5 Steps for Reclaiming Pawned Items

When you set up a loan at a pawn shop with physical collateral, that collateral isn’t gone forever. In fact, there’s many ways to reclaim the item you’ve pawned.

Pay Back the Loan

The easiest way to get your item back is to pay back the loaned money plus the interest. It’s often in the best interested of the pawn shop owner to allow you to reclaim your item rather than having to sell it themselves.

This is likely the cheapest and easiest way to reclaim your pawned item, as it’s the intended function of a pawn loan to return your collateral to you once the loan agreements are satisfied.

Ask About Extensions

Either before or after you’ve pawned an item for a quick loan, ask the pawn store owner if they allow for extensions. They typically offer a grace period after the due date for the loan to be repaid. It can be in the pawn shops favor, especially if you can prove it to them that you’re getting paid soon. It’s a gamble on their part – losing out on a potential buyer or having the near assurance of a full payment on the loan.

Reactivate the Loan

Similar to an extension, if you’ve previously forfeit your collateral and it’s still sitting on the shelf after some time, it doesn’t hurt to ask the pawn shop if they’re willing to reactivate the loan. Then, you can finish paying off what you owe in order to get your item back. If there seems to be no interest in the item from paying customers, a pawn shop may feel more incentivized to allow you to resume your loan. That way, they can make back their money and move the merchandise.

Buy it Back

It may feel awkward to attempt to buy an item you’ve previously pawned or forfeited, but you can attempt to buy the item back yourself. This is best if the pawn shop is uninterested in allowing you to resume or finish the loan. If you outright sold the item to the pawn shop, there should be no hard feelings in buying back your item. Granted, you’ll probably be at a loss considering the pawn shop wants to make a profit. The money you got from it was less than its resale value, but if the item means that much to you, it’s an option you can follow through on.

Get a Friend to Buy It

Lastly, you can ask a friend to buy it back if you feel too uncomfortable buying back something from the place you pawned and forfeited on. The social anxiety of buying back an item from the person or company you failed to follow through on can be daunting. It’s a reasonable barrier when wanting to reclaim your stuff. If you have the cash and a good friend, there’s no reason why you wouldn’t be able to get your stuff back so long as it’s still available for purchase.

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