you can get some slammin' deals at pawn shops, the problem is thinking that any business will give stuff away..... they won't, if you see a really good deal, it's cause they don't know better.
but if you see something overpriced, it's also because they don't know better.
i used to work at a pawn shop, and lots of them don't know shit about musical instruments, they often buy, pawn, and sell based on blue book and or list prices, we know that that's a bunch of crap...... but they don't.
if you see a guitar or whatever you want that is priced too high, bring in a musicians friend and say "look shit for brains, no one is going to pay that used when they can get it for this new" you'll be doing them and you a favor, they won't get screwed on the pawns (although i'm sure you don't care, neither do i for the record) and their resale prices will soon fall into line.
and as a side note, the pawn shop i used to work at gave a little less than 1/2 of what they would sell for on a "buy" and a little less than 1/3 of what they wanted to sell it for on a pawn.
this was a "good" pawn shop (if one exists) so many will be a little lower, but not too much......... even most crack heads won't sell their goods at a 1/10 of their actual value.
Dude...that's one scary little town. You might get shot just passing through. I'll be passing through there next week...wish me luck.