Category Archives: Pawn Shops

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Consumer Product Safety Commission Recalls on Second-Hand Finds

Shopping for second-hand treasures at garage sales? Be sure you check the item before purchasing it. Here are some tips to help your buying decision process:

Whether you’re the tag sale seller or buyer, you should look out for toy hazards such as small parts, loud sounds, soft plastics and lead contamination, consumer advocates warned this week.

These dangers were highlighted by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group in its 24th annual “Trouble in Toyland” report, the first since sweeping consumer safety legislation went into effect earlier this year.

“This is definitely a time when people are going to be thinking about making purchases for the holidays, so we want people to be aware of these hazards,” said Elizabeth Hitchcock, public health advocate for U.S. PIRG.

The organization focused on four hazards: small parts that can choke children younger than 3-years-old, loud toys that can cause hearing damage, lead-tainted toys and soft plastic toys that contain chemicals called phthalates.

If you’re shopping a garage sale and have a smart phone, check out ToySafety.mobi, specially designed for use with mobile phones, to look up toy hazards while shopping.

Recently there have been massive recalls on select cribs and stollers, most notably the “Drop-side” baby cribs, in some cases causing death, and Maclaren Strollers that have posed a serious safety threat to young children’s hands and fingers where they could get pinched. It’s always best to be aware of children’s items and recalls prior to shopping, but be especially cautious when shopping for second-hand items at garage sales. It’s not worth the risk to your child to save some extra money.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission along with the US Government ruled in a law that it would be illegal to sell recalled items at any consignment, thrift store or garage sale.

Remember “buyer beware” and when it comes to your kids’ safety, don’t jeopardize it by trying to save money on a product in question sold secondhand.

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American Pickers Funny Sayings

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Attention, Interest, Desire, Action

Have you ever posted an item for sale online and felt it took forever to sell… if it even sold at all? Chances are it wasn’t the item that wasn’t selling, it was the description, or lack thereof. If you’re a sales professional or have a sales background, you’re probably familiar with the phrase “telling isn’t selling.” A customer needs to be sold, not told. In this post we’ll share a great tip for advertising your items or sale events in online marketplaces and classifieds.

The secret to sales success lies in an easy-to-remember acronym…

A.I.D.A or “Attention, Interest, Desire, Action”

Capture their ATTENTION: You need to craft a title that captures people’s attention. Putting in text symbols and unrelated content in the title of an item is not just useless, it’s wastes valuable space you could otherwise use for keywords in naming the item you have for sale.

Keep their INTEREST: Capturing a prospective buyer’s interest can be difficult, especially when there’s competition in the marketplace. Creativity, accuracy, details and quality photographs make a big difference in keeping your prospect’s interest in what you have to sell.

Fancy their DESIRE: Your goal is to get your prospective buyers to crave what you have to sell them. Make them want what you have and your sales will increase. You need to offer what your prospect hasn’t found anywhere else. Are you selling them an experience? A one-of-a-kind? A hard-to-find? What makes your item special so prospective customers will buy from you?

Get them to take ACTION: If they’ve emailed you or phoned you to speak with you about the item that’s for sale, job well done and goal accomplished – you have a potential buyer on the line! Be polite, be honest and be real. Don’t just look at this opportunity as a one-time sale, consider the future investment opportunity, repeat sales, referral sales and most importantly, word of mouth sales.

Some websites like eBay for example, have even streamlined the process of listing items based on keywords. The site can instantly and fairly accurately categorize an item you have to sell based on the keywords you enter, thus making it easier for shoppers to locate exactly what you’re selling.

One lucky seller on Tagsellit.com gets their item featured here as an example since they did a great job describing their item…

Title: Antique Hand Painted Desk

The seller describes the desk as an antique, distressed and includes the measurements.

Here’s a picture of the item they’re selling

Asking $100.00

Posted under Virtual Sales / Category = Furniture:

http://www.tagsellit.com/items-for-sale-online/2661903

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How to Successfully Pawn or Buy an Item at the Pawn Shop!

Do you want to pawn it or sell it?

How does a pawn shop work? Most people are just discovering pawn shops due to mainstream media shows such as “Hardcore Pawn”. Pawn shops are not new to society; in fact they have been around for more than 3,000 years. Today’s pawn shops operate like mini, non-traditional banks for people of all walks of life. In the United States there are about 12,000 pawnbrokers who deal with a wide variety of items including jewelry, watches, electronics, fur coats, art collections, and more.

Do you know the difference between pawning and selling an item? If you pawn your item, you are using that item as collateral for a cash loan. The pawnbroker will in turn, expect you to repay the principal loan plus interest and fees, within 3 to 4 months (typically), before you receive your item back.

So the difference is if you are pawning your item, you intend to get it back, versus selling the item outright.

If your pawn loan is not repaid on time, the pawn shop takes ownership of your item and offers it for resale. The percentage of people who default on pawn loans is much lower than most expect: approximately 15 -18 %.

Pawning or selling items in a pawn shop can have good deals for both parties involved, however, that’s not always the case. Here are some tips for selling and buying at a pawn shop.

Advice on pawning an item:

Locate the right pawn shop: Research pawn shops in your area to see what other people are saying about them. What kind of reputation do they have? Also, look at what the pawn shop specializes in; for example: antiques, jewelry, tools, household items, etc. You want to find shops that have experience with the type of item you have.
Are you pawning or selling? The typical pawn shop will give you the choice, so be educated on the positives and negatives of each. Your decision about pawning should be based on the value you place on your item and your ability to repay the loan and fees by the due date.
Negotiate: Pawnbrokers are resellers, not collectors – even though the TV shows may lead you to believe they are. Keep in mind that the $1,500 appraisal you have on your tennis bracelet is not the price you will get for it at a pawn shop. Think of a minimum price you would like for your item before you start negotiating and that way you don’t make a snap decision you may regret later.
Be ready to prove your item: Bring along any receipts or current appraisals you may have on your item. If your item needs a power chord or batteries, make sure you have them so you can demonstrate its working condition. And it is always helpful to have original packaging.
Prepare your item: Dust on your item is a deterrent even if it is an antique. Bring your item to the pawn shop in the condition you would like it to be in if you were purchasing it: a little spit and polish go a long way!
Pay on time: Remember if you pawn your item, it is a loan and if it is not paid on time, you will lose your item. So make sure you pay the loan and fees on time per your agreement. Keep in mind that forfeiting your item or extending the loan may carry additional charges.

Advice on buying a pawned item:

Research the item: It’s not important what the item cost new, what matters is what the current market value is: what is someone willing to pay for it today. Some items hold their value over time better than others. Have a good idea of your item’s value in its current condition before you make a purchase.
Negotiate: A sticker price on the item should be considered a starting point. Pawnbrokers are good negotiators so make sure you have a spending limit in mind before you begin haggling. Another thing to understand is, the longer a pawn shop has an item in their store, the more they may be willing to lower the price.
Read the fine print: Guarantees of authenticity are not always offered in a pawn shop. Some stores have a lenient return policy, yet others will not take returns at all. Policies can vary widely so it is important to read them carefully before you buy.
Pay with cash: Paying with cash may allow the pawnbroker to accept your offer. By using cash, you will also be able to stay within your set spending limits and not accrue any credit card debt.

Written by Don Battis, CEO of Pawntique. For more information regarding the online pawn shop visit Pawntique.

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Earth Day 2013

“Climate change can seem like a remote problem for our leaders, but the fact is that it’s already impacting real people, animals, and beloved places. These Faces of Climate Change are multiplying every day. Fortunately, other Faces of Climate Change are multiplying too: those stepping up to do something about it. Help us personalize the massive challenge climate change presents by taking a photo and telling your story.” – earthday.org/2013/

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtfully committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

- Margaret Mead

Earth Day has become an international celebration of all things environmental. All around the world, individuals and communities are gearing up for the Earth Day 2013 celebration on April 22 — and often, the weekend before and after.

For people who take a more hands-on approach to environmental issues, Earth Day is the ideal chance to get involved in green living and sustainability issues. Write your congressman, volunteer to clean-up a park or river, or start a protest: It’s the most patriotic way to celebrate Earth Day!

How has climate change impacted you?

What are you doing to be part of the solution?

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What’s New at the Online Pawn Shop?

Recently, a client came to us for a personal asset loan using her late husband’s vintage Rolex watch as collateral. The watch has a very unusual dial compared to modern era watches. During our investigation, we uncovered a very colorful history of watches of this type.

Our research led us to a blog by HODINKEE, one of the most widely read wristwatch publications in the world. Rolex is the most famous watch brand but their reputation for quality and exclusivity sometimes turns people off. There is a heartwarming story of trust that took place in a WWII German POW camp that I would like to share with you.

During the war, Swiss watch sales dropped way off, especially after Germany invaded Vichy France in November 1942 and neutral Switzerland found itself completely encircled by Axis powers. Swiss watch companies were isolated from their best customer- the British and Americans. Rolex, however, discovered that there were plenty of British and Americans nearby in German prisoner-of-war camps. Stalag Luft III, for example, housed 10,000 Allied airmen, shot down in operations over occupied Europe. Thousand more Allied officers were captive in the various Oflag (officer’s POW camps) scattered throughout the German Reich.

Hans Wilsdorf, founding director of Rolex and a German himself, made the extraordinary offer to POW’s. They could order any Rolex model they wanted “but you must not even think of settlement during the war.” The news that Rolex was offering watches on a buy-now-pay-whenever basis must have spread through the camps like wildfire.

British officers in the OflagVII POW camp in Bavaria reportedly ordered more than 3,000 Rolex watches alone.

It meant that Wilsdorf was betting on an Allied victory. By early 1943, this was a risk worth taking. The tide of war had turned against the Germans and Italians. But this offer of such trust must have been a wonderful morale booster for the POW’s. Besides being a comfort in a POW camp, watches were part of an airman’s kit, and many had lost theirs on capture or in trying to avoid it. For prisoners who were considering escape, getting to the borders could only be done by public transportation. A watch was as essential as a train timetable.

Wilsdorf hedged his bet further by making it available to British officers only, in the belief that their word was their bond. He had started his watch business in England, but moved to Switzerland after World War I for tax reasons. The Rolex watches had already become popular among British Royal Air Force pilots.

Most POW’s ordered the Speed King model, popular for its small size (30mm diameter).

The watch that our client brought to us has a very interesting dial. It has an odd combination of Arabic and Roman numerals, and plain markers. The dial was originally designed for Allied forces during World War II and the mix of roman numerals and Arabic numbers was meant to act as a ‘geographic shield’ for troops who might be captured by the enemy. The mixture of styles on the dial gave the captive a degree of anonymity, as a purely Arabic style was considered likely to indicate the wearer to be from the United States where the style was more prominent. The dial is reported to have been patented by Rolex in 1941 and was known as the “High visibility” dial, as it used quite large luminous numbers.

The dials became very popular during the Vintage Rolex “bubbleback” craze of the 80’s. An L.A. based dial refinisher, Kirk Rich, did some dials with this design. They became popular and many vintage watch stores in California sent their dials to him. So dealers in the rest of the US and the rest of the world began to call them the “California” dial.

More recently, the Bamford Watch Department introduced a military-style watch, road tested on tour in Afghanistan. Utilizing Bamford’s unique PVD coating, the watch has the California Dial on the latest Submariner non date (14060M).

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Tagsellit.com New Website Coming Soon

Coming soon to your screens… A new and improved Tagsellit.com!

Our team is excited to be launching a new and improved website. In addition, we’ll also have a new iPhone and Android App available for mobile users. The new site will feature a fun new user interface, graphic design and layout.

Navigating the second-hand marketplace can be challenging. This is why our new site will be also dedicated to assisting second-hand retailers (such as Consignment Shops, Estate Sale Events and Pawn Shops) generate better visibility and offer more solutions to drive interest to their places of business.

As our mission says, our goal is to provide a big-picture roadmap for navigating the second-hand industry. Tagsellit.com’s platform helps sellers liquidate second-hand items through both our online virtual garage sale listings and with the ability for users to advertise their weekend sale events (for free). Tagsellit.com brings second-hand buyers and sellers together.

Did you know the yard sale market alone is an annual billion-dollar industry? There’s a lot of value hidden in closets, garages, basements and attics across the country. Generations of “crap” have accumulated and what’s “old” may be “new” …and worth lots of money!

Bottom line: Expect to be dazzled soon! We’ve revolutionized the garage sale industry by creating the “virtual garage sale” marketplace and we’re continuing to revolutionize the entire second-hand industry!

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BOOM. NEW APP!

Second Hand Marketplace
By Tag Sell It

Finding Garage Sales, Yard Sales, Estate Sales and Online Sales has never been easier. We’ve updated our site to include even more sale events, and recently updated our iPhone App to take advantage of all these new sales.

What’s New in Version 2.0.0

We’ve rebuilt Second Hand from the ground up. You’ll now find every sale type you can find on the site in the app. Be sure to download it now, available just in time for the weekend!

Download it here

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Our Social Spaces

Using social media is a great way to connect with your current audience on a different platform and an easy way to grow your followers through similar interests. Best of all, it’s free and fun! Here are a few places you can find us online and how we’re using those spaces to connect the dots…

Facebook – We maintain two Facebook pages. One is our Tag Sell It page and the other is our Flea Market Events page. Our Tag Sell It page is our social company page where we interact with current users and new friends. We post a variety of updates including blog posts, funny second-hand related pictures, items found on the tagsellit.com website and more. Our Flea Market Events page is just for Flea Market enthusiasts.

Pinterest – Whenever something really, really cool is posted for sale on our site, we’ll share it on Pinterest. Same thing with our blog and other random fun images we find! We maintain 9 Pinterest boards. They include:

Tumblr – Tumblr is where we share content from 2nd Hand Social. Check it out sometime. You might just tumble across some other cool blogs that we follow or that follow us. Have fun!

Twitter – Tweeting daily, or trying to. Be sure to follow us, @tagsellit for fun tweets about anything and everything second-hand marketplace related. Get educated. Get your laugh on. Get your sharing on.

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An Overview of Second-Hand Marketplaces

Several second hand online marketplaces exist and each has their own strengths and weaknesses but we’re going to avoid the “which is best” question because we believe that is a question best suited for the seller to answer. We’re simply going to give a broad overview of the major second hand marketplaces and what makes them unique.

eBay – The most popular auction website with global reach. eBay has expanded since it’s early days of simple online auctions to add “buy it now” options and “storefronts” features for business owners. eBay is a great site to research items and learn about the trends of items that have sold or identify price ranges for your items and what the current market value of those items is. It’s important to note that a large part of eBay’s business is still auction-based, so while you might fall in love with a second hand treasure, there’s also the risk of getting caught up in a bidding war over an item (which can be fun or painful). One of the greatest things about eBay is their user rating system. With this technology, you can choose which users you wish to do business with and which ones to avoid, based on other users feedback after a transaction was completed.

Craigslist – The most popular e-classified website on the web with a dominant presence in the US, but it has a more limited global reach than corporate second-hand websites like Amazon and Ebay. Craigslist has virtually put newspaper classifieds out of business (thankfully), who reads the printed version of the newspaper anymore? Just kidding. It’s great that the world has had a web-based e-classifieds option, saving millions of forests and trees each year (yes, I’m a tree hugger). Craigslist has everything you’d expect from a newspaper classified but in digital form. While the service is geographically limiting and your risk of being scammed is increased over corporate sites like eBay and Amazon, it’s still not a bad site to use as long as you proceed with caution and heed basic safety rules. One thing that really SUCKS about Craigslist’s garage sale section:

Most sale events posted are not responsibly managed by users, so you’re likely to find sale events posted on the site from days, even weeks ago. That’s not entirely Craigslist’s fault, some users are just irresponsible for not removing their ads when the event is over. (On Tagsellit.com, we do this automatically so the user doesn’t have to go in and delete their sale – it automatically expires at the end of the scheduled sale event on the last scheduled day. Technology is pretty sweet.)

One thing that’s really awesome but they don’t do anything about (Again, stressing user irresponsibility too):

Oh and for the love of whatever, please keep “virtual garage sales” off Craigslist – they clearly discourage this, yet people still abuse it. Nonsense, respect their rules!

Amazon.com – A global department store with both a corporate business model and successful entrepreneurial business model. You can find a lot of goods on Amazon.com but if you’re looking for second hand treasures, there are alternatives, like going to a Flea Market. Amazon.com is great for getting deals on pre-owned media, like books and DVD’s. Their individual seller platform is a bit more confusing and complex to use than other sites but has gotten much easier recently. From new to used and everything in between, chances are good you’ll find at least some information about what you’re looking for or looking to sell when using Amazon.com.

Tagsellit.com – While not yet a household name, the founders of this site did have the foresight to come up with an interesting way of revolutionizing yard sales, especially for folks who don’t physically have a front yard or garage, or who may even be restricted by neighborhood ordinances to have a garage sale. Founded in 2007 and launched in 2008, the idea behind Tagsellit.com is simple, a second hand marketplace with nationwide reach where virtual garage sales can take place, 24/7 and serve as a resource for folks looking for services from professionals specializing in the second hand industry (including Consignment Services, Pawnbroker Services and Estate Sale Services). The beauty of a virtual garage sale is simple: Even if you’re hosting a garage sale it makes sense to advertise your event and items in advance. By listing them on Tagsellit.com, you immediately get a nationwide reach. So, someone in California might really like that trinket that was listed for sale in New York – that buyer wouldn’t travel all the way to California for a garage sale, but shopping virtual garage sales online, now that’s genius!

It’s important to note that not one single website has all the answers or all the solutions to everyone’s online buying and selling needs. Having options such as these makes life easier, and more fun, for everyone!