Klarinet Archive - Posting 000443.txt from 1997/09

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.EDU>
Subj: Re: Pawn Shop Prices
Date: Tue, 9 Sep 1997 16:06:13 -0400

Depending on the state, one finds great variance in the quantity
and quality of clarinets available. On a recent visit to Reno,
I found several pawnshops, each with 40 or 50 clarinets. But that
is because a gambler in Reno will pawn anything.

The pawn shop owners were not only ignorant of the value of these
clarinets, they were stupid in how they displayed them; i.e., in
the pawnshop window directly attacked by the hot Reno sunlight.
Most of the wooden ones were badly cracked and worthless. They
were asking several hundred dollars for each, completely unaware
of what they were doing to them.

Just to see what would happen, I picked up a Buffet in the window
(and it had a crack in it into which I could have inserted a
quarter) and asked what the price was. I was told that it was
an extremely valuable clarinet, etc., etc. I did my simple
country boy routine.

The price was $300. I looked very aggrieved. Simply too much
money. Blah. Blah. I offered him $75 (which I would not have
given him even if he had accepted the offer - the instrument
was worthless). He dropped down to $250 without the blink of
an eye. We hassled for a while and he finally settled on
$175. I said it was too much and left. Had I worked on it,
I think he would have come down to $150.

Bottom line is that they offer about $25 to someone who brings in
an instrument, and then they store it for a couple of years
before they sell it. So if they get $75, that is a good profit
on their investment.

Gallup, NM also has lots and lots of pawn shops, but the reason
for this is very sad. They take advantage of the local indian
population by buying up tribal jewelry. But every pawn shop
in town had at least two or three clarinets. And that's New
Mexico!

Las Vegas is also very good in quantity but disastrous in
quality.

=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================

   
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