People do strange things...
Kirby has the most complaints of any vacuum cleaner company. Their uneducated distributors and criminal laden sales force is by far part of the downfall of vacuum dealers. That said, Kirby will finance almost anyone. You can pay $35 per month for any number of months, and they will do that to close a sale. A lot of people who cannot afford a Kirby and should not be buying a Kirby ending up paying monthly payments for one.
I used to buy "repoed" Rainbow and Kirby vacuum cleaners that the local finance companies would take back after a customer stopped paying. Just last week a lady couldn't afford the cloth bags for her Sentria, so I sold her a three pack of paper bags and she even scoffed at that price.
The business side of a pawn shop includes people who are desperate for quick money. Albeit, some people use a pawn shop to liquidate old items- but the main user is hard up for cash and in an immediate need. It is not common to walk into a pawn shop and find unheard of deals on vacuum cleaners.
When I was in college, I used to rely heavily on marketing high end refurbs on eBay for extra money and one of the main "suppliers" were pawn shops. Most of them in the state had me on speed dial. A lot of eBay salespeople still look to pawn shops to supply them with some vacuums.
I will say, the best three buys I ever made at a pawn shop was a $1300 coffee bean roaster for $5 (they had no clue what it was), a baritone horn for $125- inside of the music compartment of the large case was a new Fox Oboe in its case (oboe and baritone sold for $2400 between both), and a Bach Strad. Mt Vernon vintage trumpet for $25 (sold for $1600)
PS: If anyone has a '59 Cadillac Eldo for sale, I'll pay you $35 per month...
