A pawn shop / pawn store / pawn broker is a place where people can 'sell' items to themselves, via a broker. If I needed money, but didn't have any, I could se

A pawn shop / pawn store / pawn broker is a place where people can 'sell' items to themselves, via a broker. If I needed money, but didn't have any, I could sell a possession of mine to a pawn shop, who would agree not to sell it as long as I either paid them back within a certain time or made monthly payments to keep it. It's basically like saying "Hey, loan me $500! You can hang on to my guitar until I pay you back." If you miss a payment, or fail to pay them back on the agreed upon terms, they'll sell the item you left. From long-ago personal experience, they do this sometimes anyway. There are a lot of negative stereotypes for pawn brokers. They are often used as fences for illegal goods -- Using the above scenario, if the guitar is stolen, then you might pawn it and just run off with the money.