The gift-giving traditions of the Christmas season can be trying at times. If you have many people to shop for, each with multiple ideas of their holiday wish lists, it can quickly become a full blown shopping adventure. Are you up to the challenge of braving black Friday crowds at the mall or other retail venues? Do you want to endure the long lines, parking hassles, or coming up empty because the item you wanted just sold out? Even with online retail being a part of how we shop these days, it still comes with its own set of issues. Will the gift you ordered arrive in time? Will it make it through the delivery process without damage?

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At Metro Pawn & Gun are big fans of collectible coins, coins made of precious metals, and other rare coins and currencies. Coins from around the world and throughout the ages are not only valuable, but each one carries along its own chapter of history from the era during which it was created. Can you imagine where a penny minted during World War II may have been? Or a Morgan silver dollar from 1921, steeped in history and witness to events that shaped our world. We stock silver quarters and dimes, WWII nickels and pennies, and innumerable other numismatic treasures. We are always on the lookout for rare coins you may want to sell or pawn.

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The world is far from a peaceful, stable place. Geopolitical tensions seem to increase, and then subside, but most every storm has been weathered to some extent or another. Those that believe this to be as cyclical as the weather will allude to the fact that every generation has faced its own set of crises, many of which may have been worse than current events, only to have prevailed and come out stronger as a result. And although this is true, if one examines the broader story arc of where things are going, the big picture does raise some concern.

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Most people are at least somewhat familiar with the process of financial bankruptcy. Whether it involves an individual, a business or even a country, when debts rise above one’s capacity to pay those debts, financial insolvency ensues. When people and companies are involved in bankruptcy, lawyers file papers, wave a magic wand, and the debts are resolved while adverse effects take hold on said party’s credit rating. So what happens when a country goes bankrupt?

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The modern pawn shop is a unique institution in today’s business world. It is a place where you can get a quick loan for items of value, or quick cash for items you wish to sell. You can also shop a robust and varied inventory of merchandise at remarkable prices.

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Gold is a precious metal and fairly rare element that has been used throughout history as a monetary system in the form of coinage, in jewelry and other forms of adornment, and in other arts as well. Although the world monetary gold standard was abandoned in favor of a fiat currency system in the 70s, the value of gold persists and actually continues to grow in spite of this.

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Let’s look at opportunity cost. This is a basic economic principle defined as the loss of potential gain from other alternatives when one alternative is chosen. You walk into a prestigious jewelry salon and find that wedding ring of your dreams, for $5000. While most people might not second-guess putting a ‘price’ on something as special as a wedding, the reality of the matter is that if you spend $3000 on one instead, you’ll have $2000 of potential resources to allocate to something else – like the catering, or the reception hall, or the honeymoon!

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Precious metals are always on the radar at Metro Pawn & Gun. We buy, sell, pawn and provide loans for all manner of precious metals, ranging from jewelry to coins to bullion. Investors buy physical gold, silver, platinum, and other precious metals as an alternative asset and to protect against inflation and financial turmoil. Owning precious metals is a great way to diversify an investment portfolio because of its historical value and viability as compared to other less tangible assets.

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For those of you who follow the gold market, remember back to January of 2000? The price of gold was a mere $288 per ounce! If you happened to be investing in gold at that point in time, looking at your portfolio in October of this year will be a delightful experience. Currently at $1280 per ounce, the value of your investment has over quadrupled in 17 years! There aren’t many other investments that can compare.

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Pawn shops can provide loans for your items, or purchase them outright. It all depends on whether you wish to retrieve your item at a later date, or just want to get rid of it altogether

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