Pawn Shop?

B

beachcops69

Joined
Jul 12, 2022
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4
I was a frequent pawn shop enthusiast for some years but it has been awhile since I regularly checked inventory at local shops. Around 5-6 years ago, I noticed that the volume of quality knives etc. had gone down significantly. I figured this may have been due to more people getting into the hobby, and easily researching which knives were worth something so they can resell. Did anyone else notice the same?

Also, for anyone that still frequents pawn shops- Do you find gems very often? If so, drop some photos below!! Seeing people's scores may motivate me to get back out there.

P.S. I apologize if this has been covered in the past, but this is my first post on BF.
 
I gave up, because the pawn shops I have been in are always just full of overpriced crap sold by sleazy jerks. Cheap pakistani Rambo knives, Chinese wobbly swiss army knives, "X-TREME SURVIVAL TACTICAL ZOMBIE" knives etc. It isnt even worth going in for the most part.:(
Welcome to bladeforums! :thumbsup: :)
 
Pawn Shops are generally a bad place to do business. Last resort if you need cash. Some do consignment.

Rich K.
 
I stop by antique stores alot, and they put "antique pricing" on everything. I feel like if they just drop prices to something reasonable they can move 400% more volume lol.

Anyway...I occasionally find old bucks, SAKs, kabars etc. Nothing that good.

I was in NE CT one time and saw a vintage ZT with box for 150$, but the guy wanted cash only (I was short 145$ lol). The closest ATM was about 30m away. I waited and came back 2 weeks later and it was gone...

Thrift stores will have better priced stuff, but more junk to go through. I was in the Adirondacks and just so happen to run across a Saturday thrift shop event. Found some really nicely maintained chef knives and cleavers that I cleaned up and gave away....I think I payed 23$ or something for 6 knives.
 
Dergyll said:
I stop by antique stores alot, and they put "antique pricing" on everything. I feel like if they just drop prices to something reasonable they can move 400% more volume lol.

Anyway...I occasionally find old bucks, SAKs, kabars etc. Nothing that good.

I was in NE CT one time and saw a vintage ZT with box for 150$, but the guy wanted cash only (I was short 145$ lol). The closest ATM was about 30m away. I waited and came back 2 weeks later and it was gone...

Thrift stores will have better priced stuff, but more junk to go through. I was in the Adirondacks and just so happen to run across a Saturday thrift shop event. Found some really nicely maintained chef knives and cleavers that I cleaned up and gave away....I think I payed 23$ or something for 6 knives.
Click to expand...
Yeah, there's an antiques store in Corinth MS that I always find some really cool old knives. Good reminder about bringing cash, I bet that one hurt.
 
I gave up years ago on finding anything worthwhile in the used market. I got a good leg up on how much I was wasting my time when a friend of mine did some consulting work for an estate sale company. He told me the estate selling company called up to three companies that came out to the estate and put in a bid on knives, guns and military memorabilia and they sold before any public sale started. Thinking back, I realized I never saw any guns for sale, and if I did see a knife it was just an old folder or two.

Once he was established with the estate sellers in our area, they told him the coin collections, stamp collections, battle field artifacts, precious metals, and all the heavy tools (expensive table saws, expensive drill presses, lathes, and other stationary tools) were sold before the sale when public. It explained a lot about why I spent so much time looking around on a few Saturdays and only found a few old broken folders or cheap fixed blades. (Sorry to any fans, but old Colonial or Sabre brand knives have no interest to me.)

Since most of the small towns around San Antonio TX where I live are tourist havens, as mentioned above any piece of cutlery (including a rusty Old Hickory knife) are priced as rarely found artifacts of Texas culture. Nothing like seeing a large CASE Stockman that is about 10 years old (and quite pocket/blade worn) for $150. Even more, some of those old ZIPPO collectables that had "Texas" or "John Wayne" on them were just absurdly priced. I don't even bother to look anymore.
 
I think most people would rather Buy and Sell via eBay or the like.
Most local pawn shops are full of stolen tools and outdated electronics.

On one occasion I found a Browning A5 20 gauge in a pawn shop for $200, I let my friend buy it because I had just bought one about a year prior and he got one hell of a deal. I’ve bought a couple other firearms at pawn shops but not for deals like that.

Once (a LONG time ago) I ordered the cutlery corner 100 Frost knives for $100 deal, I took the 5 fixed blades that came in the bundle and sold them to a pawn shop for $50.
 
I used to enjoy "pawn hopping" a few years ago. I would manage a decent purchase from time to time with things like a custom Buck 110 in buffalo horn for $30 or a Blue Benchmade 940 for $50. Like you though, the last few years have been sparse when it comes to decent blades for sale. I think it is like what you said that many people can now check online to see what their knife is worth or maybe, people are finally starting to appreciate a quality blade (probably not likely). For me, the issue I was running into was that many of the shops where inundated with counterfeits or overpriced and well used knives. This has been compounded by the fact that many of the nicer pawn shops have shut down in my area.
 
Like anything else factor in your time multiply by your hourly rate add gas money. Those bargains are expensive.
 
It's everybody now, even the government auction sites have the benchmades, etc. separated from boxes of junk folders and fixed blades and alone in single auctions. Blame the internet, anybody can look up a value on anything these days in just a couple seconds.
 
The wife and I recently found a Delica 4 for $45 bucks at a pawn shop. It needed cleaned up and stopped, but otherwise it was in great shape.

If I remember right, we paid $40. She took $5 off.

And not knife related, but I did buy a Daniel Defense edition Oakley Gascans for $80. They were in near perfect shape. I don't think that was too bad a deal.
 
I found few good knives for a fraction of their cost… A Benchmade Griptilian, almost new, very nice Benchmade 420 Rezistor Snody and auto MOD vintage knife, didn’t pay more than $50-$60 for any of those…
‘But I think I just got lucky, otherwise I agree, IMO pawn shops sells overpriced non-worthy stuff
 
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