Be frank and tell us – when you hear the words "pawn shop," do you still imagine a seedy back alley, with questionable characters milling about? Those are the days of history! Pawn shops are gaining recognition as reputable places of business, for buying, selling, and for borrowing. The San Francisco pawn shops are known for selling and pawning a whole range of items, from designer bags, guitars to gold necklaces. Simply put; precious metals, gold in any form generally demand higher estimate prices. In fact your old, unused sterling silver flatware may also earn you some nice cash. Other items that you may pawn are quality watches, gemstones, estate jewelry, antiques, and other heirloom jewelry. However; you should also estimate the price and market value of a given item. This in short is the latest concept ofpawn shop in San Francisco! Perhaps you have got that garage full of junk, that you know somebody would be interested in, but the thought of having a garage sale fills you with dread. Take it to a pawn shop and if it's something they want, you'll walk out with money in your pocket. Of course; it is that simple and fun. If you are considering pawning an item instead of selling it, here's how theSan Francisco pawn loanworks. When you bring a particular piece to the pawn shop, the item is appraised, preferably by a professional appraiser. The appraiser then provides you with a particular price for your item, the interest rate on the loan as well as other terms and conditions of the loan. As a matter of fact; it works in reverse too and if you like finding the odd item, or a good bargain, consider shopping at theSan Francisco pawn shop. It is also important to mention here that such loans are typically based on the appraised "loan value" of your collateral and its current condition and the ability of the San Francisco pawn shop in selling the item. Of course the amount of the loan offered is based on the wholesale, resale/secondhand value of the item and certainly not on the new retail price. ...read more

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Here are some quick and easy ways to determine if a diamond is real:1. Use and electronic device called a diamond tester. This should be used as the focus point to have a stone in the ball park of maybe being a real diamond or not.2. The transparency test. This is a simple test but the diamond needs to be loose. The way to use this test is to flip the diamond upside down and keep it over the print in a newspaper. If when you look through the diamond you can read the newspaper, it is a fake diamond.3. Cubic zirconium is the great fake! It is about 50% more in weight, shape and size then a real diamond. Use a gram or carat scale to determine if the stone is fake or not comparing size and weight.4. Look at the stone from above and if you can see all the way to the bottom, it could be a real diamond also.5. Put the stone in front of your mouth blow on it the way you would onto a mirror to fog a mirror. More than 4 seconds, if any fog: fake. A real diamond will not hold fog but a couple of seconds.6. A diamond that does not reflect various shades of grey, but only colors of the rainbow, can be a low quality stone and or fake one.7. Fake diamonds tend to sparkle at the top while real diamonds reflect from all sides. You may see signs of dullness on the sides or when viewed from the side.8. Check the metal that the diamond(s) are mounted on. This is a good way to determine if a diamond is real. Don't expect to find diamonds on copper or sterling silver. Gold and platinum is the choice for real diamonds.9. An interesting and simple test is to hold the stone under UV light or black light. If the stone reflects blue fluorescence, you could have a real diamond. The bad part is a medium to strong blue color means the diamonds has fluorescence and that's not considered good for a diamond.10. Use a jeweler's loupe to inspect the diamond. Real diamonds usually have small imperfections or inclusions that can be seen this way. Cubic zirconium does not have these imperfections. For that matter, lab-grown diamonds (which should pass all of the other tests) usually don't have imperfections either. ...read more