Pawn Shops: Has anyone found good deals?

Roojam · #1 03-30-2013, 04:49 PM

Hello folks, I have a buddy who is thinking of looking in pawn shops for a used, nice "spare" dread for a (cheap) price. Has anyone here found any good deals in these places?

JLS · #2 03-30-2013, 04:51 PM

Over the decades? You bet!

Dan Carey · #3 03-30-2013, 05:09 PM

In the past ten years, I've found ONE good deal. A Larrivee D-03R that was badly dried out, but not yet damaged. Available for about half of its market value. Everything else I've seen was priced at about twice market value.

Alexander Coe · #4 03-30-2013, 05:21 PM

I wonder who shops there. Always seems like a rip off, but they have nice guitars! They must be doing something with that overpriced inventory.

wooglins · #5 03-30-2013, 05:49 PM

My experience with pawn shops has been that they either have no concept of what guitars are worth, or just have a clientele of fools that are willing to pay far over market value.

I went to look at what seemed very promising, as Taylor 514, and it was in very very bad shape. The shop had listed it on CL and said it was in "pristine condition". The price would have been in the ballpark if it had been in even decent shape. They asked what I would give for it, I told them, and they politely said they had more in it than that.

All of that being said, I am sure there are some good deals out there. I live in Nashville, so that may be why I never find them. The used prices at the Nashville GC are also far out of whack. Many times they are selling used Martins and Taylors for more than I can buy either new from one of the forum sponsors.

gjz · #6 03-30-2013, 05:56 PM

414ce 2005 listed for 1099 left the store for 700 plus tx. There is a little pick wear but it is narrow (to me I take it as whoever played it before had a consistent strum). I have friends that have worn holes so again wasn't a biggy.

Westy · #7 03-30-2013, 06:07 PM

A local pawn shop to me has nothing but lousy guitars at grossly inflated prices mostly. I offered him $700 aud on a very nice white 5 yr old Mexican strat but he insisted it was worth $1k even after I showed him ads for new ones worth less than that. He has dropped the price to $950 now but I don't think it's worth $600 bucks.

stardot · #8 03-30-2013, 06:25 PM

Used to be able to find a deal now and then, but it's much more rare to do so now. With Internet access they know what they have, and there are a lot more buyers as well.

Pitar · #9 03-30-2013, 07:58 PM

I've never set foot in one. My shoes are too nice.

Bridgepin · #10 03-30-2013, 08:40 PM

I like to check them out when I have a chance, for the most part though I have found there prices to be to high, but if you are willing to negotiate you can come out with a good deal sometimes

edman · #11 03-30-2013, 09:03 PM

No.

The pawn shops in my area price guitars high.

You can do much better on eBay or craigslist.

Malty · #12 03-30-2013, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stardot

?.. With Internet access they know what they have...

Yep. All my first guitars came from pawn shops. But that was before the Internet. Then buying, selling and trading could produce real bargains depending on who was the most hungry. Now the Internet is the new "blue book".

Recent forays into pawn shops trying to rekindle the romance of my youth has found only a waste land of overpriced garden variety instruments.

fazool · #13 03-30-2013, 09:13 PM

I have very aggressively been scouring for a good deal, preferably one that needs a little TLC.

Pawn shops, it seems, are wildly out of their gourd. For example,

This is currently listed on eBay from a pawn shop :

A Taylor 514ce

There is a large dent in the back as seen in photos, as well as a crack on the top all the way from the bridge to the end of the guitar -- 7 inches.

It has another deep serious crack where the amplifier cord plugs into the guitar

In addition to the hole in the back it has another long crack on the back of the guitar about 4 1/2 inches long. It has another 2 inch crack on the side of the guitar....It has some other dents and dings. I may have missed something else.

They are asking $799

There is a local pawnshop selling a very used Dean PF-TRD. I was thinking of this for my daughter. It has dings all over it. Scratches in the gloss all over, a nick in the headstock and the volume slider is extremely scratchy. Brand new they are $279, this joker wants $210 for his beat up one.

Pawn shops are either clueless or just glad to prey on some clueless customer.

sneaky · #14 03-30-2013, 09:33 PM

Theres only one mom and pop pawn place in the downtown area of this Japanese city, they`ve been replaced by chain type pawn dealers now...and I go into the only one around at least once a week and have found some great deals over the years. How do you know what they have unless you go in and look?

lubbockguy1979 · #15 03-31-2013, 01:14 AM

A couple of years back I scored a nothing special silvertone strat copy guitar for $15+tax. Great beater guitar for rock smith and smaller less responsible children. About a month ago I picked up a nice 2007 epiphone dove for $170 bucks. It was really a great little guitar. Now pretty much anything martin, gibson or taylor and they think it is gold. Dosent matter how rough they are they was $5 under msrp.