july 14, 2019 | 5 MIN READ

Are you in a financial bind right now? Need gas money today but don’t get paid until tomorrow? Don’t worry. Regardless of what everyone else’s lives look like on the outside, they have all been there too. Some financial struggles are bigger than others, but we’ve all been there.

So what do you do?

Let’s talk today about financial binds that are $50 and under and what you can do to fix them. These are the quick unexpected trips you have to take, the traffic ticket you got in the mail for running through a red light, or maybe the fair is coming to town and you need some spending money. (Although $50 at the fair will probably only get you two corndogs…)

Regardless of the situation, let’s say you have $0 and you need $50 by today.

If you’ve never thought of a pawnshop for quick cash before, I’m glad you’re reading this article.

Below we’ll list 7 items you can easily find in your home and pawn for $50 today. Pawning is quick, confidential, and an easy way to get the quick cash.

So here’s 7 different items you can easily pawn today and get $50:

1. laptop computers

Laptops are a super simple item to pawn at the pawnshop for $50 or more. As long as it is a full size laptop (not a netbook) and is a newer operating system - we can easily pawn it for $50 or more.

Before you bring your laptop in, here are a few tips to make sure your pawn transaction goes smoothly:

Remember to bring the charger! We can’t pawn laptops without a charger so make sure not to forget it.
Make sure your laptop is charged and still working. We’ll need to test your laptop before we pawn it, so make sure it’s fully charged and still functional.
Don’t worry about taking any of your information off the laptop. This one might sound weird, but to be honest it’s probably a waste of time to do. Some people reset their laptops before they bring them. If you want to do that, we won’t be mad at all! Just know that if for some reason you don’t come back to redeem your pawn, we’ll reset your laptop for you.

2. game consoles

This might be one of our most common items that customers pawn! It’s a quick easy way to get $50 and most everyone has a game console in their house. It’s also a super simple item to bring to the pawnshop and come pick back up later.

Here’s a few tips to help you out when pawning a game console:

Make sure you bring at least one controller and all of the hookups. If we can’t test it, we can’t take it. :(
Bring some of the games you have to pawn with it. We pawn the games too so we can give you extra money for them!
Make sure everything still works before leaving the house. Just like everything else, game consoles can stop working. It might save you some time to test it real quick before you come. It will need to be in good working condition for us to take.

3. tvs bigger than 32”

TVs are an easy way to get $50 at the pawnshop. Keep in mind, however, you’ll need to bring a TV that’s bigger than 32” to get that much money. TVs are getting cheaper and cheaper these days, so the smaller they are - the less you will get.

Here’s 3 tips to make sure everything goes smoothly when you pawn a TV:

Don’t forget the remote! We do take TVs without a remote, but you’ll get less money. To get the most money possible you’ll need to bring it with a remote.
Be careful when transporting it to the pawnshop! About once a week we’ll have someone bring in a TV to pawn that is cracked. When we tell them what has happened, they realize that they were the ones who cracked it getting it into the car. BE CAREFUL!
Bring the stand and screws! The common thing to do now is to mount your TVs on the wall. While this is awesome at the house, it’s not practical at the pawnshop. We’ll need to store your TV in the back room of the pawnshop until you come back to redeem it. To store it safely, we need the stand.

4. ‘slightly’ heavy gold jewelry

While it’s impossible to tell you how much your jewelry is worth without seeing it, we can give you a good idea of what to look for to get $50. If you find yourself looking through your jewelry box and not knowing what to look for, you can take a look at this article where we lay out the differences between fake gold and costume jewelry.

Here are 3 quick tips on picking out the right jewelry to bring in order to get $50:

Make sure it’s real gold. You can check out our article here, or just grab a few pieces that you believe to be real gold and we’ll test them out. We don’t loan on costume jewelry so it will need to be real in order to get you money.
Try to find ‘slightly’ heavy gold jewelry. In order to get $50, you’ll need the piece of jewelry to be medium weight. Hold the piece of jewelry in your hand and if it weighs about as much as a U.S. quarter (.25 cent piece), you’re good to go.
Gemstones weigh more than the gold sometimes. While we definitely can pawn a gold ring with a gemstone in it, it subtracts from the gold weight of the ring. Let’s take a look at the quarter example again. Let’s say you have two gold rings. One has a large gemstone in it, and one has no stones at all in it. If both rings weighed about the same weight as a quarter, you would get more money for the ring without gemstones. (The large gemstone would take away a lot of gold weight from the ring.)

5. firearms

Firearms are a super easy way to get $50 or more when you pawn them. There are very few firearms that we loan less than $50 on. Handguns, rifles and shotguns are all easily pawnable items. However, there are a few extra steps when pawning a firearm. Let’s take a look.

Here are a few tips to make things go smoothly when pawning your firearm:

Pawning a firearm is exactly the same thing as pawning any other item. You bring it in, we assess the value, make you an offer, and loan you cash. However, when you come back to pickup your firearm off pawn, you’ll need to be able to pass a background check in order to get it back. Pawnshops are regulated just like any other shop who buys and sells firearms, so they have to uphold the exact same laws. You can take a look at the ATF’s explanation of the law here.
You’ll need to have a valid ID when you pawn and pickup a firearm. The ATF does not allow for any type of leniency with this rule. If you’re pawning a firearm, you’ve got to have a valid and acceptable photo ID.
No one else will be able to pickup your firearm for you. Since you have to do the background check in order to get it out, you’ll have to be the one who picks it up.

6. samsung or apple smart watches

Smart watches are the ‘it’ thing right now. Everyone either has one or wants one. For those of you who already have one, you’re in luck! You can easily get $50 on a pawn loan for your smart watch.

Let’s take a look at the important factors in pawning a smart watch for $50:

Samsung and Apple smart watches are the only ones that we’ll pawn. There’s a ton of off brand smart watches out there, and they all lose their value pretty quickly. For now we’re sticking to the major two brands.
Don’t forget the charger! Most smart watch chargers are expensive - $30 or more! We take this into consideration if you bring your smart watch without a charger. Don’t forget it!
You’ll need to remove your account or reset your watch before you bring it. We always require that you remove your account from the watch, just in case you decide not to come back for it. We don’t want to sell a watch with your information on it.

7. nice guitars

Last on our list of easy $50 pawns are nice guitars. They are a quick and easy way to get $50 at the pawnshop. Keep in mind we did say ‘nice’ guitars. By nice, we mean a guitar that sells brand new for $200 or more. There are a lot of starter guitars out there that sell for a lot less and would not get you $50.

Here’s a few more things to remember when pawning a guitar:

Strings are important! If you’re missing one string on your guitar, don’t fret. (get it?) But if you’re missing every single string, we might have an issue. Make sure to restring it before you bring it.
Condition is important! We take a look at the guitar and determine if it has any cracks, warps, or any other damages. Any of these might disqualify the guitar for a pawn loan.
The better the name brand, the more money you’ll get! There are A LOT of cheap guitars out there. A LOT. Make sure to bring a nicer name brand guitar if you’re looking to get $50 or more.

wrap up

Things happen in life that we don’t expect. Tires go flat. AC units stop working. And the fair comes to town twice a year. Whatever the situation may be, sometimes we just find ourselves short on $50. A pawnshop can easily help with that! The Top 7 items to pawn for $50 are: guitars, smart watches, firearms, jewelry, TVs, game consoles and laptops. Of course there are a lot of factors that go into pawning one of these items and getting $50, but for the most part, it’s pretty simple to get quick cash on these 7 different items.