My little brother

My brother works for a place I will not name. They succeed by taking advantage of those already in tough situations.

There are two parts to the business. One where they buy your stuff for resale. Two where you bring in your item, they give you cash for it and hold it until you come back in 30 days and either pay the interest, or pay the lot and get your item back.

The interest rate? Thirty percent.

Of course, the aim of the game for them is to buy your item for as little as they can. Being that most of the people here are desperate for cash (or else, why would they be there?) they argue very little.

The formula they try to stick to is:
- work out what the item would be worth brand new
- take two thirds of that, that's what they aim to sell it for
- give the seller one third of that

So if you come in with an item worth $1,000 brand new, you're walking away with about $220 and whatever you sold goes in the shop for $660 (I rounded)

Anyway, this is all background. I want to tell you about one customer in particular.

A woman came into the store a few weeks ago. Her mother had just passed away, and she was left a ring which she was selling. My brother has quickly learned how to value all manner of things, jewelery included, and had a look at it. He quickly realised, this was an expensive ring.

But, because she kept talking about how desperate she was, and how she just really wanted "a few hundred dollars", he decided to be the store hero. He offered her $500, which she graciously accepted.

He and his boss had a closer look at it, and decided they could easily put then ring on the shelves for $7,000 and sell it. Profit to the business, $6,500. My brother was loved.

Not long after though, the phone rang. It was the woman's brother. He found out she had sold the ring to "go to the city and buy shoes" and he was not impressed. He wondered if there was any way he could buy it back.

Someone at the store must have got something that resembled a conscience, because they sold it back to him for $550.

So that's one of the many stories he has told me from his line of work. And, because the whole post has been about him, I'll finish with another story about him.

When he was organizing his wedding, they had to decide what music they wanted played in the limousines. His selection (which was not very popular and was rejected) - "Highway to Hell"