Pawning is an ancient practice that has been prevalent all over the world, and yet some people are still not familiar with the practice of pawning or why it’s still popular. Today, according to Statista, pawning is still a huge industry with an estimated 30 million Americans using pawn shops each year to put down their property as collateral to secure short-term loans. Let’s learn more about pawning, how it works, and whether or not it can benefit you.

Why People Pawn

If you’ve never been inside a pawn shop, you may not really understand how it all works. Even if you have been inside a pawn shop, you might not realize where all that cool stuff came from. To put it simply, people use pawn shops to get quick cash. There are a ton of reasons why someone might need a little extra cash to tide them over until payday. For example, a car breaks down, you have an unexpected bill, an appliance dies, or you just didn’t plan well. Regardless of the reason, if you find yourself in need of some quick cash, a pawn shop can help.

How Does Pawning Work?

Selling your stuff is one quick way to get some money, but a pawn shop offers you another alternative. Rather than permanently part with your belongings by selling them off, you could visit a pawn shop. Here, you have the option to pawn your items for immediate cash. The pawn shop gives you two options. You can either directly sell to the pawn shop in which you’ll be given money for your items and you say goodbye to the items, or you can just pawn the item.

When you pawn the item, the pawn shop will take ownership of it for a certain amount of time. You get the money and make an agreement to come back and pay back the pawn shop the amount plus interest usually. Your items are safe during this time and cannot be sold. However, if you fail to come back and repay the loan amount, then the pawn shop has full ownership of your property and will put it up for sale.

If you would like to learn more about pawning, come by and see us today. We will be happy to help. We’re looking forward to seeing you.