.......which should be obvious from my posts over the years. Eyes bigger than my stomach, as the saying goes, and I like purt near everything.

I am in deep kimchee now, though, as I am currently working part-time in a pawn shop owned by a friend of mine. He needed help and my other part-time job has slowed down considerably so I am working the counter for him about 15 hours a week.

Oh my, the stuff that comes in! A lot of folks want to sell outright, not pawn, and what he offers is peanuts. I am amazed at the number of folks who willingly take the cash and go.

According to him, at least 90% of the pawns are redeemed but you would be amazed at the stuff that is re-pawned over and over, sometimes for years. There are items in the shop which have been bought and paid for several times over by folks who simply will not let the thing go. Craziness! They might pawn an item for 25 bucks and pay four times that in interest over the course of time keeping it in pawn!

In any event, I bought a new bench grinder, a new craftsman scroll saw, and a new set of cast iron Dutch ovens and frying pans in a wood camp box. Paid about 75 bucks for the lot. Zowie!

I don't enjoy profiting at other peoples expense but this stuff hits the sales floor otherwise, sooo...........

Otony

His stories mirrored yours: Stuff on pawn for years, etc...

Suffice to say, I try as hard as I can to reserve judgment, but I'm not perfect.

Either...

--

My first serious working guitar was a Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty, thanks to the kind generosity of an old pawnbroker who made me a giveaway deal on it, and then let me pay it out while I used it. Over the years, when I wasn't playing, I would pawn it for rent that I blew on a gun, or some other such genius level problem. It would always bring $100, which was serious money, but still only a fraction of it's value even then. I knew my 90 days from habit, and never had a problem. Right...

Happy as a clam one day, motoring past the pawn shop, my mind let out a scream, and I locked up the brakes and slid into the parking lot. Frantically digging out my receipt, it was the 91st day. I tore into the shop waving my receipt. "We're real sorry young feller, but the guitar is already gone." Right, gone maybe 30 feet to the backroom. Screwed is screwed, nobody's fault but my own.

From that day until the day he died, Bill Powell and I had a ritual. Every August 10th, he would make it a point to come visit. I would stand in the center of the living room and bend over, and he would deliver a resounding swift kick to my behind. By my memory, at least 30 years worth. I deserved every one.

JLF

The owner at the pawn shop is pretty good about that. If someone shows up on the 91st day, he simply adds a tiny bit of interest and let's them redeem. Or, if they tell him a reasonably believeable story beforehand, he lets them slide for a bit.

He seems genuinely interested in helping folks out, but of course the whole thing is still a money making venture regardless. A lot of his compassion is strongly based on folks attitude when they come in. Act surly or get up in his face and you can pretty much write of THAT guitar!

Otony

You and Harry were talking aboutr it in Arlington Arms.

shipped out to one of his other stores.

.

Gone for $100...

I did something similar back in the mid 70's ... I pawned my dad's 20ga pump shotgun for $30 to get grocery money to last till payday... I was in the military back then stationed at Tucson Arizona... I never got the money ahead to get that shotgun out of hock and lost it for $30...

All I could see was red, and all I could hear was a buzzing in my ears, but I remember something along those lines. He knew I was gooched, and even back then, very few such guitars wandered in to pawn shops.

JLF

In fact I bought a nive little blonde Peavey guitar from him years ago. Wish I had it back too!

This was in the mid 70s, it was used when I got it, and I had had it several years, so I figure it was a 60s production. I still remember how sore my shoulder would get after a 4 hour gig with that heavy beast.:)

JLF

...Gibson dropped the Les Paul in '61 or '62 (due to a contract disagreement with Les Paul himself), and then re-introduced it in 1968 (at which point demand was very high because of that magical tone that Eric Clapton had gotten with a Les Paul and a Marshall combo amp on the Bluesbreaker album). '68 Les Pauls are considered to be particularly desirable. My brother has had one since the early '70s and just laughs at me every time I try to talk him out of it....

....45 Colt, among other things like pocket watches and chains...old gun leather, knives...

...I once loaned a RARE Les Paul to a cousin - his wife runnoft and sold it to a hock shop for next to nothing. Cousin felt real bad about it, but whatchagonnado - it did hurt me worse than him, he only lost a whore of a wife, I lost a $40,000 guitar!

What was it Boge?

...Custom 2-pickup. All-blond, even the FRETBOARD, with BLACK binding and BLACK inlays, inclusing BLACK Crowns on the fretboard! Quite striking. I believe they made 6 of them.

I bet that was one stunning guitar!