Pawn Shop Maiming

  • Thread starter Thread starter Richard Monroe
  • Start date Start date
R

Richard Monroe

Well-known member
Well, I don't want to say I made a "killing", so I'll say it was a "maiming". I was in Orlando, Florida last week, and me and my wife were cruising pawn shops and flea markets. We stopped at a Valupawn, as usual, looking for the kind of hit you only read about. Actually, my wife noticed it first. In the case, a B.L.U.E.bird, in the box, with the pop filter, no scratches or dings, with the original inspection sheet, June of 1998. This means it was probably bought, not one of the original promotion mics. They wanted $199.99 for it. My wife is familiar with B.L.U.E, as I own a Kiwi and a Baby Bottle. She says, "Is that anything you need?" Is sex anything you need? Ok, so gear lust sets in, and I produce my spurious justifications. She says, " alright, if they'll give it to you for $150.00, you can buy it." Damned if they didn't do it! My wife said later, the only reason she said that is that she thought they wouldn't do it.

They were real good about it too. They gave me a mic cable and some cans, and I found a PA head with phantom power and a headphone jack, and it was live, no crackles, no weird noises, so it was a done deal. My first impressions- It's a pretty flat, swiss-army sort of mic that will be good for a lot of things where my best mic for the job is already being used. It should be good on clean vocals and acoustic instruments. I'm thinking it will be good on lady vocalists where the C414 or the Kiwi is a little bright, and Oktava MK319 is a little dark. I've got enough mics so that it only represents a different color on the palette, but it seems to be a very useful color- flat white.

Well I made the argument to my wife that I could probably sell it for $151.00 tomorrow if it doesn't work out, but I'm thinking it's a keeper. I'd be interested in the impressions of anybody on the board who has used it- what do y'all think it's good for, and- at current street prices, did I do *great*, or just *OK*? I know I didn't get screwed. Thanks in advance for anybody's input.-Richie
 
Great Price on a nice mic.
Let me know if you want to sell it for $151! :D
 
dude, i've been going to valuepawn for a while now.. at the one in my town, all the guys are musicians as well, so they are pretty good at not letting rediculous deals slip by. anyways, a couple of weeks ago, i stopped in and found a fender aerodyne bass for $350!! i ended up getting it for $300 out the door!! super excited. guitar center is right across the street so i stopped by and found the same bass hanging on the wall for $780! thats prob the best deal i ever found from a pawnshop.. it was great. the bass is absolutely beautiful. precision pickups in the front, jazz in the back. great for recording. very proud
 
I haunt pawn shops often. I have found some good deals, but will go months without finding anything other than pawn brokers asking MORE for their stuff than it sold for, new. I get discouraged and stay away for a while... probably the same basic pattern everybody goes through.

A friend from college is the manager of a chain pawn shop- interesting that we both went to school in Lafayette, LA and both ended up in Atlanta. I have tried to get him to call me when he has something that's good but he's been sitting on it a long time and ready to almost dump it, but I have not gotten him in that habit. I guess we weren't that close...
 
We have more porn shops than pawn shops over here, and there really aren't many porn shops.

I wish we had more pawn shops

mMmmmm prawn...
 
I won't say I've ever made a KILLING in a pawn shop. At least not on pro audio. My Ask Proxima M1 projector for my home theater setup was an exceptional buy at $150.

As far as MUSIC gear, I've had more success with eBay than I have had with pawn shops. Although I DID buy my 57 at a pawn shop for $25, IIRC. There's a Peavey powered mixer that if it sits on the shelf at one of my local haunts long enough, I will probably snatch it up once the price dips (this particular shop has scheduled rollbacks...after certain periods on the shelf the price drops.)
 
my big audio score is two unidyne III SM57s for 35 bucks each and an AT4050 for 150.

that was a good day.
 
Back
Top