# What are your thoughts on pawn shops?



## sunshowers (Apr 10, 2008)

I've always thought of pawn shops as really shady places, but I read some stories on another forum about people making terrific guitar finds at pawn shops and it piqued my curiosity. 

Has anyone here ever found a real gem at a pawn shop? If so, were you deterred by ethical concerns, or did you snap it up? Any recommendations for good shops in the Vancouver area?


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

sunshowers said:


> I've always thought of pawn shops as really shady places, but I read some stories on another forum about people making terrific guitar finds at pawn shops and it piqued my curiosity.
> 
> Has anyone here ever found a real gem at a pawn shop? If so, were you deterred by ethical concerns, or did you snap it up? Any recommendations for good shops in the Vancouver area?


We've all heard those stories, but I've never found anything worthwhile in a pawn shop. I'm sure it happens, but is pretty rare...especially now in the age of evilbay and CL, it's so easy to check what things will sell for and just sell it privately. Still, I'm sure there are likely to still be good finds, but is it worth your time? As for ethical concerns, I presume you mean stolen goods? There are certainly a bunch of shady-looking places in Vancouver down along granville and out the east end. I'd be more worried about what I'd catch in some of those places than what I'd find ;-)


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## Ship of fools (Nov 17, 2007)

*Pawn Shops In Vancouver*

Well I could tell you to be aware, but that really wouldn't be fair to most of the shops, because of our laws dealing with past shaddy dealers, its almost impossible to buy a stolen guitar.
From what I understand is that they must sit on it for a while and the seller needs to provide a photo ID in order to sell it to them, as for good deals well lets just say stick with the dealers and the mom and pop shops, at least you can bargin on a new guitar, pawn shops seem to on average charge 10-15% more than when the guitar was new, the days of great deals are long gone.
Thanks to the computer they look everything up and then price higher so you won't ever find great deals to be had.
But hey thats just my opinion, so I guess it really depends on what you are looking for, oh by the way you are more likely to find stolen guitars on Craigs List in the lower mainland, I check everything beforte I buy and have had the pleasure of getting 2 guitars back to the right owners, the old story where someone sells you a guitar at a bar, for a great deal and then you make the mistake of listing it on Craigs List and then a jerk like me asks for the serial number and checks to see if its on a hot sheet, and if the serial number doesn't match then I walk away.Ship.........at one time you could find some good deals at the Vanc. Guitar Show at the Croatia Hall on Commercial, next one is in Nov. the last one sucked so I don't know how good this one will be coming up.


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## jimmy c g (Jan 1, 2008)

avoid pawn shops like the plauge.They give people little and take a lot.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

I have had a lot of success in pawn shops. Not so much in recent years. As mentioned on a few other threads, once eBay and the internet came into big play everyone thinks they have a 59' Les Paul on their hands. There are too many sources for people to look stuff up and many times the pricing is out of whack with reality. This in turn makes the pawn shops (that really don't know a lot about guitars) ask big sums for junk.

Back in the days when the pawn shops did not have a big reference guide like the internet you could wander into one and maybe find a fantastic deal. You still can, but those opportunities are getting less and less. The best deal I ever got was a Seagull Artist for $250.00

There is a local pawn shop in the Falls. I remember he had a Les Paul studio in there for months and months. He was asking like $1200 for it and it had that much rust on the strings and hardware that you would have had to replace all of it. he refused to budge on that price though. He eventually sold it. I guess there is a buyer for everything, if you are willing to hold out long enough.


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## devnulljp (Mar 18, 2008)

Ship of fools said:


> ...you are more likely to find stolen guitars on Craigs List in the lower mainland, I check everything beforte I buy and have had the pleasure of getting 2 guitars back to the right owners, the old story where someone sells you a guitar at a bar, for a great deal and then you make the mistake of listing it on Craigs List and then a jerk like me asks for the serial number and checks to see if its on a hot sheet, and if the serial number doesn't match then I walk away.


More info on how to look up stolen gear please. Sounds like it could come in useful. Where's the hot sheet?
Thanks


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## torndownunit (May 14, 2006)

You can still have success at them. Even the chain ones. The thing is they mostly set their prices by what they find online. So if they can't find much info on an item, you can sometimes pick it up cheap.

I have got great deals on 2 wierd old MIJ basses at the local "Hock Shop". Again, because they went under a million brand names back then, and they likely couldn't find info on them. The one I let get away was an old El Degas copy of a Telecaster style P-bass, with it's original case that was $100. Based on those 3 finds, it's enough for me to at least drop into the store once a week.

As for the 'shadiness', any of the places near me ask for photo ID when you take an item in and have a computerized stock system. I don't want to sound uncaring, but I won't worry about it much beyond that.

As another person pointed out, nowadays I'd be way more worried about stolen gear on Craigslist/Kijiji.


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

torndownunit said:


> You can still have success at them. Even the chain ones. The thing is they mostly set their prices by what they find online. So if they can't find much info on an item, you can sometimes pick it up cheap.
> 
> I have got great deals on 2 wierd old MIJ basses at the local "Hock Shop". Again, because they went under a million brand names back then, and they likely couldn't find info on them. The one I let get away was an old El Degas copy of a Telecaster style P-bass, with it's original case that was $100. Based on those 3 finds, it's enough for me to at least drop into the store once a week.
> 
> ...


Thats the secret nowadays/ if you really know your off brand items you can still get a great deal. I got a MBernard in Windsor many years ago. Hand made by Bernie Rico. Got that one for $150 I think. Sold it a few years later for $900.


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## Maxer (Apr 20, 2007)

My oldest electric, a sentimental favourite and a monster guitar, was a pawn shop score... zero regrets. But that was over 25 years ago. I think pawn shops are a dying breed in the age of the internet, which makes available practically instant research/feedback... and sites like Kijiji, Craigslist, and Ebay.

I'm sure there remain deals to be had via the pawn shop route but you have to be persistent and patient... more than ever now.


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## pattste (Dec 30, 2007)

In Montreal, in my experience, pawn shops stock low-end, beat-up, over-priced products almost exclusively. I'll check one once in a while or run a search online but I never find anything remotely interesting. I'm sure someone will have a story of how they found a Fender Custom Shop Strat for $250 in a pawn shop but that kind of thing never happens to me or anyone that I know.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

I'm still debating a guitar at one--but I'm not sold on its condition and not sure how to properly check it in a way they'd agree to.


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## suttree (Aug 17, 2007)

i've worked in them and go to them regularly. pawn shops are for the most part as legit as anyone can be and still do business. by which i mean they don't go trotting anything that they're iffy on the status of down to the police to be checked, but they keep open books and honest books, and they require ID and they comply completely with the police. they are a lot more protected than a lot of people think though... getting your stolen gear back is easiest by just buying the damned stuff off the store, BS but that's the way it is.. you can get it back for free, but be sure to note that it will take 6 months at the very least, and say your item is a nice acoustic, they're not exactly going to open it and humidify it for you... 

the good deals are largely gone. the pawn shops now make their main money by lending, not by reselling. they don't much care if the thing sits forever, other than they have to move it to get at other things. that being said, most of them are run by people who don't know as much as they should about the gear itself, and they do make mistakes. i could have bought a wolfgang special (US), in black with the floyd (which is why i passed) and the case for $400, which is a really good deal. not magical though. they guy didn't know what he had, really... still it's not like they're getting rich, they're just making a living, it's a very crowded market. 

in big cities, the worst place for stolen goods is craigslist, followed by flea markets... they're a lot less regulated, although the police do go through the flea markets and look sometimes, so you won't find a lot of obviously stolen stuff. in vancouver i bought a jem for $250 that had been stripped poorly by the original owner (i found out.. the bad stripping job was why i thought it was legit).. took it to the music store i worked at, and another employee recognized it. i gave it back to the rightful owner, asked him to give me what money he could to recoup my loss (got half back, never asked for the rest)... 

you should really know what you're looking at with guitars though, and i mean you should have a thorough knowledge of guitar construction and setup, and a practiced eye for spotting flaws.. you don't need to be a luthier or anything, but you need to know what you're buying. great deals on weird stuff though, you can find ebows for $20 and good pedals for cheap, good cables and that kind of thing. although in ontario they're all being opened to music lines by the efkay rep for some unknown reason... so they're carrying ibanez guitars and howling wolf strings and such.. i think they've got no business being in new guitars, they're not staffed by people who know enough about instruments.. the rep that made this decision... i'm surprised the stores in the area weren't up in arms... if i owned a music store that sold ibanez, and the rep opened the pawn shop down the street as a dealer? i'd be seeing red, to say the least.


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## suttree (Aug 17, 2007)

zontar, ask them to write a 24 hour return guarantee on your receipt for you. most places will, just tell them you need to have it checked out by a competent luthier... which shop in calgary is it at? i might know the store and the owner.. the guy on 17th kitty corner from mothers always has pretty decent gear, is it that one?


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## NB_Terry (Feb 2, 2006)

I found a couple of the old Ibanez SD-9 pedals for $60 a couple years ago.

Also, I bought a G&L Legacy (US made) for $600. Very nice guitar. 

Other items;

Boss CE-1 (the big valuable one ) Chorus $75
Ibanez CS-9 (original, not RI) $35

All of these were in Calgary pawnshops BTW.

Lots of cds & dvds. 

There are some deals out there.


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## Mike MacLeod (Nov 27, 2006)

*Know your Poo!*

It's generally second hand goods. Like all second hand stuff, you really have to know what you are doing. Those of us with extensive collections have kissed an awful lot of frogs to get the stuff we have.

The best advice I ever got was from a really serious collector. "If you find a great instrument from someone you can trust, pay what he wants. Don't bargain! These guys get the good stuff all the time and who do you think they'll call when they get something really really nice??"


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

suttree said:


> zontar, ask them to write a 24 hour return guarantee on your receipt for you. most places will, just tell them you need to have it checked out by a competent luthier... which shop in calgary is it at? i might know the store and the owner.. the guy on 17th kitty corner from mothers always has pretty decent gear, is it that one?


All sales final--I already asked.
It's not the one on 17th--I haven't been there in years.
Maybe I'll go back there.


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## suttree (Aug 17, 2007)

zontar said:


> All sales final--I already asked.
> It's not the one on 17th--I haven't been there in years.
> Maybe I'll go back there.


yah the one you went to, always seemed a little on the lame side to me.. the guy on 17th is pretty decent (and sometimes has great deals). i often had good luck on mcleod trail at about 40th, too..


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

I think I'll check it out tomorrow--and it's near where Mother's used to be--but I know the one you mean.

There used to be many music stores in that vicinity. They all moved or went out of business.


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Well I checked it out--nothing of interest to me--but if I ever want a cheap guitar to mess around with and modify--I know where I can get one for quite cheap. Only one over $300, and most under $200--with some under $100.


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## Angry Almond (May 2, 2008)

*Montreal Pawn Shops*

Hi guys, 
Just a quick hit here...my guitars and gear got stolen from my car last week. I scoured the pawn shops all over Montreal for a few days thinking it might turn up, but the story that I got was the same. They all hold the items for 30 days with contact information from the person they 'buy' it from. Then they run the serial numbers versus the police reports. I did submit my serial numbers, although I'm not hopeful at all that I'll see my gear again. Thank goodness for good insurance!


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## al3d (Oct 3, 2007)

Angry Almond said:


> Hi guys,
> Just a quick hit here...my guitars and gear got stolen from my car last week. I scoured the pawn shops all over Montreal for a few days thinking it might turn up, but the story that I got was the same. They all hold the items for 30 days with contact information from the person they 'buy' it from. Then they run the serial numbers versus the police reports. I did submit my serial numbers, although I'm not hopeful at all that I'll see my gear again. Thank goodness for good insurance!


What did you get stolen?....i'll keep an eye around here, in Sherbrooke. something things get moved very fast.

Al.


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## dnoseworth (Apr 13, 2008)

Ebay ruined the pawn shops. They all sell on ebay and that's why they rarely have anything decent to sell anymore.


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