It's hard enough to be an online retailer, but to deliberately align yourself with pawnbrokers is not going to inspire a lot of consumer confidence. But pawnbrokers said those venues tend to be for lower-ticket items, while pawnshops try to sell more expensive goods , such as Rolex watches and fine jewelry. Others said their unique merchandise tends to get buried in the pages after pages of items listed on sites such as eBay. The online pawn sites charge the physical shops between 5 percent and 10 percent in commissions for goods actually sold. Some also charge a monthly listing fee.
Many pawnbrokers are well equipped with computers helping to ease their transition to the Net.
Brokers around the country still have to email or upload listings and photographs of goods to take advantage of online pawn networks. Charlene Komar Storey, the editor in chief of Today's Pawnbroker , noted that the technology barrier for pawnbrokers may be much lower than for many other small retailers. For years, she said, pawnshops have been using a software called Polygon to connect to one another's databases and to download their most recent loans to the local police. We just have to wait and see. Inc. All rights reserved.