Pawn Shops are really dumb sometimes, lucky me!!!

I wish i could find high end knives at pawn shops in my area. The only thing your finding here are nintendo 64, game cubes and mtechs. What a combo.
 
Tripletap1 said:
I saw some old rough Compound bows there, I asked if they ever get Recurves, the broker said that Recurves have no value, and turns them away all the time so I gave him my # and asked if he could call me anytime a Recurve walks into the shop. ;)
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I was young and dumb once and went to pawn a knife a spyderco from seki japan and the guy was like training some girl. I think he offered me 3 or 5 dollars. and he was telling her yeah anything from china or japan is crap and the best knives are made in germany or usa.
 
Flea markets and yard sales! Picked up a decent Kershaw Skyline out of a box of junkers for $5.00. Few weeks later and different vendor, asked how much the knives in this box were..."$1.00 apiece". Almost pulled a gut trying to get out a dollar for kinda beat up Bench made Griptillian!
 
I do not think i have ever seen a pawn shop here
Plenty of flea markets though, mostly selling stuff like wood clocks, 1 cent glasses and dragon statues
 
Didn't get it from a pawn shop exactly, but let's call it a friend who collects guns, and his gun/knife go to guy who DOES hit up pawn shops. I've gotten a Benchmade Presidio Auto for $30, it was well used but the mechanism and blade were in great condition. Also got a brand new ESEE 6 which I still have and love, to the tune of $55. I've bought Kershaw Leeks from yard sales for $1 apiece, stripped them down, cleaned them and given them away to family. I've given away dozens upon dozens of Victorinox SAKs in the PIF threads after buying them for I think $0.25-$0.50 each?

What I really love is finding an old machete or scythe and restoring it to working condition. I cut my teeth on busted old machetes from the Dominican Republic that I sanded and sharpened back up after just finding them in barns. Ah man, nostalgia.
 
I am one of those guys that doesn't have access to the fabulous pawn shops. They guys here know their business, and if they have questions they go right to the computer and search for the product on Google, Amazon, then Ebay.

If they are still in doubt, they won't pay but a few cents on the dollar. As mentioned, years ago you could get some good deals on different items, not just knives. No longer. Around here they sell the items with finance package. As far knives go, you are better off buying retail.

I quit the pawn shops years ago when I noticed that shop after shop was at or near retail. As for knives and such, the guys at the pawn shops here don't buy junk unless it is brand spanking new. Gotta feed the mall ninjas. As for the good knives, they wind up on Ebay where they can be viewed by millions and get a much better price than sitting in case waiting for a particular seller to come along.

Robert
 
Yep. The Internet has pretty much killed any good deals at pawn shops and antique stores around here. Anything decent that I have seen in probably the last ten years has been within 10-20% of what you would consider a premium price. And has driven up the price of stuff that is sometimes way out of whack. Last week I found a Japanese made Premier peanut at an antique store. These used to be well made little knives. Guy wanted $40 for it. Which might have been close to a reasonable price for a minty one with a desirable scale material. But this one had half the main blade ground down for "sharpening". I suggested that he probably wouldn't get his price. He sniffed and informed me that peanuts are "very collectible".

And that was just a place where they had anything at all. The Nanton/Clareshome used to be a good place to find knives, axes, and other tools, but these days there are enterprising retirees that comb the antique stores, pawnshops, flea markets, garage sales, and estate auctions. They buy up all of the good stuff and sell it for top dollar online. Which is exactly what I would do if I had the time - except that I would keep the best stuff for myself - so good on then, but it makes the possibility of finding spectacular bargain perishingly small.
 
I used to work about 3 blocks from a pretty high end pawn shop. Very well ran place, even clean if you can believe that. Anyway I started going in and looking around on my lunch break just to get out of the office. Found several good deals over a three year period. Just have to be in the right place at the right time.
 
Tripletap1 said:
?..my Cold Steel Recon Tanto,...they would not take it.
The broker told me they only take high-quality American knives, I looked at their display case and it was full of "Winchesters", "S&W's", and two pretty beat up "SOGs". Lol!!
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That speaks volumes about the influence of successful pass marketing campaigns, having made considerable deep impressions with just the stamp of a brand name alone on any product. A fine example of induced Customer loyalty at it's best.
 
I believe you. I worked at a pawn shop for a couple years and I got some good deals. Sog flash 2 $10 Gerber silver trident $60 Bark River Hudson Bay $50 are the only ones coming to mind right now.
 
Fortunately, my experiences in pawn shops have only been out of morbid curiosity and not out of necessity...the prices on some things are comical, reminds me of cheaper than dirt about 18 month ago...

I hate gun control, but I really wish that they would stop issuing FFLs to pawn shops...but that's beside the point.
 
That's great. There's all kinds of deals in pawn shops if you know where to look. I remember 5 years ago I bought super Mario brothers for the nitendo new in the box from a pawn shop for 5 dollars, resold it for $350 less than a few hours latter.
 
I try to hit my pawn shop before they start trolling the internet-- like so many others my pawn shop is a smart business, and instead of leaving good items in the case to be found, they just put them on ebay themselves after a few weeks. If you can get in there when they are doing inventory and make them a cash offer, they will usually give you a good deal.

Cash talks and I love to haggle, so I think you can still get a good deal out of the modern pawn shop, you just gotta recognize the internet age and its part in all of this, as so many posters have said.

that being said I did find a mint condition smith and wesson 27-2 at my local pawn and bought for 500 cash, to me this is a steal, 27-2 is one of the finest revolvers ever, and this one shot like a dream when I got it home.
 
Can't say Ive stole any but I did grab a japan made CS large voyager for $30 last summer.

I did however pick up a pristine Norinco 84s with 7 magazines for $500 in 2012. He had five or so wasrs with two mags for $650 and when I spotted the china doll I ask him to hand it to me and he said.. "Oh this one? It's made in china. I do have 7 magazines for it that wont fit the other ak's though" I about broke my arm pulling my wallet out :)
 
I haunt the pawn shops searching for tools,firearms, blades that can be bought at a bargain - Most of the time, I strike out. Some days I can luck into what I think is okay. Just recently I purchased a collection of six Case large @corelon handled trappers in excellent unused condition for $30 each. Last month, I scored an old mint U.S. pilot's orange auto knife with the para cord cutter.
Deals can be found...image.jpg
 
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I love haggling in pawn shops, unfortunately, there isn't much left to haggle over these days. I've had more luck at flea markets and junk shops.
 
I cover 5 states for work and part of the fun after work is finding pawn shops. I found a pair of first gen enduras on great shape for $5 each also a new in box mini grip for $36.
 
I think all the cheap Chinese copies of quality knives are helping to "fool" pawn brokers into thinking they have junk sometimes, after you see 1700 Spyderco knockoffs if you don't know what you are doing, a real Spydie might slip past you.
 
Walked into my local pawn shop on a whim a couple weeks ago and scored a benchmade volli for $10 and a 530 for $8!!!
 
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