A Different Kind of Pawnshop

On the way to Sta. Lucia East Grand Mall, on a purely work-related business, my colleagues and I passed by the curiosity-raising shop called “Laptop Pawnshop”. With a shared murmur of agreement, we decided to stop by the shop and have a look-see.

Lo, and behold … it was a techno-gadget freak’s very own version of the pawnshop! Now I’ve seen the cellphone pawnshops that have sprouted all over but this particular pawnshop was not just accepting pawned phones but mainly laptops, notebooks and other digital delights -- digital cameras, LCD screens, X-boxes, Game Cubes, Playstations, and PSPs.

Having had much experience in pawnshops, I naturally asked the staff how long they keep the items pawned before they’re made available for purchase. Imagine my surprise when they mentioned that the item is already a rematado (foreclosed item) after just 15 days.

Why the surprise?

It’s because in the normal pawnshop, pawned electronic consumer items like cellphones, DVDs, digital cameras, video cams, TVs, branded sound systems (and the latest being accepted at least in Cebuana Lhuillier outlets are the so-called magic sing-along microphones) are kept up to 3.5 months before they are foreclosed. There's a possibility that an pawned electronic consumer item will not work, or worse, be rendered broken after being kept in storage for months without being powered up or turned on. It's a case of what is locally-termed as "istak-ap".

So, in Laptop Pawnshop, you can be lucky and score a laptop that’s just about a month old! Like the Acer laptop we scrutinized which was up for sale at a manageable Php 36,000. The same model at your neighborhood computer sales shop will easily take Php 45k to Php 50K. At pwede pa tawaran if you can sweet talk your way with the attendant.

Those who are budget-conscious will definitely score big when they purchase an item from their store. I would assume that the pawnshop has at least one personnel who is well-versed in laptops and gadgets. Out of the 15 or so laptops in that pawnshop, only three were for sale and the rest were just displays. But they get new shipment every week so I guess if you’re looking to score something on the higher-end, you just have to extend some patience.

I asked if they accepted non-branded laptops and they said that as much as possible, they prefer to accept branded laptops but they do give consideration if the laptop you pawn comes packing the heavy stuff – great processor like a Core Duo or something, Wi-fi, Hi-fi, Lo-fi, DVD combo, and all the other techie-kaboodle.

Plus, their array of branded digicams and cellphones are just superb. Imagine buying a 5-megapixel branded digicam, just 15 days old, for just under Php 5,000? That’s just sweet.

And for an avid video-gamer like myself, the displayed X-boxes and other gaming consoles were just pure heaven. There were two display cases exclusively for them in one part of the smallish shop and I just had to stop myself from salivating from the obvious desire to own just one of these infernal yet addicting gaming machines.

I also learned that they’ll be opening their Makati Cinema Square branch one of these days and for sure, I’ll troop there one Saturday to just ogle. And if I have some cash on hand at that time, probably myself a PSP or a laptop, or both.