For about 30 years, I scored some real deals at pawn shops. Especially on tools that were very specialized and they didn't know what they had. Probably 3/4 of the hand tools in my shop came from pawn shops. But its not that easy any more since most pawn shops list a lot of their stuff on eBay. It seems like somewhere there are always two people who know what it is and they run the bid up. I did make a pretty good score on a large Jet brand brand belt and disc sander recently. It had a Grainger part number. They were asking $250 for it and it was new. I figured it was a bargain, but I went outside and Googled it on the Grainger web site on my phone and found it to be $2500 at Grainger. I offered $150 and got it for $200. I had to put it in lay away because I had flown to Houston. My next trip to Houston, I drove my wife's Colorado and it cost less than $10 lay away fees. Those kind of deals are getting few and far in between though. I did pretty good on a Rolaire wheelbarrow type compressor. They couldn't get it to start, but it looked almost new. I looked in the gas tank and it had about 1/2" of water in the tank. I offered $150 for it as is. I dried out the tank and found a drop of water the size of a pin head in the Honda carb. It ran good and was really handy for all the tractor, lawn mower etc. tires that keep loosing air. However, we had a big rain this week. I had left it outside, and the tank had about 1/2" of water in it again. For some reason the gas cap doesn't shed water.
