I work in a Pawn Shop in the second biggest ghetto in Bulgaria AMA!

What % of customers are wearing track suits?

Hahha not many, most of our clients are pretty slick. They wear fake italian designer clothes like Versache D&G, Armany

What is your favourite video game and why isn't it Burnout 3: Takedown?

Im a huge fan of Dota2 have alot of fun whenpaying Civ 5 also

What are your thoughts on Russian players? Cyka

I have alot of fun with them, ez to make them rage. I prefer russian to bulgarian player though

Ruski's are getting better. The influx of players coming from the Middle-East worries me more.

Say that to Smail

Dude. Civ 5 all the way. If you are into longer games like that and by chance like city builders, you should check out Cities: Skylines. I've stuck so much time into it without even noticing. It's great.

EDIT: I syuck at English apperently

my friend is tring to recrute me to play it, will givee it a try

DOTA 2 REPRESENT!Who's your favorite hero?!

Dont have one, currently i enjoy bashing pub games with lina

What would be the weirdest transaction you have ever had? Both buy & sell?

My colleague recently bought an Urn where they put your ash when you get cremated, I am pretty sure it was used. But other than that we only deal with items that can sell quick, like gold, silver, laptops, cellphones etc. Weirdest item we are sellin right now is a horse seat worth like 3k

I can't imagine spending 3k for a horse seat, can't it just sit on the ground?

what kind of animal cruelties are in your head sir? a horse sitting on the ground without a seat, what kind of monster are you

One of us, One of us!!

Horse seat = saddle?

Equine throne

The one all the horses of Westeros are fighting over?

They neigh or they die.

valar horseatus

Did you ever get offered sexual favors as payment?

More often we get the offers for free.

call me a hater but this guy's boring af....

u work in the run of the mill pawn shop from what you've told us, you don't buy or sell anything weird or cool, and i don't give a fuck that you probably slept with every hooker in the red light district.

is it me or is this Ama pathetic lol

Nah dont hate the guy, I am telling you information first hand of a buissiness that is often misunderstood. Here is an Upvote, hope you are happy

Did you ever have to deal with a robbery? If so, how did you handle it?

Note: I hope you didn't or ever do, I'm just curious.

Robbery no, the pawn shop is pretty secure and if someone robs it we will find him really quick. Everyone knows everyone here. The biggest robbery we had was 1 month ago, an employee stole like 3 grand and dissapeard.

if someone robs it we will find him really quick

an employee stole like 3 grand and dissapeard

By robs i meant people come armed and take whatever they can take. The employee who stole from us, dissapeared and left town. The police has all his data and are going to find him eventually.

Cool. How do you like Plovdiv? I met a girl on vacation last year who studies in plovdiv. We still talk to each other about every day. She talks about going to sunny beach all the time wherever that is

Plovdiv is the best place to live in Bulgaria, in my opinion. People are warm, funny and the weather is great. And sunny beach is the shitwhole of Bulgaria, great party destination for tourist because of cheap alcohol and drugs.

Lol what's the best part of Plovdiv? Something I can ask her about.. I wonder if she would be familiar

Edit: she said, "who is this gipsy"

Ask her about Plazma, if she goest there your mate is a junkie

Haha she said she's been there but its boring for her because shes not "drug peoples"

Good creature, old town is realy nice if you are in Plovdiv visit it.

What are you doing to make it the 3rd biggest ghetto?

drive buys

So you purchase cars?

Of course we purchase cars, dont you watch Pawn Stars?

What are the dangers in your area of Stolipinovo? How happy are people you meet, in general? How respectful or disrespectful?

The area is populated with gypsies and since most of them are unemplyed they pawn their gold in order to make ends meet. So far my observation gives me the idea that they are pretty happy, although they are poor as mice. In cultural aspect they are pretty far behind but they are generally good people. They are respecfull to our institution becase we give them money, other than that i dont reccomend you walking at night in Stolipinovo.

So they're alright if you're actively giving them money, just don't go out at night of you'll still give them money?

one way or another they get the cash

What is Viktor Krum like in real life?

Head he became a total douche after the hp movie

Are you like American pawn shops that almost never do pawns, or do you do a lot of actual loans?

Good question. we mostly do loans because it is more profitable. People get misguided because of the show Pawn Stars because they buy unique items, but without the consult of speciallist most pawns shops deal only with elecronics and gold

Do you have anything similar to American laws wherein you cannot accept stolen items? Do you require an identification for transactions?

We usually avoid getting stolen goods because the police checks pawn shops for them. But its a risk, you have to ask the person the right questions if the items doesnt have the neccesary paperwork

Your English is good. Is English standard in the Balkans? Can all the young people read, write and speak it?

Cant tell you about all the balkans, but in bulgaria most young people speak and write english well. I myself have studied in a foreign languadge high school .

1) It's been a few years since you guys joined the EU. Do you think life is better or worse?

2) What would be an average wage for someone working in a coffee shop versus someone working in an office job?

3) What's the best or worst thing about living/working in Stolipinovo?

1)Cant really rember what was like before joining EU, but everyone says that life was better. 2)Depends who and where you work for. A waitress job differs between 400-800lv, office job is about the same. Bigger cities offer higher payment. 3)Worse thing is you are woring in the dirties neighbourhood in town, best thing is i get to know how minorities live in bulgaria from first hand.

that's $220-440/month

Thats the average salary, not are the many privilaged to it. There are people living with 60$ a month here

It's interesting you provide figures in LEV rather than EUR. Do you deal with both currencies on a day to day basis? Also, as a basis for comparison, what is the local price for a Big Mac meal?

Only in Levs. All our offices have Moneygram and Western Union but the foreign currencies get transfered to lev

I was in Bulgaria last year to climb Musala and visit the Rila Monastery as well as Sofia. I thought it was a very beautiful country and never encountered anything that made me feel unsafe. I was thinking about coming back sometime, what would be the best places to visit? What places should be avoided?

Go to Veliko Turnovo, beutifull place. Or if you are into Mountain climbing and tourism walk the Kom-Emine path, crosses all of Stara Planina

Are gypsies as bad as they say?

Even worse, but thats how they are raised and thats how they are treated by others, they live day for day and are happy. I have high hopes for younger generation, because they have started to get more intigrated with modern society.

Do you get robbed often? Also, what's the grossest thing anybody ever tried to sell you?

A desk PC, on the outside the box looked pretty good. Great parameters and everything, but when i opened the PC it was filled with rubbish, dust and dead animals. Felt like Deadmau5. Edit : never been robbed, hope it stays that way

Heh, gross. Did you try to salvage it?

Ofcourse, cleaned it up, worked fine, sold it few days later

So what's life in Bulgaria like?

Can answer the question becasue you have to come and see. Life here is sweet. There are many beutifull palces, beutifull women and people are free to do whatever they want without any harsh punishment. But also life here sucks hard, due to poverty, coruption and many more.

What was the most profitable transaction you've ever made?

sold some drilling eqipment with 300% profit

How are the police around there? Good, bad, ugly, corrupt?

The po po doesnt come in this part of town

What are the most common items that you reject.

What is the funniest/most interesting item you rejected?

Old beatup phones with cracked displays, its so funny when people try to convince you nothing is wrong with them

What kind of market do you put on items?

And if you offer loans, How often do they get paid off?

Depends on the items. If it is some kind of electrical item we find out the price of it second hand and we give 50 % of it. But we often offer our regular clients more money in order to keep them coming. The price of gold depends on the market, our policy is to offer the best prices and lowest interests, so that our clients dont loose their items. I can give you rough information that 30% of pawned items dont get paid off

define ghetto?

ghetto

Shit man, what's with the pink crib on the path?

do you mean the school ?

They were talking about this.

Shhh, the baby is sleeping

Might some of these cars be stolen?

Nope, pretty sure that the owners have bought them legit.

Favorite thing there (ever) that came in.

Any cool guitars?

Funniest thing someone tried to pawn/sell.

This girl came once with her pet turtle. Didnt take it

I have a question, since Bulgaria is in the EU, do you feel like a lot of skilled people are leaving the country for greener pastures?

Not a feeling, this is 100% true. Doctors, teachers every profesion that shapes society what it is is dissapearing in bulgaria. Every young will grab an opportunity to leave Bulgaria for a better wage somewhere in Europe or Us,

I was in Plovdiv a few years ago, while recovering food poisoning(fuck you Istanbul). I remember it as a pretty nice place. My question is; to what level is organized crime involved in day to day businesses like yours? Everyone would always joke about the mob having to do with everything, but I never knew how much of that was true.

The mob has evolved, way beyond pawn shops and dept collectors. They run the country now.

Jock Palfreemans case is a travesty and a miscarriage of justice. How was it portrayed in Bulgaria?

Never heard of it, but accidents like that happen all the time in Bulgaria.