The Pawn Shop

Stopped by here for a while on a recent shopping trip in town. I didn't purchase anything but here's what I can say:



PROS



1. Of all the pawn shops we stopped at in Sioux City, this one definitely had the largest selection and by far the largest showroom area.

2. This shop had more guns and more knives (probably more than all the other shops combined) than anywhere else we stopped. They had everything from the most ridiculous fantasy knives to "wall-hanger" swords, to battle-ready weaponry.

3. Large selection of tools compared to some of the other shops in town, including some specialty occupational tools (e.g., plumbing equipment).

4. Has an adjoining room (believe they called it "The Garage") that appeared to have a selection of riding vehicles. We didn't go in, but I think I saw a decent selection of mini-bikes when we walked past.



CONS



1. Probably the most "stereotypical" pawn shop in the city. It has bars on the door, old carpet, and a strange smell.

2. Has a GIANT inventory of rings (engagement, wedding, fashion, etc). This may sound like a pro, but the problem is that although they easily had three or four times the number of rings we saw at other shops, they weren't very nice and there wasn't a large variety. There were very, very few white gold rings, which is problematic since they seem to be much more popular than yellow gold. The yellow gold rings that they had seemed to be of low quality. I'm not a jeweler, but many of the rings looked to be 10k gold rather than 14k or 18k, and the diamonds were almost all very small. The gemstone rings were larger, but many of the diamond rings were probably under 1/10 carat stones. In addition, most of the rings appeared to be older, but definitely not classic designs; possibly 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s styling.

3. The sign on the window outside says that they buy all types of precious metals. Unfortunately, they don't necessarily sell them. They do not sell any coins and don't sell silver.

4. A decent portion of the inventory is stuff that will probably never sell, and thus is not very interesting to look at. For example, they were selling old networking cables/hardware and while there was a huge variety of tools for sale, some of them literally looked like they had been found on the side of the road.



All in all this is an okay shop. "The Garage" room gives it a unique flavor that seemed to be absent in the other shops in Sioux City. They have a large selection of knives, guns, tools, and jewelry. However, it has a slightly more "rough" environment compared to other shops. In addition, there is a lot of stuff for sale that most people would probably consider "junk" -- older, out of style jewelry, impractical knives/swords, and slightly too-used tools. They also don't have coins and don't sell silver even though they purchase it.



This shop is definitely not as new as the other places in town, and you might have to wade through some of the junk to find what you're looking for. But then again, one man's junk is another man's treasure. For that reason, I give this shop a solid three stars.