The days of pawn shop watch bargains are over (plus why you shouldn't steal if you're stupid)
I visited some pawn shops on Monday in the search for vintage watches. I knew in my heart the days of finding bargains at shops like the ones I visited were long over, but it can never hurt to look, right? I am not hurt, thankfully, and not all too much time has been wasted. But out of the four I visited, I found a grand total of nothing good. There are one or two small quartz Seiko women's watches for cheap, but who buys those? I like a smaller watch, but something the size of my thumbnail is a step too far. There was a beat up Casio Edifice for $35, which, seeing as I can buy a new one for about $50 on Jomashop is not the deal of the century. It needs a new crystal and loads of cosmetic work. "Rip-off" is the right word. The cruel irony is that I visited three pawn shops the next town over, but everything mildly interesting was at my local pawn shop, so I should have rather stayed in bed and slept late.
Something interesting about one of the pawn shops I visited was that a large portion of their inventory is likely stolen tools from the mines. I know a detective who busted four guys last week for pawning stolen tools. It's hilarious actually; one guy steals something with the help of three buddies, then pawns it under his full legal name and gives a copy of his ID document in too. He made R90 (4,80 USD) if I remember correctly, but lost his job and now steals tools from other places.
Impact wrenches and hammers from the ground to the roof, but barely a watch. My local pawn shop is massive and has been in operation since likely the dawn of time. Adam and Eve likely have a purchase history with them. Most of the vintage stuff has left, but there are still old (retro) items like original Xbox games. Has anyone here played 50 Cent Bulletproof before? There's a copy there. There are mostly cheap quartz watches from questionable brands, but two watches did interest me. "But Ryan, you just said that you found nothing good!" I know. The watches that interest me are two Rados, quartz Centrix models, but the price that they're asking for them is ridiculous. They've likely sat for long, without any interest, so I'll wait until inflation makes R5 000 (±270 USD) the sort of money thrown around at primary school tuck shops. (Sidenote, I do see many Rados of this model trade at similar prices, but I guess they fall into an aesthetic I'm not into, plus I didn't get a clear enough look at them to accurately assess condition etc.) Other than those, there was a quartz Croton, with another price so ridiculous I instantly moved on to the old sewing machine section.
In all honesty, I was hoping to strike gold (more like silver, or more realistically, iron) again like I did with a vintage alarm clock I bought from another aeons-old pawn shop. It's a two-jewel Starlet, and I serviced it and got it running perfectly. Servicing disposable movements is my speciality it seems. I paid virtually nothing for it, the equivalent of 2,50 USD to be exact. I'm hoping to at least triple my money by selling it to whoever buys cheap vintage alarm clocks.
Small-town pawn shops are a mixed bag. Mine has so many books that they refuse to buy any more and enough furniture, decor, and appliances to furnish multiple houses. While the days of finding horological bargains are over, if they even existed to begin with, doesn't mean that they are over. You might just find something one day, so take a look. Ninety per cent of gambling addicts quit before they make it big. That's the logic you should use when rifling through the other rubbish.
A famous Dutch saying: “𝘕𝘦𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘣 𝘫𝘦, 𝘫𝘢 𝘬𝘶𝘯 𝘫𝘦 𝘬𝘳𝘪𝘫𝘨𝘦𝘯.”
Thanks for sharing your experience from South Africa, love to see the comparison. In the US, with the launch of eBay, bargain finds at pawn shops are largely gone. It is too easy to look up a watch’s recent sales and set a price accordingly. I would also think many folks know they will get screwed over by a pawn shop, so they use forums, eBay, FB Marketplace, etc.
I think estate sales, yard sales, and perhaps an odd antique store may be the last options for bargain finders. Is it worth the work? Different question.
Thanks for sharing your experience from South Africa, love to see the comparison. In the US, with the launch of eBay, bargain finds at pawn shops are largely gone. It is too easy to look up a watch’s recent sales and set a price accordingly. I would also think many folks know they will get screwed over by a pawn shop, so they use forums, eBay, FB Marketplace, etc.
I think estate sales, yard sales, and perhaps an odd antique store may be the last options for bargain finders. Is it worth the work? Different question.
I have yet to attend an estate sale, but that sort of thing is quite rare here. Most valuable items are kept for generations, even if broken, usually because of either emotional attachment or not being bothered to sell it. All the other stuff in one's estate then usually ends up in pawn shops.
Antique stores are great though; I found one on the other side of the country with some cool watches, although none of them are necessarily "bargain of the century."
It's not much better than that trying to find a new watch in a major city in England!!
Mrs & I are both into watches and had a day in Cambridge to buy a new watch each... A whole day wasted & both came home empty wristed... I was looking for the new Seiko 55th anniversary 5 sport & Mrs looking for a Rotary Cambridge. Got mine online when I got home, Mrs ordered hers but they sent the wrong one 🤯
My Dad repairs watches for the local charity shop and volume & quality has dropped noticeably in the last 20 years 😢
Yea, there's no more bargain to be had. Those days are long gone indeed
It's not much better than that trying to find a new watch in a major city in England!!
Mrs & I are both into watches and had a day in Cambridge to buy a new watch each... A whole day wasted & both came home empty wristed... I was looking for the new Seiko 55th anniversary 5 sport & Mrs looking for a Rotary Cambridge. Got mine online when I got home, Mrs ordered hers but they sent the wrong one 🤯
My Dad repairs watches for the local charity shop and volume & quality has dropped noticeably in the last 20 years 😢
I think as mechanical watches became more obscure, the deals left with them.
Wow, I really enjoyed the post, I assume that you are talking about modern times checking out pawnshops because it is my experience they were never a place to find a find. My visits to the pawnshops here in Toronto dates back 40 years, the decent items were picked through and sold to private sellers who were the shops’ best customers, certain private buyers occasionally would be offered a few Rolex Datejusts that their regular clients already had a surplus of. I do recall locally a lawyer who was retained by bikers who was offered desirable goods daily.
Wow, I really enjoyed the post, I assume that you are talking about modern times checking out pawnshops because it is my experience they were never a place to find a find. My visits to the pawnshops here in Toronto dates back 40 years, the decent items were picked through and sold to private sellers who were the shops’ best customers, certain private buyers occasionally would be offered a few Rolex Datejusts that their regular clients already had a surplus of. I do recall locally a lawyer who was retained by bikers who was offered desirable goods daily.
Speaking to my father, he confirms just about everything you say. He says that he thinks many pawn shops stay in business simply because there are certain people, mostly uninformed, that see any price at a pawn shop and think that it's a good deal.
Speaking to my father, he confirms just about everything you say. He says that he thinks many pawn shops stay in business simply because there are certain people, mostly uninformed, that see any price at a pawn shop and think that it's a good deal.
This is going to tell you my age which is senior but I am still mobile and my interests remain constant from my younger years. I used to visit small communities looking into watch and jewelry businesses hoping to find new old stock, did experience some success. My wife’s brother in law suggested we travel to Vietnam in the 1980s for business, his business but for me an opportunity to source steel Rollies favoured by soldiers who were there during the egregious years in that country’s history. I found crap, haha some fake quartz Rollies and a few trashed items that the sellers had assigned crazy prices to. I buy modern am never tempted by old or vintage.
This is going to tell you my age which is senior but I am still mobile and my interests remain constant from my younger years. I used to visit small communities looking into watch and jewelry businesses hoping to find new old stock, did experience some success. My wife’s brother in law suggested we travel to Vietnam in the 1980s for business, his business but for me an opportunity to source steel Rollies favoured by soldiers who were there during the egregious years in that country’s history. I found crap, haha some fake quartz Rollies and a few trashed items that the sellers had assigned crazy prices to. I buy modern am never tempted by old or vintage.
Vintage will be the death of me. It keeps tempting me relentlessly. Watch and jewellery businesses are definitely the sweet spot for this sort of thing. I've bought several from my watchmaker, all at good prices and he has also helped me on the way to becoming a watchmaker by donating old broken movements. A pawn shop will never give one a relationship like that, at least not with watches.
I did attempt to study watchmaking when I was in my 30s, my senior VP who was also a huge enthusiast found a government funded program to assist unemployed persons collecting benefits that taught watchmaking. I just followed him until we were kicked out. My boss neglected to inform that it was not available to guys who were working. These days there are on line courses but that is for younger persons. My wife used to buy shoes from a large fella who obviously loved watches. A few years ago I ran into him again still selling shoes but had become a certified watchmaker also. He told me a lot of guys who buy high end shoes also love watches, he would take in repairs, never did learn which profession became part time and full time
I did attempt to study watchmaking when I was in my 30s, my senior VP who was also a huge enthusiast found a government funded program to assist unemployed persons collecting benefits that taught watchmaking. I just followed him until we were kicked out. My boss neglected to inform that it was not available to guys who were working. These days there are on line courses but that is for younger persons. My wife used to buy shoes from a large fella who obviously loved watches. A few years ago I ran into him again still selling shoes but had become a certified watchmaker also. He told me a lot of guys who buy high end shoes also love watches, he would take in repairs, never did learn which profession became part time and full time
I hope to take a course sometime in the distant future when school and university are behind me. Such courses are a rarity here though.
I hope to take a course sometime in the distant future when school and university are behind me. Such courses are a rarity here though.
School and university, you sound like a young man! Enjoy your time, don’t rush. Not certain if programs still exist today but in the past a Swiss gent who was the country agent for brands like AP, Breitling was able to direct candidates for training in Switzerland. The sibling of two of his former employees is working in the service department for Breitling watches here in Toronto.
School and university, you sound like a young man! Enjoy your time, don’t rush. Not certain if programs still exist today but in the past a Swiss gent who was the country agent for brands like AP, Breitling was able to direct candidates for training in Switzerland. The sibling of two of his former employees is working in the service department for Breitling watches here in Toronto.
Thanks! I'll definitely have my head out for any programs of that sort. The only one I know of is run by the Swatch group.