reply with the following details

to facilitate the mailing of the check to you,

1…..Full name to write on the check

2…..Full Physical address to post the check

3…..City, State and Zip Code

4…..Home & Cell Phone to contact you

*** Note*** You will get back to me today with your contact

information for the payment and the check will be shipped to your

address via UPS or FEDEX courier services and I will like you to know

that you will not be Responsible for delivery i will have my mover

come over as soon as you have cashed the check.”

In the past I just let these go but recently I started replying to them to see what really happens if you try and complete this transaction. I’m curious guy so I started replying with this….

“I really appreciate your response to my email, I have taken the item down from Craigslist. You may see another I have many. I am ecstatic to receive your check.

1…..Pat Andro

2…..5193 73rd ave n

3…..Pinellas Park, Fl. 33781

4…..727-828-1388.”

So I’m thinking no way they will try and actually send me a check, right?

Craigslist scam checks
$20,000.00 in three weeks of scam artists from Craigslist ad

The pic is fuzzy on purpose because I’m like that but that is over $20,000.00 in REALLY REALLY GOOD fake cashier’s checks. The part where these scammers prey on you is on your greed. The check they send is always more, much more than the item for sale. The scammer always has a reason why this happened. Here is one example I got emailed to me after the check arrived….

“Hello ,how are you doing, Unlike i have told you in my last Email.. my brother have really mess the payment Up, there is a curiosity After all i have thought about it and i decided to email you and see if we could both deal with Trust and Understanding.. The Main problem right now was that He made some {Typographical} Error in sending your payment.. i have instructed him to send some cash to my mother for her Mortgage and bills payment.. i think he heard me wrong due the the fact of his disability. [Hard of hearing] , he was suppose to have sent you a payment of ($865). But instead, he sent a payment of ($2,600) Which means he substitute your payment to my mother,*Vise verse*He claimed that I said he should send you a payment of ($2,600) of-which this payment should have been mailed directly to my Mother or her bill collector, i tried to paused the mail before it can get to you but its not possible for me, that’s why the payment has been delayed, But that should not disturb the transaction, the deal is still on and we shall get through it, Once you received this payment ..Please kindly Take it to your bank and deduct your item money and please Guarantee me in sending the excess fund to the bill collector/ My Mother .

All you have to do as soon as you get the payment cash at your bank, deduct your item money and wire the rest to my mom through western union store, i hope i can trust you on this Matter..

Dave’s”

Never said they were educated but seeing how the scams are always through UPS or FEDEX (to avoid Postal Service felony). These scams cost them about $12 for every one of these checks. What they are counting on is you going to your bank and depositing them. Banks don’t check them they just deposit them and 3 days later when they don’t scan well and come back as fake they will take the money out of your account.

In the meantime the scammer will want to immediately get a mover/shipper there. Because he “PAID” you way more than it was for sale they also expect you to pay the shipper and give them a cashiers check for the balance minus a hundred or so “for your trouble”.

This is a very expensive, very sophisticated scam. Judging by how many I have received lately it is very profitable. I am working on replies right now to string these scammers along enough to actually get the mover out here to the store I will update this post because I think it will get real interesting if I try and push them further into the scam. I have a plan that might even cost them more money and really make them crazy.

Moral here is be careful of CL the internet makes people brave enough to do what they never would face-to-face. Come visit us at Big Tim’s Pawn I’ll let you see the checks!

New Store Press Release

 

pressrelease.pdf Download this file

 

 

Posted via email from Big Tims Pawn’s posterous

 

What does the luckiest guy in the world get for Fathers’ Day?

I have no idea.

I’ll tell you what I got though, salad dressing and WD-40.  Oh sure I got new grilling tools and a stand for my iPad and some nice cards from my kids.  The salad dressing though, was the perfect gift.

I am a hard guy to shop for because if I want something I just buy it.  Plus I have really specific ideas about what makes one product better than the other.  Then there is the whole I really don’t talk too much, so you really have no idea what to buy me.  I really could not care less about most things but for some I have strong ideas about what I want.

I do have a real powerful affinity for big watches, especially one that have “complications” like chronographs and moon phases indicators.  But if you ask what type of shirts I like, well, you might be surprised to know that most of the time I wear them inside out because I hate the seams.  My family, especially my wife, usually just give up and tell me to go buy myself something, but not this year.  So why does a grown man get dressing?

We have two houses and spend most of our time in Pinellas county just west of Tampa.  On most weekends though we go north to our lake house just west of Gainesville.  My wife is a very good cook and salad is a big part of our dinners.  I think I got my love of salad from my father who saves his salad for dessert.  I like blue cheese dressing and one time my wife brought me some new dressing home called Lighthouse, and it is the best dressing ever.  Unfortunately, Lighthouse is hard to find.  After finding we were out of it recently I nearly ran my wife ragged about it til she used it as her opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.  I know my wife loves me cause she will drive way out of the way to get me 6 bottles of this dressing and cook me killer Fathers’s day meal, with salad.

I got a really nice card from my 10-year-old boy, Rex, and for the first time I think he actually put some effort into the card and gift.  This same kid has of recently spent no time or effort into gifts but I guess my little guy is growing up and he makes me prouder everyday.

My youngest daughter works in the Pawn Shop with me and runs the online presence for the store.  This is no small task, what you don’t see in our website you don’t see the 1500+ items we have on Amazon or the same amount on eBay.

We ships 30 to 40 items per day 6 days per week all over the world, online sales amount to 70% of our gross sales.  Without this income our chances of making through the growing phase of our store would be bleak.  Mallory has a weird sense of herself and her humor is lost on most people.

In our store we get a lot of things that are not in pristine condition or even 100% working.  It is a common thing for me to see one of the employees trying clean/fix things and 99% of the time my comment to them is “you know what would make that easier?  WD-40″.  It is such a common thing that they run to find a can when they see me coming, I have caught them with empty cans in their hand to avoid the confrontation.  So what does Mallory buy me of course WD-40, perfect.

It’s has been awhile since I wrote about my life and surprisingly the previous posts were very popular.  Sometimes I forget how scary and intimidating it is for people to go into a pawn shop and try to get a loan or buy something.  I write these posts to show that we are a family run business and a cold corporate environment is not what to expect.  Everyday in the store is different so I’m inviting you to come down and meet us, you never know what you will find.

If you like the website ask for Mallory and tell her because I never will.  Keep up with future posts because we have a very exciting announcement coming that will make going to Big Tim’s twice a fun in the future.

RIP Frank Frazetta

This is a rehash of an old post but with the unfortunate demise of Mr Frazetta I thought it seemed timely.  My condolences go out to his family and friends.

Even as a kid I have always had a great appreciation of art.  I used to go to the Ringling Museum of Art to see the great Renaissance period works with my parents and ever since then it has been one of my favorite places on earth.  I’m almost afraid to bring my youngest one there, in fear that he won’t see the beauty that I see in it.

I was always amazed at the scale of the paintings.  It was hard for me to even imagine completing one of those great paintings in a lifetime and being amazed that one man could do so many.  What I consider art is eclectic, but the things I really appreciate is 14th-16th century Flemish and Christian art.  Specifically Rubens.  I also have a great love of mechanical things….. cars, planes, automatic wristwatches, and well made guitars.

Having a pawn shop in what is not considered a metropolitan area I never expected “real” art to ever appear in the store or at least very rarely.  Well less than ten days with the doors open in walks real art.  Not lifestyles of the rich and famous, but, some interesting stuff.

We had a customer come in and sell some coins.  Common US coins.  He also has some Irish coins, not my thing, but I liked it that he showed me.  He also had a good story about the coins and it was obvious that he had enjoyed having them. He also taught me a few things about the coins that I looked up to confirm and his information was correct.  I got to check off my learn something new for the day box, cool enough.

Then he says to me  “I brought in the lithograph that I talked with you about in an email”…..hmmmm.  Here is where our story makes a detour.

Right now most of our marketing is contacting Craigslist sellers and making offers for there stuff.  We use a combination of live and software generated offers initially.  If any interest is garnered then we get into a “live” negotiation with them.  We go through about 300 emails per day.  I had missed this last email because had told me he was coming in then followed it up with another email saying he had more stuff.

Once I put a customer in the “coming in box” I generally ignore the follow up emails, because I cant handle any more emails.  Not the ideal procedure but necessary right now.

Getting back to the story.  He tells me he has a lithograph of Frank Frazetta’s original artwork of “The Lieutenant”.  Frank Frazetta is the artist that made the movie Heavy Metal, drew Conan, drew Tarzan and other famous dark, Gothic, sci-fi greats.  It was obviously well framed with COA and it was a beautiful Lithograph.

If you don’t know the difference between a good and not good lithograph the difference can be hard to see.  Fortunately, for me, I can see it. This particular one had great color separation and really nice paper, well framed.  It was a plexi-glass face but that was easily fixed.  I didn’t put a number on it and asked for some more time.  Graciously he accepted my request.

A few days later my customer came back and sold me the print and it sits in our store today.

I really don’t want to sell everything that is in the store and this print would be one of those things that I am happy to keep.  If you are a fan of his art please stop by and take a look. Mr. Frazetta’s work unfortunately it will only go up in value due to his demise.

Posted via web from Big Tims Pawn’s posterous

First episode of Pawn Shop Talk Radio!

This is the live recording of the first show recorded in studio live Sunday 04/25/2010 at 820AM WWBA.  The first 6 minutes are lead-in commercials so  jump those and any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Posted via web from Big Tims Pawn’s posterous

Some days you just have to have faith in yourself..

I’m not really much for new things.  I have flown planes, started businesses, eaten live eels and seen a midget and a donkey in a “show” and woken up on my motorcycle doing 80mph, so it’s hard to surprise me.  If you give me a good wireless connection or a good non-fiction book you might not know I’m in the room with you.

Like you I am good at some really unusual things, and I hate stuff I’m no good at.  Tonight I did the first radio show for the pawn shop and man that was really hard.  If you have a fear of speaking in public don’t do that.

The night started auspiciously as when we arrived at the station the doors were locked.  After calling our producer and learning he wouldn’t arrive until like 15 minutes before the show I decided it was time to get in the building.  Let’s just say that Leathermen makes a great product and voila we are in.  Then we can’t get the elevator to open and take us to the 10th floor.  One nice cleaning lady later we are in the radio station.

From there as the time ticked closer to show time I got more and more apprehensive.  When the show started all you get is someone in another room that points at you and the music stops and it’s you and who knows how many other people listening to you.  Of course you imagine they are all professional radio critics just waiting for you to misstep.

To imagine what happens next is that you are sitting by yourself on a huge stage, then the curtains go up and it’s you and lights and you have to talk for an hour, 60 minutes, about something that interests you but not many others.

The phones don’t ring, and you have to keep speaking.

I made it through, but I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.  I learned something about myself tonight.  I also forgot the rush of adrenaline you get from doing those things.

I hope you scare yourself every once and a while, it makes you realize you are capable of more than reading books.

Posted via web from Big Tims Pawn’s posterous

First radio show promo spot is available to listen to, comment if you like it…..

You know how everyone’s job looks easy from the outside looking in?  I could work my whole life and never come up with something this good.  Unfortunately this spot raises the expectations of possible listeners to a level that might be hard to achieve but here it is anyway..

  
Download now or listen on posterous

PS-OPEN.mp3 (831 KB)

 

 

 

Posted via web from Big Tims Pawn’s posterous

old ladies, bass guitars, and free sweet tea.

Ok sometimes I'm not the most friendly guy.  I'm quiet and I'm 6'4" 270lbs to boot.  Not what you call approachable, especially in the morning. 

This morning before opening the store I go into the McDonald's next door and get some morning coffee.  I'm in line behind a nice little old lady (NLOL)  and her walrus/daughter. I notice that they are looking at the menu like they have never been to a McDonald's before. Great…..  No biggie, I'm early and I have nothing to do for a hour.

So NLOL finally makes her life or death choice for the day and pulls out her coin purse and proceeds to dump everything out of it onto the floor.  I mean everything……she had civil war coins in there.  Of course everyone else including her 400lb daughter act like they didn't hear the 4000 coins. It sounded like a Vegas jackpot hit the floor. 

Now contrary to my overall look and demeanor I really like old people.  I especially like the ones that have cool stories about their life experiences.  I have crazy old Aunts and my wife's family has some real characters still kicking.  So I do the normal human thing and help her pick up her loot.  All the while the daughter maintains her stunning concentration of the job at hand, getting her big breakfast ordered before 10:30.  If she couldn't get her flapjack on, things might get ugly.

I really didn't think much of it….you will notice this pattern if you continue to read these posts.

About an hour later a guy walks into the store looks around, looks around, buys a bass guitar, smiles and leaves.  No haggling, or bitching about scratches that the Hubble telescope couldn't see.  Pays, smiles and hauls.  My kinda guy.  Again per my usual M.O. I think no further…

We had a good day not great.  Wrote some loans, sold some junk, pawnbroker paradise.

So, I close up shop around 2pm and go back to McDonald's one more time for some sweet tea. Now I think that McDonald's sweet tea has crack in it.  You can't convince me it doesn't.  Until I see a spectrographic report on it, I think it's spiked.  It is one of the best thing for one dollar, the only things that are a better value are:

  1. my opinion (free and good)
  2. a first class US postal stamp (nearly free, really good)

To my surprise the guy behind the counter, is the bass buyer and he is the manager of the store.  He thanks me once again for the bass, then shares with me some interesting info. 

Seems that everyone at McDonald's was very concerned with a pawn shop moving in next door.  Everyone was convinced that it would be the death knell of the neighborhood.  But to his surprise he has had 2 or 3 people now that have said very positive things about the pawn shop.  He told me of his stereotypical view of pawn shops (bad, all bad) and that he had no desire to go into one. 

When I asked why he did he said, "when I saw you help that little old lady this morning I decided to give you a shot".

Moral: You never know who is watching you in life, it pays to be nice, and sometimes you get free sweet tea.

Tim

Posted via email from Big Tims Pawn’s posterous

I’ve got the face for radio…..

OK, so there are very few people that what they think of me really matters.  My wife, children and my parents a few friends, that's really just about it.   That little bit about me will explain my latest venture.

In almost any poll about what people fear the most, public speaking, is frequently the top result.  Even more than death. Something else about me is that I have never had any aspiration to be famous or a public figure.  So this latest idea is out of nature for me.  To better understand this story though I have to take you back about 7 years. 

I have a friend who owns a business in Largo called the Watch Studio.  Ken Duval is a great guy and I was his daughters Track coach at the school that our children go to.  Ken is the local goto guy for high end watches.  Patek, Vacheron, Chronoswiss, real watches.  Because of our love of all things mechanical, and horolistic we became fast friends. 

One day at his store I met a guy by the name Al Leo.  Mr. Leo owned/managed the local Buick, Saab, GM dealership.  Huge dealership, 25 acres on US 19 in Pinellas Park.  Al was a collector of watches but only because he could afford them.  Not because he had a keen grasp of fine watches.  While I was there I got into a discussion about the pros/cons of handmade watch movements and my general love of complicated Valjoux products. 

While we were talking I mentioned to Al that I frequently listened to his Saturday morning radio show about his car dealership.  This was a two hour show and it covered everything related to cars.  During the show I noted Al never really seemed like he was selling or promoting his dealership.  I mentioned that to Al and he gave me some of the best business insight I have ever heard.

Al went on to tell me that before the radio show his monthly advertising budget was over 40,000.00 per month.  Once the show started it eventually went to ZERO, nothing, nada.  In the car business advertising and it's effectiveness is literally life or death.  He said that the by just talking to people and telling them how to get the best deal on a new vehicle he got to disarm people  and their fear of buying a car.  Just a simple show, Al would appraise their car and give them a price of a new car on the phone.  Half the show was retirees calling in to tell everyone what  great experience buying from Al was.  People would call from all over Florida to trade with Al.  It was the 3rd largest dealership in Florida and the largest volume Saab dealership in the US.  I convinced myself that if I ever had a business that needed direct consumer contact I would get my own radio show. 

Yes readers a Pawn Shop Talk Radio show.

So how do you get a radio show?  You ask.  Simple huh?  I recorded two test shows. Then I sent them to WWBA 820AM in Tampa along with a short email asking for some guidance how to eventually have my own show.  Surprisingly the next day I got a call from the station asking to meet.  The story from them was the station owner has a Palm Beach station that has a 3 hour swap meet show, like Craigslist for radio.  Now they are ready to try it in the Tampa area.  That and with all the success of Pawn Stars on cable TV's History channel  they thought it was worth a shot.  So, starting in about a month on Sundays 7pm yours truly will have a 1 hour talk show about all things Pawn.

I hope it does well but like most things I try it has the potential to flame out horrifically.  The plan is to give listeners and those that call some insight to Pawn Shops.  Hopefully we have some callers and we can talk about their stuff and what it is worth.  The station is heard from south Georgia to Miami.  Same idea as Al's show, no gigantic promotion of the Pawn Shop just a way to go to the shop without having to leave the house.  Hopefully they will see that it isn't a creepy place full of criminals.

Those close to me know that I am blue green color blind.  Not really a big deal but it is something to blame for my "unique" fashion sense.  Whenever people, especially children learn that I am color blind we play a game I call, "what color is this".  It's a fun time and it generally goes like this.  I can tell people or they find out about my lack of color vision and I get an hour of, "what color is this, what color is that?". 

I tell you this because I am a student of human nature.  I like trying to analyze why people do things and apply the observations to understand what people will do next.  I know when the game starts it's just curiosity because most people could never understand not being able to see them.  Trust me I have been on a color intensifier at the doctors office you should really appreciate color vision. 

What this has to do with a radio show is that when people find out I have a Pawn Shop it is the same reaction.  I get an hour of, "what is the strangest thing in the shop?, are the people weird?, how much is ______ worth? 

People are curious animals, not quite enough to go into a Pawn Shop sometimes though.  The National Pawnbrokers Association says that only 3 out of 10 people have ever been in a Pawn Shop.  So I am going to take the shop to them.  The merchandise, people and stories.  Every Sunday 7pm 820AM radio.  Maybe the show is interesting, maybe not.  All I know is that I'm not going to wake up 40 years form now too old and tired and wish that I had tried it.  I hope you'll listen, and even call.  Maybe we both learn something.

Posted via email from Big Tims Pawn’s posterous

How much is my xBox360 worth at a pawn shop?

                                                                    

How much is your Xbox 360 worth?  There are a few ways to sell your Xbox 360 all will work with some patience.  Lets walk through the most common ones.

eBay
Craigslist
Gamestop
Pawn Shops
      

Thousands of  Xbox 360's sell on eBay, but selling on of eBay is difficult.  As this article is written there are over 7,000 consoles for sale.  eBay seems to go out of it's way to make selling hard.  First you have to sign up with a credit card.  Then getting your money is tedious as eBay only wants you to use their checkout system, PayPal.  I won't go into the problems with PayPal suffice it to say that the buyer has much more protection than you.  eBay is rife with scam artists with little recourse on your part.  Even if you do everything right the buyer can lodge a complaint with you and renege on their payments.  Because of the shipping costs, eBay fees and PayPal fees involved you will not get very much from an eBay transaction.

Craigslist is whole other animal. As a Pawn shop we have to deal with Craigslist on a daily basis.  We hear the horror stories of dealing with idiots and criminals or worse.  You should have to have a license to sell or buy anything from Craigslist, I would never want my children to use it.  Going to a meeting with stranger where they know you will have either merchandise or cash is an invitation to disaster.  Please use great caution with Craigslist.  Now if you have a store where people bring you stuff from Craigslist, that is completely different.  We buy and sell like that many times per day.  Xbox 360's from Craigslist have a market value of $100-$175 dollars for the consoles.  The games vary widely in worth but can reach up to $25.

Gamestop is probably the worst choice for selling your Xbox 360. We called the local Gamestop this morning to see what I could get for an Xbox 360 Arcade system and they told us $64 dollars or $80 dollars in store credit. That is not even decent value, you might be better off getting that tattoo from the in trade from the guy on Craigslist calls us 3x a week.

One of your best solutions is to call around to your local pawn shops and inquire what they would either pay or loan you for your Xbox 360.  Your console is a valuable possession and pawn shop are your only way to get money for it and not sell it.  Our pawn shop isn't that much different from some we know and if you brought in an Elite system to us you could get $150 loan in under ten minutes.  When you want it back two weeks later it will cost you $15 in interest.  Or you could get up $250 to sell it outright depending on how it is equipped.  Safe transaction, money in minutes.  Hope that helps you make a safe choice.  You can always call us.

Posted via email from Bigtimspawn’s posterous

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