Pawn shop profit margins: what the public chains actually report
Most pages on pawn shop margins give a number without saying where it came from. Two pawn operators are public companies and report their margins to the SEC every year. Here is what they report, what it does and does not tell an independent shop, and how to work out your own.
The short answer
FirstCash, the largest U.S. pawn operator, reported a 42% gross margin on retail merchandise sales in the U.S. in both 2025 and 2024. EZCORP, the second largest, reported 37% for its U.S. pawn stores in fiscal 2025 (the year to September 30, 2025).
Gold and jewelry sold for scrap earn far less. Scrap is priced by the metal market, not by a customer at the counter, so there is little room between what you paid and what the refiner pays.
| Measure | FirstCash, U.S., 2025 | EZCORP, U.S. pawn, fiscal 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Merchandise sales gross margin | 42% | 37% |
| Scrap jewelry margin | About 15% (our calculation: $152.1M sales, $129.9M cost) | 27% |
| Inventory turns in the year | 2.8 times | 2.2 times (2.6 the year before) |
| Aged stock | 1.8% of inventory older than one year | 2.2% of general merchandise counted as aged |
| Pawn fees, as filed | "4% to 25% per month" (all regions) | 12% to 25% per month |
FirstCash figures are from its 2025 Form 10-K; EZCORP figures from its fiscal 2025 results release and Form 10-K. Links are under Sources.
Margin is not markup
Margin is profit as a share of the sale price. Markup is profit as a share of what you paid. They describe the same sale with different numbers, and mixing them up is an easy way to misread how a shop is doing.
- Buy a drill for $40 and sell it for $70: $30 profit. Margin is 30 ÷ 70 = 43%. Markup is 30 ÷ 40 = 75%.
- A 42% margin is the same as a markup of about 72% on cost (0.42 ÷ 0.58).
- A 50% margin is a 100% markup: you sold it for double what you paid.
Where a pawn shop’s money comes from
A pawn shop earns in two ways: fees on loans, and profit on what it sells. The chains depend on the loan side more than people expect. FirstCash reports that pawn loan fees were 46% of its consolidated net revenue in 2025. EZCORP reports that pawn service charges were about 37% of its revenue and 64% of its gross profit in fiscal 2025.
The two sides are linked. When a loan is not redeemed, the item goes to your floor, and its cost is what you lent on it. FirstCash’s filing describes exactly this: forfeited collateral is moved into inventory at the principal amount of the loan. So every loan amount written at the counter is also a future purchase price.
What the chains’ numbers mean for an independent shop
EZCORP describes the industry as a few large operators plus independent operators owning a small number of stores, primarily one to three locations. The National Pawnbrokers Association puts the U.S. total at about 7,771 pawn stores, most of them family-owned (it cites IBISWorld, September 2024).
Treat the chains’ margins as a reference point, not a target. Three things make yours different:
- Mix. Jewelry was 62% of FirstCash’s U.S. inventory. A shop heavy in tools, electronics or guns will have a different blend of margins.
- Buys against forfeits. An outright buy costs what you paid; a forfeit costs what you lent. The two often carry very different margins in the same category.
- Aged stock. The chains report aged stock of about 2% of inventory. Aged stock that is never marked down holds margin on paper while the cash stays tied up, so a margin figure means little without it.
How to measure your own margin
- Export your sales for the last twelve months, with cost, sale price, category and the date each item came in.
- Take scrap out. It is a different business with a different margin, and it hides the floor’s real number.
- Work out margin by category: (sale price − cost) ÷ sale price, summed across the category.
- Split each category into buys and forfeits if your system records which is which.
- Do the same by the employee who wrote the ticket. A buyer far below the others is usually paying too much.
An overall margin can look healthy while one category or one buyer quietly loses money. The category and buyer views are where the fixes are.
Doing it without a spreadsheet
PawnCounter reads the sales or inventory export your POS already makes and shows margin by category, brand and buyer, with scrap kept apart. The free Profit X-Ray shows the headline numbers for your shop; see plans for the full breakdowns. It works alongside your POS; nothing changes at the counter.
Sources
See these numbers for your own shop.
Upload a sales or inventory export from the POS you already run. The Profit X-Ray is free, needs no card, and is ready in minutes.