Counterfeits in my local pawn shop!

[hoxhunbe]

The Pawn Shop at Lake Ella, one of the few such stores where I live, just opened up recently. It's in one of the two or three most "upscale" parts of town, and it gets a good amount of exposure among the wealthier folks around here. Naturally, I went in looking for knives.

And they had some.

Several new Microtech Combat Troodons and even an NIB Extrema Ratio RAO, for just $99 each!

Obviously, these were typical, common fakes, and I was a little miffed by their presence in the storefront. When I leaned over the glass to take a closer look, the attendant asked me if I'd like to hold any of the knives. I told him I don't have any interest in counterfeit goods and walked out.

I'm not sure if there's anything else I should be doing in this situation (Do I contact the authorities? Do I call and ask to speak to management and voice my displeasure?), but if you're ever in the North Florida area, it's probably best you skip this seedy shop. Maybe this kind of thing is actually pretty common for pawn shops, but it was a little bit shocking to see these fakes front and center in my town.

 

[Seals]

Did they take them in pawn or are they intentionally buying new fakes to resell?You should have had a discussion with him.They (pawnbrokers) know a little about everything,but certainly don't focus on cutlery.I prefer they know as little as possible so you can snatch a bargain out of pawn once in a while.But most of them are full of China made junk now.

 

[Magnaminous_G]

Ahh... something up my alley. First things first: how confident are you that those knives are fake? The pawn shop people might be ignorant about the value. If you got a good look and you are sure they are selling fakes, then you have three possibilities.

1. Tell the manager that you doubt the authenticity of those knives and you believe they may be counterfeit.
2. Tell the real knife maker about it.
3. Contact the national IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) Center: http://www.iprcenter.gov/referral/.

You could do any of those, none of them, or all three of them, frankly. It sounds like this is something you care about, so maybe you feel it's justified to contact the knife maker and the feds. (you can make reports to the national IPR Center anonymously, just FYI) As far as confronting the manager, well... that's up to you how you do that. Sometimes the "soft sell" works, sometimes the hard sell works.

 

[CombatGrappler]

Heck, you should have asked to talk to the manager right then. A genuine face-to-face airing of concerns gets a lot more traction than "just another bored guy on the phone, looking for something to gripe about." Retail managers get so many complaint phone calls that they usually say just enough to get the person off the phone and then forget about it.

A local pawn shop chain just branched out to my town earlier this year, and they have had knock off Cold Steel knives in the case from day one. On the other hand, I stopped by one of their other locations and scored a BNIB Spyderco Micro Dyad for $40. Go figure!