That's a good plan and a good way to handle it by them. If they know you're not dishonest, and you're a regular, to give you cash.

It might work like this: they can't test certain items, or don't know how. So they put those things out at around parts price; and if they come back, they'll sell them out on eBay at parts price, meanwhile you're invested in store credit.

In the ghetto, a lot of items come in as suspect. Not that they were stolen, but they were clearly part of a dumpster dive or seem to be from odd circumstances. A poor person comes in, digs into a plastic trash bag, and says "I have this stereo (a 30 year old piece of shit), this clock radio (a 40 year old piece of shit), and this thing I don't use because I don't like it (an uncharged iPad 2 covered in syrup)." And you say, what the fuck?

So you offer $20 for the lot and throw the shit in the trash, and hope the iPad is serviceable; if it can't charge at all, it goes for parts:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from...p2045573.m1684

But if it can charge, how long do you work with it until you say, well yeah this thing "works"? And what are your risks, selling it in various ways?

"...covered in syrup"

LOL!

NSFW

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so apparently this just happened today in front of you know where. Details are still coming in but, you know, random craziness in the hood. Steve has video of this gent disrobing, surrounded by cops, in the very middle of Broad St.

http://cellar.org/2016/nakeddudeatpawnshop.jpg

...and he was hauled off in an ambulance shortly after this. Word is, his bag of weed had something stronger in it than he expected, and so he began doing a striptease up Broad St.

I have heard of people around here getting nekked after getting all doped up on goofballs... bath salts and what have you...

Just wanted to show them he wasn't armed.

Right now word is he began stripping before the cops took an interest, but Steve promises more details later.

So, it's NOT true, what they say, after all! ;)

I like how the one cop has already got his gloves on. Smart move.

Looks like he's trying out for the part of Daffyd Thomas.

Thank you so much, Pam.:)

I feel just a little less weird knowing that you saw it, too.

Well...that you didn't see it, either, in this case.:lol2:

What he did is very dangerous. Some cop might mistake his toy for a real gun.

See dis?

Yup. It's funny cos the horizontal siding in the Pbg shop is what we had. Makes it easy to hang and display items.

So does my podiatrist for displaying shit they sell.

That is the fake.

Has to be. No other option.

Nevermind

:)

Man this thread hain't been updated in 9 months... good

The only event reported on, happened yesterday: a dude did not like the quote given for a mobile phone, and in great anger, he left with a high kick to the front door, shattering the glass and closing the shop temporarily.

Main owner Alan has take up a second career in real estate, and he is trying to get that going, knowing that it's only so much longer for the shop. Steve reports that he leaves the shop for hours to do real estate things.

If you do any moonlighting listing properties on eBay for him, be sure to include how many dead hobos each parcel will hold.

Real estate seems like it would be more lucrative than the shop as well. Unless maybe he's selling homes in the ghetto?

Where Lil' Pete lived in East Falls (Philly) there was a gentrification push. It seems likely that'd suppress the pawn business.

He's selling $500,000 homes in the burbs. Or trying to, but this is the perfect time to do that, as the boom is on.

Gentrification is one of the big threats to the shop as neighborhoods that nobody thought would ever flip are flipping. It's really hard to imagine it moving that far north though...

But Steve reports that since the end of the Broad Street Line subway is a block away, white people are now Ubering to it from the north, in order to reach center city. This was a kind of unforeseen thing and may have caused a fairly decent pizza place to move in. (I wonder if they realize they can't do this at night. People will get shot and jacked waiting for an Uber there.)

Meanwhile across the street from the other pawn shop...

I am interviewing tomorrow for a job with the head office of a chain of retail sneaker stores, where all the stores are in strictly urban areas. One of the locations is one block down from the pawn shop. I've never gone in.

I asked Steve if he ever went in, or had any opinion of the place.

"Yesterday a woman came in with a bag of shoes from there. She left it on the counter and said, I'll be back in a bit. Someone spotted the bag unattended, and grabbed it and bolted out the door. The woman came back and totally freaked out on us."

Now that I have signed-up and read all 90 pages (ok, not all), you are going to put an end to this thread. Thanks for that ;)

I first found this one near the end as well - sad to see it go (for me, not Undertoad, we need him around) but so much gold in here...

Thanks y'all. It was worth it doing it for a while for the stories, but it was more worth it quitting it.

http://www.fox29.com/news/controvers...letproof-glass

Because Philadelphia City Council has solved all other problems, they've introduced this bill, which if passed would immediately cause the shop to shut down.

Ugh. Sounds like that's the whole purpose of it.

Ah quick correction: now that I've hunted down more details, the bill only applies to food establishments. The story was unclear.

This will shut down the chinese food place where I used to get lunch. It's still ridiculous...

That is just insane.

Why is Fox the only news that is reporting this? As if only Fox is known for integrity.

I dunno Sparky; nevertheless, the bill exists and I found it by searching for "physical barrier" at the Philadelphia City Council Legislative Information Center.







I'm sure everyone understands that there is a subtle difference between the Fox News Channel, and local news programs created by affiliates on the Fox Broadcasting Company. They are owned by 21st Century Fox but run by different divisions. Sometimes they share news content. They don't generally share editorial slant. FBC began in 1986 while the Fox News Channel was launched 10 years later in 1996.

Are there really restaurants with 30 or more seats where the employees are separated from the customers like that? It seems like the place would get filthy quickly.

I've only seen that setup with takeout or corner stores before.

On the other hand, it could be perversely read to ban drive-throughs in the winter.

It is the ghetto, it is filthy!

Think Chinese food/Korean deli with 6-8 bench seats, that is what this is targeting.

6-8 bench seats = 36-42 seats

Ah... missed "bench seats"... still seems like a lot for someone to manage from behind glass. But it definitely doesn't seem to target liquor stores, which is their stated aim.

More info
Apparently, it goes with an already-in-place requirement that stores which sell beer and malt liquor ALSO be a 30-seat restaurant.

So it's:
To get a liquor license, you must be a 30-seat restaurant
To be a 30-seat restaurant, you must not have the barrier

The councilwoman is trying to target the places that are pretending to be restaurants to get the liquor license, but may end up hurting actual restaurants in the process.

You mentioned this to me, once, like 10 years ago and I never made the same mistake again.

incidentally...
The news programming on the Fox News Channel itself doesn't even agree with the editorial programming on the Fox News Channel.

Partly. But this is the ghetto, and the rules are different there. So Steve will tell you, partly because he is a functioning alcoholic and is aware of all places booze can be found:

If you head over to the little deli a block down the street from the pawn shop, the owner there will sell you a shot for $2, if you know about it.

They don't even sell beer. Steve went to the trouble of figuring this out when a lot of pawn shop customers were starting to show up drunk at 10am. Pawn shop customers aren't the sort to plan their booze purchases out way in advance. If they are starting to suddenly show up drunk at 10am, something different is at work.

So some of these aren't actually liquor stores, they aren't controlled at all, and it is considered a problem for the community. But this should be addressed using laws that exist, rather than saying that the deli owners should be killed.

One of the stores here in town will sell you a single cigarette.

If you know about it.;)

I suspect it's a new opportunity for the Council to grab more loot in the form of payoffs for variances. It IS Philly after all.

The next shoe drops: Steve tells me privately that he is moving back to his home state, and will be leaving the shop by Christmas.

I'm, like, not supposed to tell anybody - but I think you people are good people, and won't share.

His name's not Steve anyway. All the names in this thread have been changed to protect the guilty. Except me. You know me.

Steve was the closest to me, left at the shop; so until something bigger is announced, such as a closure, the thread will slow down even from the trickle it's at now.

It's possible this might bring the end. It's not easy to find a good person who can be trusted to work the shop. But with Steve leaving, the shop only has two people left.

Alan always said that insurance mandated two people be in the shop for it to be open. That makes total sense. But now he can't do his side real estate work without closing the shop for a while.

Either they hire someone else, or everything gets weird. It's already weird. Anyone need a cash job in ghetto north philly for six months? You wouldn't need to do much.

The demise of a business, especially one serving the most needy, is sad. But it's totally understandable what lead to this decision. Hope Steve and his unindicted co-conspirators find a better path.

Steve has left the shop and so now this thread is a true crime blog. I happened to notice that this happened two blocks north of the shop:

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/201...ter-van-crash/

Van driving up Broad at 8:30pm, someone shoots into it and kills the driver. It's a mom; and her three kids, all under age four, are also in the van, injured but not shot.

I sent this story to Steve, who is now many hundreds of miles north. He answers "Van looked like the one that was always parked in the lot with sketchy shit happening."

Steve knows the ghetto and the people better than I ever did, since he spent five years there as opposed to my 6 months full-time. "The lot" is where we parked, a block away.

My old fellow pawnbroker has started a photography hobby and part of it is taking candids outside the shop. It is a fine display of the people of Olney/Logan. About a third of his Instagram is these street photos

https://www.instagram.com/taoistpunk/

http://cellar.org/2017/peopleofnorthbroad.jpg

A few of the pictures are NSFW but you can scroll passed them quickly.

Ah yes those are a professional model in a photo class he took.

I found them. Thanks Bruce.

During the looting period, Alan's brother Dan's pawn shop was broken into and entirely looted by a team of 6 looters. The shop was a total loss, including the loss of valuable property for hundreds of people in the ghetto. There is video of the looters as they empty the store for 45 minutes, including at least two clear faces, but none have been caught. Looting is not covered by insurance.

Sounds like they could've used an old school Democrat like Richard Daley.

(15 Apr 1968) 04/16/68

Chicago, Illinois: Angry Mayor Daley of Chicago announces that his police force is to shoot to kill any arsonists and shoot to maim or cripple looters... if and when there is another riot in his city:



Makes that Republican Trump fellow look like a wimp.

That sucks, T. On many levels

And the whole world was watching. Tens of thousands said so in unison on Chicago's streets.

Which is why what was known then still applies today. You cannot trust anyone over 82.

In Chicago, hundreds of thousands approved of that message. They stayed home and reelected him twice more with landslide victories of 40% and 51% margins respectively.

Get used to it.

Ah, those Black, Living Marxists.

I'm digging his photos. I had looked at them previously, but it's interesting to see them during covid. I find myself looking to see who is wearing a mask.

"Innocence and fun will always be with us"

http://cellar.org/img/innocencefun.jpg

He captures it and crops it perfectly. Currently 23rd of all time for reddit/r/streetphotography

That right there is why I work with kids.