pawn shop finds

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Aug 8, 2019
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547
I've had some good luck lately at pawn shops and found some good knives at good deals. Got me wondering what everyone else has been lucky to find? So what's the best/rarest blade you've found at a pawn shop or 2nd hand store? If this is posted in the wrong section or has been done before ill notify the admin to remove, but when I searched couldnt find a similar thread

Zt 0561
Spyderco police
Cold steel recon 1
https://imgur.com/a/clwDlYk
 
how much did you pay for each??

personally I'd be really worried about clones... every time I've seen any good name brand knives at a pawn shop, they're too expensive imho to risk buying
 
$65 for the cold steel, $115 for the zt, and $85 for the Spyderco. I recently did buy a clone chris reeve from a pawn shop and have a post here about it. Luckily they let me return it when I told them. These 3 I atleast am confident are real, checked youtube and the company websites to make sure markings, steel and even boxes are correct. All 3 also came with original boxes which made me feel better
 
I've only been to a pawn shop once, in 2002. I was living in a dive apartment in southern Illinois, and loaned my neighbor my PlayStation 2 as she was babysitting. Later that day burglars broke in and stole everything from her.

Being all of 22 in a college town, I drove down to the local pawn shop a few days later to see if it had been hawked. Nope. But I got an N64 and 3 controllers for $20 bucks. Still have it, almost 20 years later, still works great.

I don't even know of a local pawn shop besides the cash for gold places. Maybe I ought to try and find one.

Good finds though.
 
Love me some Sublime. one of my favs^. Not so much shopping at pawn shops.
Everytime I try I find cheap Chinese junk.
 
Remember !
chinese are counterfeiting EVERYTHING, even chinese knives :^)))))))))
 
I agree and definitely need to be careful, the clone Chris Reeve i bought looked so real. Ive just always loved pawn shops because you never know what you're going to find, and if you're in the right area you can find some high quality stuff that people just want to get rid of.
 
Pawn shops here in the DFW area do not have many deals on anything that you might want to buy...eBay, Amazon, etc. has made it so easy to do a quick search and find a value that it is not really worth my time to even stop any more. I used to have a guy that would sell me his gold and silver for a fair price but that ended long ago.

My wife loves the antique malls but the same thing is prevalent there, maybe worse, in that everything tends to be overpriced!
 
I've had some pretty good luck at pawn shops. A Leatherman Klamath hunting knife and Juide KF4; a Kershaw Steven Seagal, NRG and Splinter; Benchmade 556 and 707; and Victorinox Swisschamp and Minichamp. Priced between $5 for the Swisschamp to $85 for the Klamath.
 
Pawn shops here in the DFW area do not have many deals on anything that you might want to buy...eBay, Amazon, etc. has made it so easy to do a quick search and find a value that it is not really worth my time to even stop any more. I used to have a guy that would sell me his gold and silver for a fair price but that ended long ago.

My wife loves the antique malls but the same thing is prevalent there, maybe worse, in that everything tends to be overpriced!

Don’t knock it. Things were much worse before the internet. Back then if you ran into a desirable rare item, you paid the price because you might not run into another one like it in 20 years.

n2s
 
I used to haunt a few pawn shops looking for tools for work and of course, anything with an edge on it. Occasionally I would find a tool, maybe just for parts, but something I could use. The knives I saw in the shops were in horrible shape and were for the most part, junk.

Now they are a total joke for me. The pawn shops around here sell knives and guns at higher prices than the sporting goods stores. The tools are beat to hell and cost more than they do at Home Depot, etc. Certainly more than online pricing.

I have to say, there have been times here than folks have posted some excellent pawn shop finds and made me think I am living in the wrong city!

Robert
 
Rare to find a good knife, good as in still life left in it, or decent quality. I did find three good Case knives.
 
I don't bother going to pawn shops. As others have said, the prices are beyond unreasonable. I have to wonder how they sell anything.
 
I don't bother going to pawn shops. As others have said, the prices are beyond unreasonable. I have to wonder how they sell anything.
That depends entirely on where you are and whether you have a relationship with the pawn brokers. I had about 5 or 6 shops I frequented when I lived in Denver and I scored some absolutely amazing knives at ridiculous prices. Helps that it was Spyderco country.
 
Ive seen a bunch of BM and ZT at pawn shops but never purchased them. I hunt for good deals on silver coins. The key to buying at pawnshops is haggling. They never pay much for a item and have negotiated 50% off at times. They're always willing to haggle.
 
50+ years ago, when I lived in D.C. and they had pawn shops, I stopped by one close to where I lived and found a Randall Arkansas Toothpick (leather handle/brass guard/aluminum pommel) in excellent condition for $24! Nearly ripped pants getting wallet out. Now pawn shops are a waste of time IMHO. Mostly junkers or old busted knives beyond repair. The Randall was my only good pawn shop find. I don't bother with them now.
Rich
 
I remember talking to a guy that had a stall in an antique mall outside the Vegas strip, about 11 years ago. He had a box o' knives, mostly junk from offshore. I came home with an early Klein splicing knife (single coping blade) for a fee bucks, and there was an early Leatherman PST for a few more. 15 dollars in total, I think. I don't frequent pawn shops, antique malls, or garage and estate sales, because most cutlery i have found looks in rough shape, or is priced near MSRP. I just don't bother anymore. Not to mention that, even after radically downsizing, I still have more knives on hand than I want, or can use in a lifetime.
 
I agree with the pricing being too high to start but like was mentioned, you can haggle and thats how I've gotten my deals. Relationship also really helps, the ones i frequent know what I'm looking for and that I come by weekly to check, they'll hold what they think ill like until they see me again, thats how I got all the ones i started the thread posting about
 
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