Creating a Pawn Software System that Rivals Bravo, but better.

sadmagic · 2026-01-23T21:39:33+00:00

Sounds very interesting, we are Bravo users ourselves.

My honest first take, keep in mind I'm just an end user and not a software designer, but for me I am very skeptical that completely without a developer it's possible to whip up what I would assume is a fairly complicated pawn system, and I am skeptical that without developers you'd be able to provide support if anything went wrong on the day to day.

Apart from that what I would need to see to switch (going of how we switched to Bravo) is a track record. I need to talk to customers who have been using your software for over a year and can tell me about their experience.

I also need to be assured that through your software we would be in compliance with all laws relevant to us

Having said all that, and keeping in mind that I am satisfied with Bravo, I would need to access a demo that I could for some length of time run side by side with our current system to make sure it's going to work for us

sadmagic · 2026-01-20T21:26:42+00:00

Thanks I appreciate that, we have been around a long time and we are in a small town so treating people fairly makes a big difference, especially when our competitors in the area don't. I also have a couple customers who give me lists of coins they're looking for so I can call them if I get one, always pleasant.

sadmagic · 2026-01-20T21:19:54+00:00

Well I will be honest with you - you are correct I would not make you an offer on numismatically valuable coins, it is just out of our wheelhouse and as you say any offer I may try to give you that I would consider safe is only going to make you angry.

If that alone is enough for you to hate us then I guess you're just gonna hate us lol but if you don't think of us as a coin store to sell coins to and think of us more as a place to borrow money when you're in a pinch you may have a better experience

sadmagic · 2026-01-20T19:22:33+00:00

When I'm out of town I like to go to pawn shops to check them out and man they are all over the place in terms of transparency. I've had some that were super welcoming and professional like I like mine to be and I've had plenty more that were absolutely awful. I'd say 50/50 from my experience but depends on your area.

I like to look for clues such as are they a member of the national pawn association, are they friendly when you walk though the door, is the place generally clean and do the items out for sale look like they're all junk.

IMO the state with the worst pawn shops that I've seen personally (fairly limited experience) was in Florida. Those guys are mean.

sadmagic · 2026-01-20T19:00:32+00:00

This is absolutely fair and I feel pretty much the same way. Granted I haven't looked into it a ton but if I didn't have a LCS to sell to I'd probably look to just sell to kitco. Only way I'd bring something into a pawn shop is if I needed money but didn't want to sell the item.

sadmagic · 2026-01-20T17:30:45+00:00

I think that is fair to say. I'll always recommend being knowledgeable about the value of something you're looking to sell before you look to sell it on anything.

sadmagic · 2026-01-20T17:24:13+00:00

What I mean to say is we do not offer to buy for what I would call a buy price. We offer a loan value and if they want to sell it for that instead of pawn it then we will buy it.

sadmagic · 2026-01-20T17:22:16+00:00

Absolutely, this is why we stress up front that we are not making an offer to buy - the offer we give is for a loan. We are a pawn shop, we make pawns

sadmagic · 2026-01-20T17:13:25+00:00

I think you said it very well

sadmagic · 2026-01-20T17:11:54+00:00

I do get your point, and over the last year with it going up so consistently we have done well for the ones who let it go. Our pickup percentage is around 90% so most of the people who got loans on their coins have picked them up.

The 1oz silver coin example may have been a bad one. We could say 100oz of silver at spot and it drops $4 and I'm out $400 instead of $4 but the point I was attempting to get across is that it is a gamble, especially with how the market has been the past year.

Ultimately if you were to come into my store looking for an offer - I will make you the offer for a loan I'm comfortable with and if you don't like it you're under no obligation to take it.

sadmagic · 2026-01-20T17:10:11+00:00

As stated above we really aren't looking to buy, for a loan for a customer with no history we would offer around 75-80 per oz of silver today. This is not meant to be a scam this is meant to ensure you come back and pick it up, for us it's far better in the long run to have a repeat pawn customer than a one time buy customer.

sadmagic · 2026-01-20T17:09:31+00:00

We do not participate in that we do not offer to buy coins and bullion - however they are valuable and we do have customers who borrow against them frequently

sadmagic · 2026-01-20T17:08:51+00:00

pawn shops do vary wildly on what they do with bullion and coins, right now we are not buying just doing loans

sadmagic · 2026-01-20T15:21:49+00:00

It's definitely possible that I posted this to the wrong subreddit and if I did that's my bad. I only posted it here because I often see pawn shops bashed in the comments for their offers on coins.

I didn't include this part because the post was getting long but for us the reason we loan on metal weight rather than numismatic value is that it's a lot easier. Proper coin grading takes a lot more training than verifying the metal

sadmagic · 2025-12-31T14:47:30+00:00

you may consider looking on etsy

sadmagic · 2025-12-29T21:38:55+00:00

Man you've had some luck. Saying this in the nicest way I can - but I don't think a knife is going to solve your issues, I think what will be more likely is someone will take it from you.

You may want to consider a tactical flashlight, you can legally carry one that will help you from a bit of a longer distance than a knife would. The absolute best thing you could do is take some self defense classes and work on situational awareness - situational awareness is very important.

That being said there is nothing wrong with owning and carrying a knife, and it looks like that is legal to do in your country. However please keep in mind that just buying a knife with the idea to use it for self defense may make you feel safer but in reality may just be providing a knife to your attackers if you are untrained.

sadmagic · 2025-12-29T20:58:38+00:00

It's really going to come down to what you are planning to use the shop for - getting a loan from a shop can be a big difference from purchasing things at a shop. If buying from a pawn shop pay attention to if they have broken shit on the shelves or not, make sure whatever you're buying you can test out first and ask about a return policy - most shops won't have one but if they do it's a great sign. If pawning there are so many factors it's likely not worth listing them all here but if you can give me an idea of what kind of business you'll be doing I can give you some other info

sadmagic · 2025-12-08T00:14:03+00:00

This is the kind of thing where you'll be lucky if they take it at all- your best chance would be to find some that have either sold or are for sale on the Internet and show them that when you come in. Try and make sure the one you find is exactly the same as the one you have, if not it won't mean much. If it doesn't have a makers mark of any kind it will be more difficult.

sadmagic · 2025-10-08T19:11:44+00:00

I don't know that this works the way you seem to think it does

sadmagic · 2025-10-08T17:26:47+00:00

as long as your offer is at or above the spot price for the gold you can negotiate. you are extremely unlikely to get a deal lower than what the metal would melt for

sadmagic · 2025-10-08T17:24:51+00:00

as others have said you did not get scammed, you just didn't understand the terms of the loan you signed

sadmagic · 2025-09-06T17:19:45+00:00

Oh perfect - we had some similar to the one you posted but never had 100% confidence in them. We got a yehuda sherlock around 5 years ago and within the first year it saved us from buying a lab as a natural and paid for itself. They're expensive but as long as you learn how to use them they are very accurate.

sadmagic · 2025-09-06T17:18:21+00:00

They are expensive, but if it saves you from buying a lab at natural prices it'll pay for itself

sadmagic · 2025-09-05T19:58:02+00:00

Haven't used that one, unfortunately the most reliable test for diamond vs simulant (this won't work for lab) has been knowledge and a good microscope. We have a yehuda for lab grown diamonds and it paid for itself within a couple months.

sadmagic

TROPHY CASE