I made $2,650 in 34 minutes on Saturday. Almost. My day started out normal enough. Went to visit a client, got a bunch of work done, took a dog to grooming. Somewhere along the line I was derailed – I read about a group called Internet Pawn (dot com), which is basically cash for gold but with nicer stuff. I called them to see how it worked. The basics are this: They ship you an envelope for your watches, rings, etc. You mail it in, they make you an offer, and if you default on the pawn loan they sell the item on eBay. Sounds pretty simple, right?
I got to wondering about all the hack musicians on my local CraigsList who are selling their axes for a song. Could I buy on the cheap and then resell? For that matter, are there any pawn shops in town that are undervaluing their musical instrument inventory? (I picked guitars to start due to my expertise.)
I stopped by a pawn shop a few miles from my house. I looked at all their amps, guitars and basses. I saw a few instruments that I would call “aggressively priced” – I could maybe pull $200-$300 out of them given enough time. But I’m impatient. I don’t want money over time. I want it now. And then I saw it – a beautiful semi-hollow body with the magic words “Gibson” on the headstock. I checked the price tag. $180.00. That can’t be right. The serial number told me the guitar was manufactured in the mid 80′s. It sounded too good to be true. I was so suspicious that I went home to research Gibson guitars from the mid-80s.
Some 90 minutes later, I returned to the pawn shop, confident that I was looking at a 1985 ES-175. I had no idea for the price discrepancy but I was 100% sure that I was gonna clean up. Upon arrival, I checked the neck. No bows. Checked the body. No checking or de-binding. “I’ll take it,” I said. My friendly salesperson offered me 10% off for coming back so quickly.
Understand – this is one of the finest mass-produced guitars available. I could move this puppy on eBay for $3,000 in under a day. My hands were trembling. I was sweating. I handed her my credit card and ID. She ran my credit card. It was TURNED DOWN. Turns out an identity thief stole my credit card and ran up a bunch of offshore porn last week.
Totally kidding.
I handed her my credit card, she ran it and gave me the signature page. As I was touching pen to paper, the manager walked up to confirm the sale and in one fell swoop grabbed the guitar, looked at the salesperson and said “What the hell are you doing? That’s a $3,000 guitar.” I was refunded the $170.00.
FML.