Gold, Anyone?
Have you ever been to a pawn shop? The sheer history behind some items is amazing; whether it’s an object that belonged to a president, movie star, or someone from hundreds of years ago, pawn shop workers have probably seen it all. Unfortunately, these genuinely exciting things aren’t what the people who work in a pawn shop see most often. That honor goes to, well, absolute junk.
From people who believe they’ve got something of value (that turns out to be junk) to people trying to pawn, well, actual junk that they dug out of a trash can, sometimes pawn shop workers are presented with items that are just plain weird. From the crazy to the creepy, these workers shared the experiences that stick out to them the most.
I’m a pawnbroker and have been for a while now. The weirdest thing I ever experienced at work was when somebody brought in their dead grandmother’s gold tooth. No grandmother attached, luckily, but this tooth was plucked from her ashes, with the tooth still in the ashes. That’s right, they brought in the urn and handed me the tooth after grabbing it out of the vase….
We told her that the tooth had to be separated from the gold for us to weigh it. This person left begrudgingly and came back a few days later. As it turns out, they desecrated their loved one’s remains for less than $2, because that’s about how much gold was on the tooth itself. I didn’t ask what happened to the tooth. Reddit User: xplasticastle
An Illegal Warhead
A guy brought in an RPG to my shop. For those that don’t know, a rocket-propelled grenade (often abbreviated RPG) is a shoulder-fired anti-tank weapon system that fires rockets equipped with an explosive warhead. So it’s a scary weapon. These warheads are affixed to a rocket motor, which propels the RPG towards the target, and they’re stabilized in flight with fins….
The guy that brought this into our shop was doing yard work for this old lady whose husband had passed. She gave it to him for doing some yard work, not realizing it was live and active. The guy was career military, and after the bomb squad came and disabled it, they went to her house and found a trove of similarly very illegal military-grade weapons. Reddit User: RRettig
Show And Tell From Abraham Lincoln
It was “show and tell” at school, and a kid from my school had a letter signed by Abraham Lincoln. He brought it to show, and everyone was, of course, impressed, and the fact that this kid came to own such an artifact was amazing. He ended up showing it to the principal, and tons of teachers came by the classroom throughout the day to see it….
Well, in grade 12, he stole it from his dad and went to pawn it. I guess they got into a fight; you know, moody teen things. He bragged about how he was going to be rich and brought it back to school to show it off just like he did back in elementary school before he took it to the pawn shop after school. It turns out that his grandfather forged the letter and gave it to his dad as a gift. Reddit User: Lord_of_the_Strings
Crucifix Leftovers
A friend’s uncle allowed us to shadow him for a day at his pawn shop. He was such a cool guy, and I was super excited to be what I thought was going to be like Pawn Stars for the day. Well, a guy walked in with a metal lockbox and said he had something worth billions. My heart was racing….
When he put it on the counter, it rattled, and this guy looked like he had been through the wringer and was super twitchy. He opened the lockbox, and there were wood chips in it and the smell of spray paint. He claimed they were leftovers of the cross Jesus was crucified on. He’s descended from an ancient and noble line of knights who took oaths to protect the cross. He wanted $2000 for the lockbox and wood chips. Reddit User: mgoode87
The Snowblower
A thief stole our heavy-duty snowblower out of the garage in early July (during a heat wave). Scratching our heads, we couldn’t figure out why anyone would even want a snowblower right now, and honestly, it did take us a second to notice it was gone because all of our attention was towards how hot it was. We then figured out that the thief probably took it to pawn….
The police called to say they had located it; it was located pretty fast, surprisingly. You wouldn’t think the police would be so quick to find a snowblower, although we were thankful. It was, you guessed it, at the pawn shop. The owner of the shop said the guy just couldn’t understand why there wouldn’t be a hot market for an expensive snowblower year-round. Reddit User: Back2Bach
Priceless Ming Vase
A couple of years back, a woman came in to get her old lamp appraised. The appraiser took the lamp and said something along the lines of “Wow, priceless Ming vase!” Now, this guy was always really hard to read, so even him saying something like “wow” was a big deal. When that happened, everyone kind of tuned in to their conversation….
He then proceeded to remove the whole lamp section from the base, threw it away, and said, “Unfortunately, somebody decided to make it a lamp and drilled a hole in the bottom, rendering the priceless Ming vase worthless.” I’ve never seen anybody go from “OK” to “just hit the lottery” to “somebody just flushed my lottery ticket down the toilet” in such a short space of time. Reddit User: remola
The Guitar
The big defense contractor in my town laid off over 10,000 people overnight, and the contagion spread. I’m a pawn shop worker, but I play music on the side. I was looking around for a relatively cheap guitar. While I’m looking, this clean-cut guy in his early 30s comes in trying to pawn his guitar, hard case, and effects….
Since we already had a bunch of guitars (none I wanted, though), my coworkers offered him crap. He was almost crying, saying he got laid off and had to pay some bills. I followed him out and asked him what he wanted for it. He said $100, and I took it. I also gave him my phone number and said he could buy it back when he got back on his feet. Reddit User: umlguru
Chuck E. Cheese Gold
I once had a customer walk up to the counter and slide a gold coin to me and say, “I think this is gold, man.” This particular customer reeked of bile and looked like he was high on everything possible. I took the coin from him, and it took me about two seconds to figure it out….
If it had been a gold coin (spoiler, it wasn’t), I would have assumed it to be stolen. I looked at the coin and slid it back to him and replied, “I think it’s a Chuck E. Cheese token; I can tell by the mouse on it.” Then I noticed he had pooped his pants to the point it was almost all the way down his pant leg. Reddit User: BlackStacey27
Yu-Gi-Oh Cards
Had plenty of sketchy white trash people coming in with their kids’ old Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic cards and thinking they’re extremely valuable. Usually, it was just a mismatched starter set from the early 2000s or the like. Basically, all of the cards that were normally coming in were complete trash, and I assume the people that were selling them were often trying to afford their drug addiction….
I’m not sure what started the idea that old trading cards were going to be ridiculously valuable, but no, I won’t give you money for your Dark Magician. The level of disappointment and oftentimes outright anger on their part was difficult to deal with. I began just telling trashy-looking people (who weren’t store regulars) that we didn’t purchase cards. Reddit User: lawlessSyntax
Book Of Quarters
A good friend of mine owns a pawn shop in Florida; he once bought a collectible book of state quarters for less than the face value of the coins. This coin collection was not the owner’s originally. It was his ex-girlfriend’s, and the coin collection is only really worth the face value of the coins because having that collection is really just a conversation piece. It’s not really worth much….
The customer wasn’t bright enough to pop the quarters out of the book and spend them. He would have had twelve dollars or so. My buddy’s ability to keep a straight face in those situations and make the customer feel like he’s getting a deal provides me endless entertainment. I felt kind of bad for the owner of the coin collection, but boy was it funny. Reddit User: dannyboycb
The Lawnmower
A month ago, a man stole a lawnmower from the front of our store. If you’re wondering how someone steals a lawnmower, our pawn shop is in a relatively nice area, and at night, we chain up the outdoor wares outside, but they get left outside overnight, which is when this guy stole it. We caught him on camera and everything….
Well, just two days ago, he returned to the shop with the exact same lawnmower, claiming it was his. He tried to sell it to us. He didn’t even go to a different shop. Not only did the serial number on that mower match the one we had, but it STILL HAD OUR PRICE TAG ON THE HANDLE. He was in shock when we called the police. Reddit User: darkheartpony
Signed By Stan Lee
Worked at a comic book and memorabilia store, and people have really messed up notions of value. Just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s valuable. Just because it’s rare doesn’t mean there’s a market for it. It’s sad because you have people that are really proud of their collection just to have their hopes shattered by its actual value….
The worst was when people would come in with things that were signed with no authentication and demand outrageous prices. Some old lady and her obviously tweaker granddaughter brought in a comic they claimed was signed by Stan Lee and wanted $1000 for it. We laughed them out of the shop. I didn’t feel bad about that one; they were awful people. Reddit User: Armada5
Math Major
I used to work in a pawn shop in Los Angeles for three years. The number of people coming in and out of that place was huge. That means the number of stupid people coming in and out of there was also huge. One time this guy brought in one hundred $2 bills (nonconsecutive) and wanted a loan of $120….
I guess he didn’t realize that $2 bills are legal tender, and he had about $200 there already. My boss told me to do the loan, so I followed the instructions and gave the guy $120. I was tempted to tell the guy the truth. The guy then managed to not come back for the bills, so we made an $80 profit from sheer stupidity. Reddit User: iriefuse024
Dentures
I have ten years of experience running a pawn shop; fake Rolex watches, family heirlooms, and parking lot buys that turned out to be fake were normal. The weirdest thing someone came in with wasn’t nearly as weird as the things I loaned. Every pawn shop is different in what they’ll take, and I was probably more lenient than most pawn shops….
The weirdest thing I’ve loaned would be dentures; I’d give the guy 10-20 dollars. I was asked all the time why I took them for loans, and my response was always the same. If that idiot wants to eat solid food again, he’ll come to get them. He always came and redeemed them, and those loans were some of the most reliable, and they made my job interesting. Reddit User: [redacted]
Hotel Sink
One day, a man walked in who looked to have enjoyed more than just a few substances; I mean, he looked like a complete lunatic. That particular day, he came inside with a sink. That’s got to be the weirdest thing anyone ever brought in. It was a sink that he apparently just ripped out of a hotel or kitchen of an abandoned house or something, and I do mean ripped out….
No idea what he thought he would get for it, but then my coworker behind the counter told him in no uncertain terms that he needed to leave and take his sink with him. I want to know where it came from. I would like to attach cameras to people like that and just watch what they do and the decisions they make on those days. Reddit User: Damages667
The Bookcase
I once had to deal with a woman who brought in a badly damaged, chipped, dog/child chewed, simple pine bookcase. When it was new, it would have been very pretty, and if it had been taken care of, it probably would have sold for more than what she bought it for. She informed me that she had paid $200.
That was ten years ago, and that due to its “appreciating value,” she expected to receive at least $1000 for it now. She was very put out when I suggested the most she was going to get was $20 and only if someone wanted it for their shed. She was steaming from rage. It took a lot for her to leave finally. Reddit User: LifeIsBizarre
The Broke College Student
I went to college in a farm town in northern Colorado. I was a broke college student, like most college kids. I had a red leather jacket that I bought in high school that I wanted to sell in one of the pawn shops out there. I never wore it and would rather have cash than the jacket. So I set it on the counter….
I didn’t want money for drugs, just money because I was a broke college student. I thought any money they gave me would be something. I could get a full tank of gas or money for groceries. They refused to buy it because it was red, and that color was somehow gang-related. I had no idea that farm town had any gang problems, but whatever. Reddit User: delmar42
Lord Of The Rings
I’ve been working at a pawn shop for about nine years, so there are countless ones, but a favorite was a girl who brought me a “solid gold 24k ring” to sell. It was obviously not gold because it was super light and felt like plastic. I don’t think she knew this, though. She was a really nice lady, just dumb….
It turns out that it was a plastic Lord of the Rings ring from a board game! She had been cleaning out her board game closet and didn’t put two and two together to figure out this wasn’t an actual ring of hers. We both had a good laugh over it. I have tons of other stories, but that one is one of the best. Reddit User: orlex
The Pawn Shop Interview
I’ve never worked at a pawn shop. I was once in a bad place, though, and had an interview at one. Not that working at a pawn shop is bad; I just can’t imagine wanting to work at one because of all the sad people that come in pawning off loved items to be able to eat or pay bills….
During my interview, a guy came in with a 12’ 2×4…like a big piece of wood. He legitimately tried getting $20 for it. He couldn’t get it all the way through the door, and the guy interviewing me (we were standing behind the counter) stopped mid-sentence to tell him to leave. I thanked him very much and have never worked in a pawn shop. Reddit User: thirdstreetzero
Folk Guitar
I never expected to strike it rich, but last summer, I found a cool-looking guitar that my hoarder neighbors’ family threw away after she died. A few weeks later, I took it to a pawn shop since the owner was really into guitars and would buy old guitars for a reasonable price, and I wanted to take my sister out to dinner for her birthday….
It turns out that literal piece of garbage was a model that was pretty popular with folk singers in the ‘60s. I ended up $200 richer, so I took my sister for a nice meal and bought myself some tennis shoes. I guess that’s what they mean when they say “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Reddit User: Prannke
Vietnam Rocket Launcher
My uncle works for a pawn shop, and he manages the firearms counter at his shop. From what I understand, it’s pretty large; he’s been trying to get me to visit him for years, but I’ve never checked the place out. He was telling me about a crazy one he got a few years ago. Guy brought in a Vietnam-era collapsible tube-style rocket launcher with live ammunition.
Obviously, my uncle had to report it. He has to report all weapons he takes in with the ATF with his state’s laws, and this was no exception. The police promptly showed up to confiscate it. If I remember right, the guy served and brought it home as a souvenir and decided to sell it for a few bucks. Reddit User: Brianthelion83
Portable Toilet
I had a guy bring in a portable toilet to sell. It was not clean and was partially faded from so much use. It was really disgusting. I watched him get off the bus in front of my shop and walk with it and looked at my coworker like “check this idiot out.” We were both chuckling. Then he headed for the door.
I ran out to tell him we don’t deal in fecal matter. He was so angry and stood outside with a gross toilet seat until the bus showed up again. Also, silver was a giant pain; people thought they were going to get a ton of money for their 3 grams. Silver is not worth very much, honestly. Reddit User: RusselWilsonPhillips
The Fake Ring
I worked in a pawn shop for a short time to help a friend and his family out. This lady came in and just wanted an appraisal on her engagement ring. She told us her boyfriend gave it to her and said it cost him $3500, and she didn’t believe him. So I took it to the back and checked it out….
It was fake through and through, just costume jewelry. I gave it back to the lady and told her it was fake, and she stormed out, screaming how she was going to kill him. I felt kind of bad for the guy; hope he dodged that gold-digging bullet. Also, some guy came in wanting to sell some pieces of gold that still had bits of teeth stuck to them. Reddit User: [redacted]
The Trench Coat Guy
I don’t work at pawn shops. I have friends and family that work EZpawn, Cash America, and local pawn shops in the city, and they tell me all kinds of things. My cousin said a guy kept bringing him what looked like Chinese counterfeit watches. What was the weirdest thing about him was that apparently, he was the stereotypical “weird trench coat” guy….
The guy brought him a Cartier 21 chronograph 2996. That’s an expensive watch, but the watch the guy brought him was totally fake. It was hard to explain to the guy why it’s fake and why the shop wouldn’t take it. My cousin told him to see if he can sell it on eBay, and it sold. I don’t think he ever came in again. Reddit User: Ofrantea
Cyclist Expectations
Cyclists tend to think of their bikes as their pride and joy and don’t understand that they have no sentimental value to anyone else. We always warned customers that we couldn’t offer much for used bikes, and they were better off selling them on their own, but hearing our offer, they usually stormed out angry calling us crooks under their breath anyway….
We’d offer someone $300 for their bike. They’d protest they paid $1000 for the bike a few years ago and spent almost as much in upgrades. Their drive train was already almost obsolete, and their upgrades were so bizarre and random we’d have to change them out to have any chance of selling it. We were still the crooks since we offered less than they spent on their bike. Reddit User: OuterLimitSurvey
Goalie Equipment
Not an employee, but I know of a story that happened in London, Ontario, where two greasy druggies brought in what was obviously a very high-quality set of hockey goalie equipment in London Knights colors (they’re our OHL team, so it’s kind of a big deal and really well known in town). This brought up some red flags to the employees….
They got it from a break-in, if I remember right. The employee said, “Yeah, just wait right there while I figure out how much we can give you for this,” then called the cops, who came and took the red-eyed stupid criminals to jail. They were, of course, surprised, but it took a while for the guy to come back anyway. Reddit User: Snakeeyez
Fool’s Gold
One dude brought in a bunch of those nuggets of fool’s gold that every science museum gift shop sells, convinced they were gold—like the real deal. Similarly, a guy brought in one of those faux aged copies of the Declaration of Independence that someone presumably bought at the Jefferson Memorial or Monticello. He was convinced it was a priceless artifact….
A woman lugged in a Paul Reed Smith guitar with a signature on it that she swore was Jimi Hendrix’s. She was very displeased when I informed her that Hendrix died several years before the PRS Company was founded. And there’s just the general parade of bootleg handbags, gold teeth, fake flea market jewelry, counterfeit Rolex watches, white van speakers, and countless broken electronics. Reddit User: revmwk
Pawned His Bathroom
There was this guy a couple of years back trying to sell me the bathroom in his apartment. He’d written up this kind of legal-looking thing, but when I told him the whole thing made no sense and that he didn’t own the bathroom anyway, just rented it, well, the guy got upset. Apparently, he wanted to pawn it off to us because he needed the money for rent….
He told me that that was where he pooped, and that had to be of some value, and that I was a con artist. He was yelling about writing our governor on his way out the door. The craziest part was he really was dead serious. He came back a few days later with some old gaming consoles. Reddit User: bildredmonk
Pacemakers
I had a man come in once with a shadowbox that he picked-up at an estate sale for a recently deceased doctor. The shadowbox contained six or eight (can’t recall exactly) pacemakers, from the late fifties/early sixties to the 20-teens. It was awesome seeing the evolution of these devices and just how much smaller they are now than they were when first invented in the late fifties/early sixties….
Sadly I was unable to get them from the man because he had spent over a hundred bucks for just a bit of decor. A pawn shop is a place I love and hate at the same time; there’s always something new. But what a medical marvel I got to see. Reddit User: arj1985
Elvis Poop
I’m sitting there at my workstation when one of the guys that worked for me just started busting out laughing. I look over, and I saw the lady that was sitting at his table walking out of the room. So I went over and asked him what was going on. He told me that she set a shoebox down on his table, and he asked what was in it….
Instead of her saying jewelry or coins or something normal that we see every day, she told him, “Back in the 1960s, I cleaned Elvis Presley’s hotel room, and when he left, I went into the bathroom and realized he didn’t flush, so I saved it.” She literally saved Elvis Presley’s poop for 50+ years. We didn’t actually get to see it, nor would we have wanted to. Reddit User: bucknut86
Pokémon Cards
I had a lady come in with one of those gold plated Pokémon cards from a Burger King promotion in the ’90s swearing it was solid gold and worth thousands. I told her there was no way it was gold and that it was probably plated steel, but she wouldn’t have it and refused to leave until we examined it….
To appease her, I offered to test it but warned her that if it wasn’t real gold, the test would scar the card with a permanent black mark. I had her sign a waiver, did the test, and lo and behold the card got scarred, proving it was worthless. She immediately got angry and threatened to sue, and she stormed off, leaving the card behind. I think the shop still has it too. Reddit User: Kazhmyr1
She Weighed Him Down
I’ve worked at a pawn shop for about ten or so years, so lots of strange stuff has come across the counter in that time. One that stands out is the time a guy brought in a gold anchor pendant with a large diamond in the middle. The stone was larger than you would typically see in a piece like this, so I asked him about it….
He said that when he got divorced, he got his and her wedding rings melted down and made into an anchor to remind him of how she was always “weighing him down.” The big diamond was off of the engagement ring. Another guy tried to sell me his grave. He had run a successful business when he was younger and bought a grave plot some time ago. He didn’t end up wanting it, though. Reddit User: orlex
Pawn Your Horse
Someone tried to pawn off their horse once. We passed, obviously, and had to make a sign for the door that said: “We don’t take anything that eats, sleeps, and poops.” This family was always trying to get money for their animals. As if we had some kind of barn attached to the building in the middle of a huge city….
I had an elderly woman trying to sell me a gold tooth. That was normal. What wasn’t normal was the fact that she took the bridge out of her mouth and slapped it on the counter and got offended when I wouldn’t pick it up. Most people brought gold teeth in a little baggie or asked for a piece of paper towel so we didn’t have to touch them. Reddit User: SherloksCompanion
Lucky
In my pawn shop, we couldn’t legally “buy” anything upfront. We could only loan money using stuff as collateral, and sell the stuff after folk never came back to make good on the loans. One couple pawned a 3-legged taxidermy bobcat with wonky eyes that went by the name of “Lucky.” Oddly enough, the couple always came back to get him….
The only time they were late in paying their loan: he was only on the shelves for a day or two before they were in and frantic to pay enough to make him safe again. We used to change where he was stored in the ‘held’ section so that the lights would glint off his wonky eyes, scaring the heck out of the owner’s wife, who hated cats. Reddit User: kneezombie
Rare SNES Games
I had a friend who worked in a pawn shop in the mid-‘90s. While this answer isn’t about the garbage people tried to sell, I do have a few nice finds that people would drop for cheap. Things like rare SNES and Sega CD games or crazy expensive stereo equipment (high-end Onkyo, Polk audio). Amazingly expensive guitars and guitar equipment from band members….
They would be down on their luck or just looking for some drug money. He would come home with some absolutely amazing stuff. I never envied his job because of the sad stuff he would see. While the internet is amazing, one thing I do miss is finding fantastic deals in random pawn shops and Goodwill locations. Those days are long dead. Reddit User: huxley00
Movie Script
I loaned someone money on a movie script they wrote once. The money was small, but it wasn’t insignificant. Had storyboards and designs for the characters and which actors he wanted to play them—some A-list celebs for sure. We would have discussions on what we would do with the item if we owned it. Could we sell it?
Are there IP rights we would have to deal with? Would we just toss it and sell the case that it came in and just laugh about it for years to come? Fortunately, the guy came back three weeks later and paid for it back. I was so hoping that it would be in theaters one day, but it never happened. Reddit User: goldgerm
She Didn’t Even Know Them
Okay, so I’m not a pawn shop employee but the granddaughter of a woman who LOVES finding treasure secondhand. My grandfather and I managed to convince her (after years of trying) to have a yard sale and declutter. I’m helping her go through boxes that I’ve never seen before in my life. I open one, and it’s just full of photos….
I sort through them, and it’s just really happy family photos, but with people I’ve never met before. Below the photos, there’s a medical diploma, framed and all. I pull her over and ask her how we’re related to these people. It turns out that we’re not related. She bought the entire box of someone else’s memories because why not. Reddit User: nosynonymforsynonym
Thieves
Not bizarre items, but I worked at a Cash America (chain pawn shop), and there were four junkies who would come in and try to sell stolen lawnmowers on a rotating basis. My boss realized it when he went outside with one of them to test the lawnmower and saw the three other guys in a car (who had all already sold at least two mowers there)….
After we told them not to come back, they ended up going to other Cash Americas around my city. They ended up pawning almost 60 lawnmowers all together before getting red-listed and arrested. You could tell they were junkies too because their pupils were always tiny, and they were all skinny with dark circles under their eyes. Reddit User: angeldust255
The Cursed Ring
Everyone loves jewelry, especially old stuff, right? Well, there was a little old woman with a silver box mirrored inside; what it contained was an engagement ring with a black diamond weighing about two and a half carats, brilliant solitaire cut. It was very odd-looking; she told me that her grandfather had given it to his wife as an anniversary gift….
Then she said that a month from the day she put it on, he had dropped dead. Then she wore it at the request of her next husband, and a month from the day she put it on, he was hit by a truck, dead at the scene. She told me to take it; she didn’t want the money, she just hoped I would destroy it. Reddit User: [redacted]