Heirlooms, gold teeth --- desperate people are selling whatever it takes to get by - Eloisa Ruano Gonzalez, Orlando Sentinel, FL
'It's just stuff,' said McCracken, a 37-year-old mother of three, who sold a gold-and-diamond ring her mother gave her when she was a senior in high school for about $20 to pay for gas. 'We have to do what we have to do to keep a roof over our heads.'
People are using online classifieds, auction Web sites and pawnshops to convert iPhones, wedding rings, video-gaming systems and other things into cash. Pawnbrokers nationwide are seeing an increase in unusual items — an indicator that people are desperate to sell whatever they have. Pawnbrokers have turned away people trying to sell prosthetic legs, pets and swimming pools, while accepting saddles, stilts and Civil War memorabilia.