Pawn loans or collateral based loans, have been around for centuries. Essentially you provide something of value (gold, electronics, etc.) and the lender (the pawn shop or pawn broker) lends you money based on the item’s value. As long as you re-pay the loan amount or principal, along with whatever fees or interest have been agreed upon, you take back your valuables. It’s that easy!
Pawn shops take in a wide range of merchandise based on their type of business and on specific rules and regulations imposed by state and local governments. For Massachusetts pawn shops, title loans (cars, boats & motorcycles) are illegal, as are payday loans (borrowing against your future paycheck).
Empire Loan, for example, primarily loans on gold and diamond jewelry but also does loans on electronics (laptops, TV’s, digital cameras) and musical instruments. Bring in your item and our staff will evaluate it. Our experts will do any necessary research to determine the amount we will lend. Typically, we offer 20% of the price we can find an item being sold for elsewhere. For example, if you bring in a flat screen TV that we can find used online for $500.00, we would typically offer a loan of $100.00.
For gold and diamond jewelry, we base our loans on the scrap value of the metal and a small percentage of the wholesale value of any diamonds. These amounts are based on the price of gold trading on the commodity’s market and from diamond dealer sources such as Rapaport. The amount you may have paid for the jewelry in the first place has no bearing on what a pawnbroker may offer you. That’s because retailers pay much higher prices for their merchandise and mark it up hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of percent.
Massachusetts pawn shops offer loan that are 4 months in length. (In Providence, RI where Empire has two locations the loans are 3 months). In addition to your item of value, all you need for a loan is a non-expired government issued ID. It doesn’t even have to be from the state or country you’re in. In minutes, you can have the cash you need with no hassles and no credit checks. It’s that easy!
