r/PawnShops

I have a rare book, worth about 3.5k, and need
some cash. Most pawn shops in my area won’t take it, and I don’t want to sell it. Any ideas?

Ok, this one always gets me lol. Somebody rubs a mystery chain on the stone, drops 18k on it, the streak doesn't dissolve, and they're like "OOO high karat!" And I'm just sitting there thinking ... nope, that's stainless steel haha.

And no shade, it got me too when I started. A couple things that trip everybody up:

Gold solution - on stainless, the streak basically just sits there, won't dissolve clean, and sometimes leaves a weird pale whitish smear. Looks legit. It is not legit.

Silver acid - real silver goes BLOOD red almost instantly. Stainless? Barely does anything. No red = not silver, every single time.

So now I kind of assume everything shiny is lying to me until it proves otherwise haha.

What I actually do: file a hidden spot first so I'm testing the real metal and not the plating, keep my karat needles right next to me to compare, and clean the stone between tests (cross-contamination burned me more than once, lesson learned). Anything actually worth money, I back up with a magnet or send it for xrf.

Also, heads up - don't fully trust the magnet test either. Some stainless barely reacts. Sneaky stuff.

Anyway, that's my whole paranoid little routine.
When a reaction looks "off," that's usually the test straight up telling you something's wrong. I wrote up a longer version with side by side pics of all the reactions if anyone wants to go deeper - link's in my profile. And seriously, ask me anything, happy to help.

Happy testing!

I own a pawn shop and sporting goods store in a rural college town, and we've recently outgrown our current location and are moving into a larger building. I posted here back in December asking for advice on funding and growth to actually start the business and now that we've been operating for a few months, I'm running into managing problems.

The biggest challenge right now is staffing.

We've had a terrible time finding employees who:

• Show up on time consistently
• Don't steal
• Actually work instead of spending half the day talking
• Can be trusted to handle cash, firearms paperwork, inventory, and customer transactions without constant supervision

For those of you running retail businesses? Have you found certain hiring methods, age groups, backgrounds, or screening processes that work better than others?

Another issue is that customers overwhelmingly prefer selling items outright rather than taking pawn loans. From a resale standpoint that's great because margins are often better, but it creates a huge inventory management problem. We buy a lot of inventory, but getting everything photographed, listed, priced, and sold is becoming overwhelming.

For those of you selling both in-store and online:

**1)**How do you manage the flow of inventory?

2) Do you have dedicated employees for online sales?

3) At what point did you decide it was worth hiring someone specifically for eBay, GunBroker, Marketplace, etc.?

The administrative side is also becoming difficult. On a typical day I'm handling:

**1)**Bookkeeping

2) Payroll

3) Supplier orders

4) Customer service

5) Pawn transactions

6) Firearm transfers and background checks

7) Inventory intake

8) Employee training

9) General management

There are days where I feel like I'm being pulled in six different directions at once.

For those who have grown from owner-operator into a larger operation:

**1)**What tasks were the first things you delegated?

2) Did you hire a bookkeeper?

3) Did you outsource accounting?

4) What systems made the biggest difference?

Training employees has also been frustrating. No matter how many times I explain procedures, write instructions, or demonstrate tasks, some employees seem more interested in socializing than learning. I feel like I spend more time correcting mistakes than actually growing the business.

How do you hold employees accountable without becoming the constant "bad guy" in the workplace?

For those who have successfully scaled a retail business

1) What systems or processes had the biggest impact

2) What mistakes did you make during growth that you'd warn others about?

3) If you could go back to the point where you had outgrown your first location, what would you do differently?

Any advice is appreciated. I'm at the point where the business is growing, which is a good problem to have, but it feels like I'm spending more time managing chaos than actually moving the company forward.