There was one woman who thought her shiny hair straighteners were solid gold,” says Lin Head, a pawnbroker of more than 10 years. “That was a bit of a strange one.
“We get a lot of teeth too. People think they’re solid gold but they’re filled with enamel – they take them out in the shop and we just have to politely say ‘can you pop them back in please’.
“Then there’s the fake watches, the ones you buy on holiday. People bring them in thinking they are real and we have to tell them that, unfortunately, they’re not genuine.
“The reactions you get when you break that sort of news vary: some people storm out and others just chuckle and go ‘yeah, I thought as much’.”