"Pawn Stars" Melts Stolen Collection

http://blog.al.com/wire/2014/03/pawn_stars_shop_apparently_mel.html

How sad, I dont know what I would do if they did that to my ancients.

 

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I don't understand this statement in the story.

"When coins come in, they typically are in plastic cases, with a value already assigned them by a grader.
We go through them. If the grader is not someone we trust, the cases are cracked open and the coins are sent out to be melted down. That was the case here. I don't know for sure, but I believe a majority were melted down. They weren't worth what he (Walters) thought they were worth."

Let's see now, a gold coin could have come in graded by a third party grader and assigned a MS-70 grade. Since we don't trust the third party grader, we crack the case, and melt the coin. By doing this they never know if what they melted was a rare MS-67 or whatever and worth more than melt. Or perhaps Mr. Walters put it in plastic and graded it himself, but even so, the previous situation could still exist even if graded by Mr Walters.

I think the story needs clarification.

 

im not surprised by this ...

the old man on the show, wants to scrap everything

 

Ugh! I will bet it was Chumlee's fault. TC

 

Pawn shops aren't coin shops. They aren't concerned with selling coins one at a time for market value. They saw gold and silver, they bought at below melt and sold to a refiner for close to melt, making a profit. Thats their business.

 

my understanding that pawnshop are suppose to check the database daily to check if things are stolen

 

Very surprised to hear that. They don't melt everything. They sell common Morgans for $50, an ounce of gold had a sticker of $2,000 (I don't know when that was, just seen an episode). They take every chance to make profit and gold coins is one of them. The TPG story is weird. What do we have here? Gold coins graded by...who? No PCGS or NGC, let's melt them down! They've been in business for long before the TV show and I think they're not that stupid. Unless Chumlee did it, of course. Or if they plan to mint some gold coins for Old Man's birthday.

 

Don’t believe everything your hear/see/read on TV/newspapers – especially if someone is making a profit from it.

I found part of my stolen collection at a pawn shop, it was within 30 days and the owner told me to go F myself. Turned him into the police and he was out of business within a month. Sometimes you may not get what you want, but, sometimes there is justice.

 

The story said that the pawn shop hold for stolen goods doesn't apply to coins in Nev.

 

Its a shame, but I am not surprised. What does surprise me is that if they were slabbed, they were traceable and those guys knew what they were doing by shedding the slab that was bought from a junkie chick who had no right coming in with rare coins. That should have been a red flag. Pretty scumbaggish if you ask me.

 

I didn't know they minted St. Gaudens Double Eagles in 1903.

 

Here are the court documents/arrest warrant which lists out the actual items:

http://www4.8newsnow.com/docs/theft_doc.pdf

First Wives coins...lol. TC

 

I've never owned or even considered owning one of these. Are they really $1000 each?

 

It's easy to understand. These guys are scumbags. Their whole show is all about how they rip people off on a daily basis. Their statement about "not trusting" the graders is simply BS. It's nothing but a bunch of weasel words. They kept the coins, especially the good ones. I doubt highly that someone who deals in old coins has no idea how to assign a grade. Nobody in the coin business with any kind of a viable business model would bust open a slab and then melt the coin. At worst, they'd send it out to another grader if there's remotely a chance it has any numismatic value at all.

Not only that, but the story on ABC said that they paid less than $13K for the whole collection.

Simply goes to reinforce my opinion of the business in general.

 

I see lots of ANACS/ICG and NGC graded coins. They paid her $25-$50 for 1/10 oz gold and $600-$800 for an ounce of gold.

 

One learns something every day.

"Pawn Stars" is owned by the Disney corporation.

Does that make their shop a "Mickey Mouse" outfit?

 

That's how pawn shops in general operate. They pay a low amount for everything...but they pay right now and they pay cash. There is a certain value to that.

 

Some can be due to low mintages. I don't own any.

 

That's not exactly true.

There are both good and bad pawn shops just like there are good and bad car dealerships, paint booths, oil changes places, etc.

600 to 800 is entirely to low for an ounce of gold. Not even those "cash 4 gold" places on TV pay that low.

Considering the amount of volume that place has due it's popularity, BESIDES the royalties they get, they can pay much better for stuff.

I'm sure people are stupid enough to sell something really cheap just so they can brag about selling it to the "pawn shop on TV".

A pawn broker can send bar gold and rounds to places like ARA Gold who pay 98% for pure gold, and 99% over 20 ounces.

So you figure a "final loss" for the pawn broker at around 3-4 percent, once you factor in mailing and insurance.

So if the broker pays $1,000 for that ounce of gold, he or she can get around $1300 for it, so that's a profit of $300 or a profit margin of 23 percent.

My friend pays 85% of melt for gold, which a margin of only 13%, and makes quite a bit of money doing it.

Pawn shops actually make more money on pawn loans that they do buying and selling.

In our state, the interest is 20% on pawn loans, so if you pawn a $500 item that is worth $800, that's an instant $100 for the pawn broker, or $300 if you default on the loan.

 

It is true. Now, maybe different pawn shops have different price points...but the fact is, the lower they can buy something the better off they are. This has nothing to do with Pawn Stars or Rick Harrison or anybody...it's just how pawn shops work.

My point is (and was)...there are benefits to the seller too. Could you go and sell it elsewhere for more money? Of course, but it takes time. Pawn shops offer the ultimate in convenience. You can sell your item immediately and get CASH. The service cost for that level of convenience is you get a low price.

Also, I'm not talking about legal interest rates on loans or anything like that as those are mandated by state law. I'm talking about the value the pawn shop gives you. I seem to remember a thread where you went to a pawn shop and pawned some slabbed coins (I think one was a Bust Half) and they found the cheapest cleaned example that sold on eBay and offered you that much. You balked at the number but needed the money, so you took it. That's how pawn shops operate. It's not illegal, it's not even immoral (although I'm sure you will think it is).

I know we have talked about how you want to own a pawn shop and I think that's great...but don't try and tell me that are somehow a "noble business" (unless we are talking about noble metals).