With most people being on a tight budget these days, there are times when emergencies happen and you simply don’t have the money on hand to make a necessary repair, or an emergency trip, or pay off a debt. Sometimes, getting a loan is simply not an option so you have to find some other way to raise the funds that you need as quickly as possible. One way of doing that is by pawning gold or other items in order to get the cash you need when you need it. However, it is best to understand how pawn shops work and how to pawn those gold items before the need actually arises.

How a Pawn Shop Works

Pawn shops are stores that deal in used products of some reasonable value. These shops either buy these items outright, or they will give the equivalent of a small loan in exchange for you putting up an item of value for the money you receive.

When you pawn an item, you bring in the item you want to pawn and negotiate the amount of money you will get in exchange on a short term basis. The amount of money you receive will be less than the object is worth so being prepared. Once you pawn the item, you then are giving a period of time in which you must return the money along with interest in order to get your item back. If the money and interest is not repaid with the time limit, the pawn shop is then entitled to sell your item to someone else.

If you are planning on selling the item outright to the pawn shop, then they negotiate the price for the item, again paying much less than the items actual worth (they need to make a profit when they resell it) and give you the money and the item becomes the property of the shop to do with as they see fit.

Tips on Pawning Those Gold Items

Gold items are one of the most common and easiest items to pawn. But there are a few things you need to keep in mind.

1. Select only those items that you are willing to permanently part with. A large percentage of pawned items never get reclaimed and you don’t want to pawn a family heirloom or other gold item that you will regret pawning if something happens you are unable to reclaim it.

2. Before pawning the item, get it appraised by more than one place if possible, so you know that actual worth of the item. Getting the appraisals in writing will give you a better negotiating position when pawning the item as you can actually show the pawn shop proof of the items worth.

3. If at all possible, check with several pawn shops to get the best deal possible for the item you are pawning. After your entire goal is to get the largest amount of money possible for the item with the lowest interest charge.

4. Lastly, if pawning gold items then try to pawn or sell your gold item at a time when gold prices are at their highest because this will bring you in more money, than you would get if selling or pawning the item when gold prices are low.