What is the difference between a pawn shop and a pawn loan?

What do you need to do before going to a pawn shop?

• I have decided to sell some jewelery and an old olympus camera to my local pawn shop. I have never been to one before and do not know what to expect. I have the jewelery separated in baggies by category: earrings, pendants, bracelets, etc. Some of the jewelery is silver, some is yellow gold and some is white gold. They are not separated by metal. Should they be? What about the stuff that the writing is so small I can't even tell if it it's gold, silver, or something else. Some of the jewelery is diamond, while other is CZ. This stuff was bought over years and years and I now don't know which is the real stuff and which is fake. Do you think they would rip me off and tell me something is CZ when it's really diamond? Also, the jewelery is all used and some of it is tarnished. Do I need to clean it myself before bringing it to the pawn shop? I don't have any silver cleaner but I saw online that using basking soda dissolved in hot water cleans silver. I've never cleaned my jewelery before - besides just hot water and a tooth brush. Is cleaning it before bringing it to a pawn shop necessary? I understand that I will get very little for what I'm bringing in but the jewelery hardly gets used and I really need the cash asap to pay bills. Also, do you get cash the same day as you bring jewelery in to be sold? I plan to sell the jewelery, not pawn it or loan it.

• Answer:

  I would actually suggest taking it into a jewelry store... They will buy it... pawn shops will never pay very much as they are in the business for making as much money as possible.