Anyone else find rarities in pawn shops?

ne2eire

ne2eire

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I was never a fan of pawn shops, the one I used to go to with a friend 3 years ago was horribly overpriced and had the same stuff sitting there for months on end. Decided to check it out today randomly and picked up Vagrant Story for PSX complete in perfect condition, manual and demo disc in perfect condition as well for $10. Not a huge deal, but it saved me about $15 off ebay. Pretty happy since I've heard a lot of good things about it.

Anyone else think you can find some cheap rare games at pawn shops? I'm guessing most of the time the owner just sees PSX game and marks it as some low value
 
Saw a mint (along with a few others) Final Fantasy II, he said he would sell me it for $10. So I told him ok, he was surprised or something then went over to his wife and talked with her (she was on a laptop). I guess she checked eBay and the guy came back and told me he wasn't going to sell it to me instead he was going to sell it on eBay.

My friend also found Mario RPG with box and instructions for $10, but then "his dog ate the box" He sold me the cart and instructions for $10.
 
Too much to list, actually.

Pawn shops are really hit or miss though... I tend to go to the ones in the bad parts of town, because people there are usually selling the games since they need the cash, and not the credit that EB / Gamestop gives.
 
[quote name='Roufuss']Too much to list, actually.

Pawn shops are really hit or miss though... I tend to go to the ones in the bad parts of town, because people there are usually selling the games since they need the cash, and not the credit that EB / Gamestop gives.[/QUOTE]

Damn thats a pretty good idea
 
[quote name='Shayde']Saw a mint (along with a few others) Final Fantasy II, he said he would sell me it for $10. So I told him ok, he was surprised or something then went over to his wife and talked with her (she was on a laptop). I guess she checked eBay and the guy came back and told me he wasn't going to sell it to me instead he was going to sell it on eBay.[/QUOTE]

I hate it when Pawn shop/Flea Market/Etc says they can fetch a higher price on eBay.
You know what then? Sell it on fucking ebay & stop wasting my fucking time. Anytime they say crap like that I fucking walk away. People don't understand the overhead you have when selling over the internet (Ebay/Paypal fees, Shipping Materials, Insurance, & Postage).
 
Pawn shops are my forte. Ive found so much good crap I cant begin to describe (look in my games list to see). Recent deals in the past month have been

Gradius Galaxies PS2 - Complete (50 cents)
Tales of Destiny I PS1 - w/ Box but no instructions ($5)
Saga Frontier 2 PS1 - Complete ($5)
Tales of Destiny 2 PS1 - Complete ($5)
Kirby Super Star SNES - Game only ($2)

Im had the ebay problem with a pawn shop recently. The shop priced Torneko Last Hope for ebay prices and told me if it doesnt sell in tow weeks then I can have it for the usual price of their PS1 games.
 
[quote name='KingofGames']Actually, sellers have definitely caught on, which is why they now charge $7-$8 for shipping. :whistle2:/[/QUOTE]
Then you have those that sell something like say a DVD player for 1 cent and shipping is $50 (to dodge the fees)
 
eBay has ruined my local flea market. There used to be an awesome video game stand where I could consistently buy good NES and SNES games for about half what they were going to on eBay, but one day the guy had his laptop with him and was checking prices to reprice everything. Now all the games are $5-10 more. Sigh.
 
Yup, years ago actually. I think it was around 1994... found Final Fantasy IV for $7. Complete with manual. I loved that pawn shop, they had no fragging clue at all what gems they had sitting on their shelves.
 
I found tactics ogre for 10 bucks once (this was when it was worth 70). I have found a bunch of 15-30 games for like 5 or 10 bucks. There is a really good one I go to, never anything great, but always some quality buys. Though the last two times I was near there I didn't look at the games though. It's big but cramped, and the idiots put a giant decapitated male deer head right next to the games. No way was I getting near that thing, and I would have had to squeeze past it then stand near it while looking at games.

Though there's a video game store near that pawn shop, they knew the old funcoland prices (hence ogre battle for snes being 100 bucks) but not prices to new stuff. For example, they knew suikoden 2 was rare, but they sold it for 35 bucks (multiple times), they had no idea sealed rhapsody's had any value (the guy even knocked his price down from 42 to 35 when I hesitated for a second). I've also got a versus ff7 guide there, he said that it was rare so he was going to have to charge the 15 dollar cover price (instead of the usual 5 for guides), he even seemed like he thought he overcharged, but it was going for about 100 on ebay. I've also gotten lunar, persona etc. used guides there for 5 bucks too. Though last time I was there I noticed sealed 3 sealed ogre battle 64 and 4 sealed harvest moon 64's, I asked the prices (they weren't on the floor so they weren't priced yet) and he checked ebay, and they were 80 for ogre and 100 for harvest. Just months ago I heard him say to an employee that he never bothers with ebay since he just doesn't have the time or desire to do it, guess someone clued him in to exactly how much they were missing.

Though, the thing is, as much as ebay can make money it can loose you money to. If you're an underpriced game store you keep people coming in and buying stuff, you lose money on the expensive ebay items but you keep customers in your store and make enough profit. If you sell at ebay prices you loose the customers who normally wouldn't shop there, make the few extra bucks on ebay, but end up not making enough to stay in business. They get a lot of business from people looking for rare and older stuff (they don't market themselves as anything more than an ordinary gamestore, but that's how it plays out), if they jack up to ebay prices those people (including myself) won't go there.
 
The best deal I've recently gotten @ a pawn was a complete Gradius III/IV for $10. I've never had too much luck finding things at pawn shops.
 
I found a pawn shop In Lincoln City Oregon once that had over 50 used sega cd games and alot of rares!!! only 4.00 each!
 
I found both Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy II at a pawn shop this summer. (The SNES verisons, of course.) Only the cart...$10 each. I also added Secret of Evermore (which I like a lot, although it isn't really rare) to activate a buy 3, get 30% deal. Something like that. Total was around $25.
 
Pawn shop/used bookstore mix here:
disc only original Castlevania SotN: $2
cart only Phantasy Star IV (stolen and hawked by my brother's friend, forced to spend $46 to replace): $6
complete, pristine Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time/Master Quest: $7
complete, near mint .hack//MUTATION: $15
Robotech Legacy box set 1 of 7: $9
Magic Knight Rayearth manga box set: $14

I think there's a pawn shop in my area that has a cart only Robotrek for SNES for $7.
 
[quote name='CappyCobra']People don't understand the overhead you have when selling over the internet (Ebay/Paypal fees, Shipping Materials, Insurance, & Postage).[/QUOTE]

I'd bet the overhead of running a B&M pawn shop would be a good bit more.

Anyway I found Rez at a pawn shop once (no idea if it's still valuable, but at the time it was going for $80 or so on eBay) but they had it priced at ~$60. Damn internet using pawn shop owners...
 
I've rarely found anything worth buying at pawn shops. What I did found over the years was a handful of games for less popular systems (Sega CD, 3DO Multiplayer, Sega 32x, etc.). The games for newer and more popular systems sell quickly, and I'm don't frequent these kind of establishments nearly enough to catch such bargains.
 
I found Rez twice at pawns, I saw a Gitaroo Man as well, but my best score was probably a Final Fight Import for Sega Saturn, granted I flipped out when I saw it for $6 bucks, but kept my cool so the guy wouldn't check eBay.
 
[quote name='Shayde']Saw a mint (along with a few others) Final Fantasy II, he said he would sell me it for $10. So I told him ok, he was surprised or something then went over to his wife and talked with her (she was on a laptop). I guess she checked eBay and the guy came back and told me he wasn't going to sell it to me instead he was going to sell it on eBay.

My friend also found Mario RPG with box and instructions for $10, but then "his dog ate the box" He sold me the cart and instructions for $10.[/QUOTE]


yea i found that super mario rpg games 5 days after it came out on the SNES at pawn for 7 bucks . the freaking game was complete. said some dude came in to pawn for a loan and never came back. i went back a week later and the dude came back 2 days after i got it.the worker said the dude was pissed big time but they said too bad you only had so many days to reclaim your items
 
[quote name='akilshohen']castlevania:SOTN for $5. Too bad I'm not 18 yet so I couldn't buy it. But I bet it's still there.[/QUOTE]

Castlevania SOTN is rated Teen, you should be able to get it. I've never checked my local pawn shop, there used to be one really near by but it was almost always closed and eventually just disappeared. The other one is downtown, but it looks like they sell mostly jewelry and stuff from driving by.
 
[quote name='lionheart4life']Castlevania SOTN is rated Teen, you should be able to get it. I've never checked my local pawn shop, there used to be one really near by but it was almost always closed and eventually just disappeared. The other one is downtown, but it looks like they sell mostly jewelry and stuff from driving by.[/QUOTE]

I've never been inside a pawn shop that didn't have at least a few video games. Most have a good many.
 
Ahh pawn shops. Used to be great but have reallly gone downhill since they started checking ebay prices. Some scores I have had off the top of my head include:
Donkey Kong Country 3 snes $5
Tactics Ogre PSX $5
Ogrebattle snes $5
Ogrebattle PSX $5
Dragon Warrior 3 NES $7
Final Fantasy complete NES $10
Final Fantasy cart only Nes $5
Vagrant Story complete $5
Blood Omen complete $5
ROB the robot $10
Suikoden + Wildarms in one case $10
Dragon Warrior 4 cart only $5

Most of these were in the glory days of pawn shops, before the ebay checking began. Before the Dark times
 
[quote name='lionheart4life']Castlevania SOTN is rated Teen, you should be able to get it. [/QUOTE]

I'm pretty sure the original poster meant that some pawn shops, or at least the ones I've been to, require you to be over 18 in order to buy anything. The one around here also takes down all your information, including height, weight, DOB, eye color, etc.
 
My biggest find was a few years ago... I found a mint & complete PSX "Final Fantasy Tactics" for $5.00. This was well before it was a PSX Greatest Hit, and they were still going for $80+ on eBay. I still have it somewhere!
 
[quote name='AdamInPlaidum']eBay has ruined my local flea market. There used to be an awesome video game stand where I could consistently buy good NES and SNES games for about half what they were going to on eBay, but one day the guy had his laptop with him and was checking prices to reprice everything. Now all the games are $5-10 more. Sigh.[/QUOTE]

Same here.

A guy was selling a ton of beat up systems at the flea market, no controllers, no hook ups, just systems. I ask him if he has any NES Top Loaders, and he says "Yea, I got one, in the back of the truck"

I ask him "How much?", thinking he'd sell it for around 40. He tells me "80-100, because that's what I can get on the internets." Yes, he really did call it the internets, and he expects to get top dollar for a top loader that is JUST the system, and a dirty crappy looking one at that.

I just walked away after he said that... there's no point in talking them down, since they are so sure they can get top dollar for their beat up shit. I didn't want to burst his bubble and tell him the $80 dollar ones are the ones that have nice systems, 2 controller, some games, and the hookups.
 
I went pawnshopping today (my last day in Tally until fall semester). I hit 4 pawn shops and got
Actraiser II $3 - cartridge only (not in the greatest condition, old blockbuster copy w/back sticker ripped off but I haven't seen this game anywhere in years)
Legacy of Galahad $1 - cartridge only (not in great shape either, but I had never even heard of it until recently)
Killer Instinct Gold $4 - cartirdge only (in great shape)
Conker's Bad Fur Day $4 - cartridge only (great shape, best find of the day)

Spent $12 overall for a few classic games. Conker made up for everything pricewise and I just saw it was going for about $20 on ebay for cart only (didnt realize this when I bought it).
 
Some good prices on games I found were:

Disgaea for $10

and Zelda : OoT for Gamecube for $10

I also found much more, but I just can't think right now...
 
[quote name='wubb']I'd bet the overhead of running a B&M pawn shop would be a good bit more.

Anyway I found Rez at a pawn shop once (no idea if it's still valuable, but at the time it was going for $80 or so on eBay) but they had it priced at ~$60. Damn internet using pawn shop owners...[/QUOTE]


i'm glad the ones i go to just have a flat rate for their games and they don't use Ebay.. (which sucks they have like 20 wrestling 64 games for 5 bucks each)
but nevertheless

found
RE 4 (like 2 months after it came out ) 10 bucks
Mario Golf 3 bucks
mario tennis 3 bucks
mvc2 xbox for 15 (this was when it was hitting 70 all the time used)
DMC 3 10 bucks
a bunch of NES games for a dollar a piece (metal gear, bionic commando, commando..stuff like that)..
 
Some of my best finds at pawn shops include Earthbound and Mega Man Soccer for $2 each, and 2 boxed Agetec Dreamcast arcade sticks for $45 total. I got the Agetec sticks back when they would go for $50-60 regularly on ebay.
 
[quote name='akilshohen']castlevania:SOTN for $5. Too bad I'm not 18 yet so I couldn't buy it. But I bet it's still there.[/QUOTE]

You know Castlevania: SotN is only rated "T", right?

EDIT: lionheart4life beat me to it.
 
What's a pawn shop? ;)

The two best deals I've found in my lifetime were EarthBound (complete and New) for $20, and Suikoden 2 (mint) for $50.

I also managed to get Ikaruga (GC) for $20 because of this very forum. I went to TRU during their sale, and actually saw a copy of Ikaruga in their bargin bin. I brought it over to the sales rep and asked for a price check. He told me it was $40, so I told him to ring it out. It dropped to $20.

His face was priceless.

:| "Wow"
 
[quote name='alonzomourning23']I've also got a versus ff7 guide there, he said that it was rare so he was going to have to charge the 15 dollar cover price (instead of the usual 5 for guides), he even seemed like he thought he overcharged, but it was going for about 100 on ebay. [/QUOTE]

Holy crap! [/Frank Barone]

I never knew that Versus FF7 guide went for that much on ebay. I picked it up at an outlet store for $3 bucks (you could probably still see the price tag on there in the bottom lefthand corner). It's just been in my closet along with the other $3 guides I've picked up (also picked up Suikoden II though I had know idea it would go for a good deal on ebay as well) and all my old gaming magazines, Gamefan included. Ahh, I really loved Gamefan before it went downhill. Anyone know of any other guides that are pretty rare?

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As for the topic, I've picked up some pretty good games but I've visited way too many pawn shops in order to do so.

Some of the better games that I remember include:

-Tactics Ogre for $20 (great condition)
-Earthbound $3 (cart only)
-Einhander $3 (complete but slight scratches. I've also come across the game in another pawn shop, but this is one of the shops that checks ebay. He's trying to get $41 for it. That game has been there on the shelf in the same spot for about 2 years)
-Spacemegaforce $6 (not really rare but I was pumped about it since it's a great shooter)
-Secret of Mana $6 (ended up getting 2 copies at the same pawn shop about 2 weeks apart. I thought that was kind of weird)

It's strange, sometimes I will get burnt out searching around different pawn shops not really coming up with anything but after a short break I go back and do it all over again. It's like it's an addiction. It's a good feeling when you make out like a bandit after coming across a great find. Yeah I need help but it also gives me an excuse to get out of the office during lunchtime without spending too much money (unless I come across a good deal, of course).

How did you guys typically find out what's rare and what's not? The main reason I've known is just reading different posts in threads like these but I never would of guessed about the Versus guide.
 
I see Einhander a lot but didn't think it was rare. I amy have to pick it up next time I see it, I liked it the few times I played it so it shouldnt be a bad shooter.
 
Einhander, regardless of rareness, is a unique and quite sexy shoot 'em up. It's really hard, though. Like.. really, really hard. If you can get it for under $15, it's worth it.

I've never had any good pawn shop finds.
 
I just started checking pawn shops a couple of weeks ago and I found one that is selling all of there Psone games for 3$ each. I picked up all of the final fantasys for PS except tactics and also a unopened GH FF origins. Also found the zelda collectors edition for 12$

Nothing too special, but a good pickup for the collection.

The thing that sucks about the really big pawn shops is that you have to sort through like 150 copys of NBA '99 and some of the clerks seem to get testy when you "inconvienece" them by making them do there jobs and help you...
 
I've posted several pawn shop deals here. I always scope the one in my hometown out because it's run by a guy who it was given to by his wealthy family, and they do ALOT of weapons/jewelry/electronics/instruments transactions, so it's become quite large. DVDs and games are just kinda stacked close to the back.

The guy is so concerned about the image of himself and his pawn shop that he only hires pretty teenage girls to work there, and they have no idea what is what.
PS1/N64 games are $4
XBX/PS2/GCN games are $8
DVD's are $5

Regardless of what they/number of disks, etc...
 
Another great find I made was a sealed Halo 2 (not LE if that even matters :lol: ) for $50! This was probably a month or so after it came out, not that it was ever hard to find in stores for $50 or less anyway. The upside is I only need visit pawn shops like that one time.
 
Finds in the last two days were pretty good.

6/30
Torneko: The Last Hope (PS1) - $5 Complete (shop finally sold it to me), Uncommon - Rare

7/1
Super Mario Sunshine (Non-GH version) - $4 Complete
Futurama (PS2) - $8 Complete, Uncommon - Rare (anyone want it, PM me)

That was probably my last pawn shop day until 8/1 when I get back from Connecticut (any1 know of cheap deals on seats at Fenway, let me know)
 
Not anymore. The douchebag flippers with their smartphones who scan every single game and make less money than they would working a real job at McDonalds reselling games ruined game hunting.
 
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