A pawn shop will normally buy a knife as long as it’s a respectable brand name and in good condition.
When you need a little extra cash, it can be tough to come up with ways to go about getting it.
Fortunately pawn shops will almost always be able to help you out with this problem no matter what the circumstances may be.
But of all of the various things that pawn shops buy – do pawn shops buy knives?
Well that’s a good question and for a variety of reasons to be honest.
The first thing that you have to appreciate is that not all pawn shop operate the exact same way. Pawn shops are owned and operated by thousands of tiny, small, individual business owners.
You see, they aren’t like a big-box store or a national chain where they all operate the same way. Each individual pawnbroker is going to have their own ideas about what is good to buy or take in on a loan.
That’s really just the nature of this industry overall, so when attempting to give general or blanket answers like these, you’ve got to establish some framework for understand why it’s not as straight forward as you might hope for.
But with all of that having been said, most pawn shops will buy knives, particularly higher quality knives that are in good condition from respected manufacturers.
If you have a knife or collection of knives that you are looking to sell then a pawn shop may buy them off of you. Typically speaking, they will be looking for higher quality, respectable brand names when it comes to an item like a knife.
How To Get The Most For Your Knife At A Pawn Shop
Now then, we’ve established that you are going to try to pawn or sell your knife or knives at a pawn shop. How do you go about getting the most money for them?
This is actually pretty easy. The first thing that you should do is to make sure they are as clean as possible.
Remove any heavy debris or stains from them, consider putting a drop of oil or two in the hinges and make them as presentable as possible.
A word of caution about this though. Whatever you do, don’t sharpen or polish the knife. It absolutely destroys the knife’s value.
When people buy knives, grinder marks that indicate reshaping or polishing marks that point to the surface being altered really hurt the collectibility of the knife as well as it’s appeal to most buyers.
Beyond that, make sure that you have the case or sheath for the knife if it originally came with one. Most buyers will want to see that the knife has this and it will positively impact the value that a pawn shop offers you for your knives.
Will Pawn Shops Take All Knives
Typically speaking, no. Pawn shops are going to be looking for the higher end, better manufacturers in good and original condition.
These are the types of blades that are most aggressively sought after and therefore will have the highest potential resale value.
As such, the pawn shop knows that they shouldn’t have trouble selling these knives and will be happy to take them in.
With cheaper knives or unknown manufacturers, pawn shops can get a little concerned about the resale potential of the blade and with that being the case, they just won’t be as inclined to buy it from you or make you a loan against it.
The Nerd’s Opinion
When it comes to knives, values can vary greatly. I’ve paid $3 for knives and I’ve paid $200 for others.
When taking your knife into a pawn shop, if you know exactly what model it is or what makes it particularly valuable, make sure that you document that with the pawnbroker that you are working with.
It will help them give you a better value for your knife and make their job easier overall.
But also keep this in mind – pawn shops aren’t knife collectors. They aren’t going to pay you an inflated collector value for a knife most of the time.
Pawn shops are generally resale shops and with that in mind, they are going to be looking to buy your knife at a reasonable price and resell it at a later point in time for a decent (although not gross) profit.
