Dennis B.

I have never had an experience like what occurred in the Sunbelt Pawn shop on Louetta. Early in October I took a WW2 pistol from Germany, brought here by my father, a veteran of that conflict. The weapon was passed on to me when he died. After several years, I decided the time was right to let this part of my life go. I had never sold a gun or dealt with a pawn shop. I took the pistol to Sunbelt. The store was well organized and the personnel were professionally dressed, so I felt confident about the process. The young man asked what I wanted for the pistol. My reply was I am a novice and simply wanted as fair evaluation and a fair price. After a few minutes on the computer I was told there was not much market for a weapon like this, and he offered me $100.00. My thought was that there must be a lot of these available, so I believed him and accepted the offer. A few days later I told my sister and she then told her son, my nephew. He wanted the pistol as a memory of his grandfather. I should've asked before. I returned to the pawn shop to inquire about getting it back and told there was a twenty-one day waiting period for evaluation purposes. So, I returned after twenty-one days and asked about the weapon. Surprise! It was appraised at $1600. 00, but I could have it back for a mere $1000. 00! Seems the young man that made the offer compared it to a replica and arrived at the low price. If my nephew had never asked, I would not have known about the difference, and they would have a valuable piece of property valued a sixteen times more than paid me. The owner refuses to negotiate, even though the discrepancy was their fault. My first mistake was going to this place. This is probably legal, since I did take their offer, although the offer was bogus. I would never do business with this establishment again, and caution anyone in the future. Integrity and honesty are not strong suits here.