Some pawn shops will buy prescription glasses depending on the frames that they were made with.
Now this is one of those questions that when I was asked, I almost took a step back and really had to think about it.
I’ve got to tell you that in the stores I’ve been in, I really haven’t seen prescription glasses come through the doors all that often.
However, let’s really think about it – would pawn shops buy them?
Well, the more I thought about this question I came to realize that it would almost completely depend on the frames that the glasses had and not so much the lenses.
Prescription glasses frames can be extremely expensive, particularly designer models.
In some glasses boutiques it’s not uncommon to see frames sell for thousands of dollars, and on a regular basis depending on the neighborhood.
So with that in mind, obviously there is a market for them right?
But what would a pawn shop need to have in order to accept them for a loan or as a buy?
When it comes to prescription glasses there probably won’t be a huge market for them with pawn shops. That having been said, designer glasses are something that quite a few pawn shops will take in so if your glasses were made with designer frames then a pawn shop may buy them.
How To Pawn Prescription Glasses
Well, as previously discussed, the only prescription glasses that I’m really talking about here are those with designer frames or frames that are really expensive.
This doesn’t at all apply to inexpensive or budget prescription glasses frames that you might find at places like Walmart’s vision center. They’ve really got to be something expensive and highly desirable for any of this to apply.
With that in mind, you should be able to document exactly what frames you have when you take them into a pawn shop. You will need to be able to show them who made them, what model they are, and if they are a limited edition or particularly collectible frame that a lot of people might be interested in.
Additionally, you’ve got to be sure that your frames are in very good condition. No cracks, breaks or anything else that indicates damage that may be beyond reasonable repair.
Well, like pretty much everything in pawn shops, the pawnbroker is probably going to consult a site like eBay or Amazon to see how much your frames sell for on the used market.
Once they have a good idea of what that price is, they will then likely offer you between 40-60% of that price, and likely on the lower end to be honest.
The reason for this is because frames just aren’t something that a lot of pawn shops will deal with on a regular basis. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there are pawn shops out there that see them all the time, but the common pawn shop across the country isn’t going to have a big market for them.
What this means is that they will be somewhat unfamiliar with the item and therefore be conservative about how much money they put into them.
When you’re in the pawn business and you aren’t familiar with an item or you don’t ave a really good idea of what it might sell for or how to handle them – it’s just not something that most pawnbrokers will heavily invest in.
Mandy Dormain started working for Pawn Nerd in 2020. Mandy grew up in a small town in northern Tennessee. But moved to New York for university. Before joining Pawn Nerd, Mandy briefly worked as a freelance journalist for several radio stations. She covers politics and economy stories.
