Found a Meucci David Howard cue at Pawn shop for $75, but it had a Police Hold on it.

J

justinb386

Banned
I found a Meucci David Howard cue at a pawn shop yesterday, and it had a $75 price tag on it.

So I thought it was a really good deal, because it came with 2 shafts, and a really nice case that looked like an It's George case (but did not have the shoulder strap on it).

As I was waiting to pay for it, the guy at the counter told me that he could not sell it, because it had a Police Hold on it.

I am not sure what a Police Hold is, but I assume that the cue was reported stolen.

The thing I do not understand is, how could that specific cue be reported stolen unless the owner of the same exact cue came in to the pawn shop and noticed his stolen cue, and reported it to the police.

I was really unhappy about the cue having a police hold on it, but I would never want to buy a stolen cue anyways.

So does anyone know what the process is for Police Holds?

Does the owner of the cue have a certain amount of time to claim the stolen cue before it is released to the pawn shop, so that they would have the right to sell it, or how exactly do police holds work?

Thanks.

Here is a link to a picture of what the Meucci looks like (it is the one with the dark stained forearm, not the one with the maple forearm).

http://www.discountpoolcues.com/meuccidavidhowardcue4.htm
 
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According to Pawnbroker and Secondhand dealer laws, all tangible personal property bought by the pawnshop or secondhand dealer shall be held for a period of 30 days. That means if your property was recently stolen and taken to a pawnshop, it cannot be resold or disposed of until the 30 days are up or it is released by the Police Department.
If the item was stolen but is very common, meaning it has no distinguishing marks such as inscriptions, initials, dates, serial numbers or markings, it often cannot be recovered because there is no way to positively identify it.
 
Thanks for your reply. So that means that the cue may not have been stolen, and the pawn shop is just required by law to hold the cue for 30 days (after they purchased it)? So all items purchased by a pawn shop have to be on Police Hold for 30 days after they purchased the item? Thanks

terryhanna said:
According to Pawnbroker and Secondhand dealer laws, all tangible personal property bought by the pawnshop or secondhand dealer shall be held for a period of 30 days. That means if your property was recently stolen and taken to a pawnshop, it cannot be resold or disposed of until the 30 days are up or it is released by the Police Department.
If the item was stolen but is very common, meaning it has no distinguishing marks such as inscriptions, initials, dates, serial numbers or markings, it often cannot be recovered because there is no way to positively identify it.
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If I were u I'd stay on it untill the hold comes off or leave ur info have them call after
 
In the pawn shops I frequent, items within the hold period aren't even displayed. My understanding was that it was unavailable for sale, period, and couldn't be priced and displayed until the hold was clear.

I would suspect the cue was priced by an employee who didn't look up any info, and the employee selling to you recognized the disparity. I had something similar happen when I bought a bench top router table with router for $15. The owner honored the price, but it looked like I kicked him in the junk and he immediately started trying to figure out who priced it.
 
DallasHopps said:
In the pawn shops I frequent, items within the hold period aren't even displayed. My understanding was that it was unavailable for sale, period, and couldn't be priced and displayed until the hold was clear.

I would suspect the cue was priced by an employee who didn't look up any info, and the employee selling to you recognized the disparity. I had something similar happen when I bought a bench top router table with router for $15. The owner honored the price, but it looked like I kicked him in the junk and he immediately started trying to figure out who priced it.
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I agree with this theory as well...

Similar thing happened to me with turntables and the needles that were "supposed" to come with them (they were in a separate baggie)... Turntables were admittedly priced below market, and the needles made it an even better deal for me. Pawn shop manager pulled the switcheroo on me at the register when I went to pay, stating that those needles came with another pair of turntables, and the two needles he sent out the door with me were older and in worse shape. Said it was a take it or leave it deal, and he was surely hoping I would "leave it" so they could avoid honoring me the price on the two turntables. I bought them anyway, but it still created a pretty ugly situation.

Pawn shop owners and managers become pretty hardened to retail conflict over time. LOL

On a separate, but pawn shop related note.... this weekend I found a Players jump/break cue priced for $30. It looked new except it was missing a tip. When I pointed out the missing tip, the manager said one of the employees there had caused the tip to come off somehow, but he'd let me have it for half if I took it off their hands... It now has a milk dud tip (only one I had left, and only tip big enough to fit on that massive shaft) and breaks 'em up real good... :)
 
jaetee said:
I agree with this theory as well...

Similar thing happened to me with turntables and the needles that were "supposed" to come with them (they were in a separate baggie)... Turntables were admittedly priced below market, and the needles made it an even better deal for me. Pawn shop manager pulled the switcheroo on me at the register when I went to pay, stating that those needles came with another pair of turntables, and the two needles he sent out the door with me were older and in worse shape. Said it was a take it or leave it deal, and he was surely hoping I would "leave it" so they could avoid honoring me the price on the two turntables. I bought them anyway, but it still created a pretty ugly situation.

Pawn shop owners and managers become pretty hardened to retail conflict over time. LOL

On a separate, but pawn shop related note.... this weekend I found a Players jump/break cue priced for $30. It looked new except it was missing a tip. When I pointed out the missing tip, the manager said one of the employees there had caused the tip to come off somehow, but he'd let me have it for half if I took it off their hands... It now has a milk dud tip (only one I had left, and only tip big enough to fit on that massive shaft) and breaks 'em up real good... :)
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Lucky guy, I love my Players jump break. It's was a deal at $79 new, would be a bargain at $30 even without a tip, and an absolute steal at $15.
All I usually see are junk cues that came with Pool/Spa/Recreation center tables 20+ years ago or a decent production cue beat to hell for 99% of original retail.
 
DallasHopps said:
In the pawn shops I frequent, items within the hold period aren't even displayed. My understanding was that it was unavailable for sale, period, and couldn't be priced and displayed until the hold was clear.

I would suspect the cue was priced by an employee who didn't look up any info, and the employee selling to you recognized the disparity. I had something similar happen when I bought a bench top router table with router for $15. The owner honored the price, but it looked like I kicked him in the junk and he immediately started trying to figure out who priced it.
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This happens all the time. Especially with music instruments. I'm pretty sure this is the case and someone saw the name Meucci. In the pawn shop world Meucci is an automatic 150.00 if not more.

If I were the OP I'd return but expect to find it with a higher price.
 
Bishop said:
This happens all the time. Especially with music instruments. I'm pretty sure this is the case and someone saw the name Meucci. In the pawn shop world Meucci is an automatic 150.00 if not more.

If I were the OP I'd return but expect to find it with a higher price.
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I agree on this. I walked in a pawn shop not long ago and a plain meucci was marked for $250. He also had a Crown Jewel Meucci with a leather wrap for $1500.
 
I've bought Meucci's marked $299 at a pawn shop for $100 MANY times.

They usually don't know the difference between an early Original marked one, and a later cue.

There is an early 2000's cue at a local pawn shop right now for $499, crooked as a dogs hind leg. I know there codes, they paid $250 :yikes:

It has been there for a while...lol.
 
Well, it was the owner that I talked to, and he was a really nice guy, and I talked him down to $70 out the door for the cue (but he would not go any lower then that). The Meucci was probably warped (most are, I imagine), and this one had many dings in it. The cool thing about it was that it had some type of brown leather wrap on it. Maybe a cork wrap. Really liked the wrap. I think that case alone might be worth the $70 by itself. It had no markings on it, and looked just like the case that Paul Newman used in the Hustler. Very cool looking case with the top that slides completely off, and the inside looked identical to the way the 1x2 It's George cases look. Both of the shafts were missing their tips, and I tried to use that as a method to get him to lower his price to $50 (telling him that a tip replacement would cost me $20), but it did not work. Was so disappointed to find out about the Police Hold on it. I think I will give them a call, and ask when exactly the hold will be removed (if they will be willing to give me that info).

ElKabong said:
I've bought Meucci's marked $299 at a pawn shop for $100 MANY times.

They usually don't know the difference between an early Original marked one, and a later cue.

There is an early 2000's cue at a local pawn shop right now for $499, crooked as a dogs hind leg. I know there codes, they paid $250 :yikes:

It has been there for a while...lol.
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Two questions come to mind. Why didn't you ask what that means when you were there? And, couldn't you have left a deposit since the pawn shop gave you the price?
 
Pretty sure the guy working at the pawn shop, who you spoke with, could have answered these questions in about 30 seconds.
 
I actually did ask "so the cue was stolen?", and they did not really give me a reply, but they did not tell me I was wrong about that assumption. I just never heard of the term "police hold" before, so I assumed it meant that someone found their stolen cue in the pawn shop, and reported it to the police. I know, I am just really stupid, lol. I just like to post stuff that comes to mind on here. I went back in the pawn shop a few days ago, to ask when the cue would be released from the police hold, and the guy told me that it would probably be another month before it would be taken off of the hold. I then asked him if he could give me a date, and he would not tell me that info (he probably just did not want to look it up for me). He just told me to come back in about a month. I figure that in a month, that cue will be long gone, and already sold (at the price of $75). I originally tried to put $20 down on the cue, but they would not allow that.

3andstop said:
Two questions come to mind. Why didn't you ask what that means when you were there? And, couldn't you have left a deposit since the pawn shop gave you the price?
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