Yeah. One of those guys took a shotgun from me for $300 cheaper than it was worth because I desperately needed truck tires.
I knew he was stiffing me. But I really needed the tires.
He didn't still you. To be stiffed means not to be paid. You didn't get FMV for your gun, but then again, you were selling to a retailer. What do you expect. If he gives you full value, then how do you expect him to be able to sell the gun? You would have gotten better money selling to an individual, but who wasn't going to resell the gun, but you didn't have time to bother finding a buyer who would pay you more. From a strictly theoretical sense and applied here in reality, the value of an item is what the market will bear for it at any given time, place, situation. At that moment, the value of your gun was $300 less than the noted FMV elsewhere as you weren't elsewhere.
Pawn shops are in the desperation business.
Yeah, like plumbers, AC repair folks, mechanics, food stores, and funeral homes. Crazy thing, all those folks want to be paid for their goods and services especially when I need them RIGHT NOW!
After examining their merchandise and prices, I didn't know if I should laugh or be insulted.
Wow, another person being insulted. Sounds like some of y'all may need CPR on our forearms if you ever have a heart attack. If you don't like something, don't buy it. To be insulted by somebody else's price offer on a product goes beyond wearing your heart out on your sleeve. Are you insulted to see some of the prices on Gunbroker?
I would be willing to bet that there are a lot of folks here who walk into pawn shops, find something they want, and their idea of negotiation is to ask, "What is the bottom dollar you will take for this?" That tells the pawnbroker two things. First, it says that you likely aren't a serious purchaser. Second, it shows you are too lazy to actually come up with an offer yourself given that there is already a price on the product, you have seen it, and you automatically expect to be given the bottom dollar price just for the asking...when in reality, you are going to then counter with something even lower than what the shopkeeper said was his bottom dollar.
Pawn shops deal with this sort of behavior every day. So when you say,
I'm guessing their customers are not the most knowledgable folks when it comes to gun prices.
Many are not, but those who know how to negotiate on a serious level (money talks and bull ____ walks) come away with some very good deals.