I make the rounds at the local pawn shops almost every week. I find them to be good places to get the movies you kinda want, but you just don't want bad enough to pay full price for. Stolen goods? Maybe so, but the way I see it me, the thief, and the pawn shop are all coming out ahead on the deal, while only the original DVD owner is getting the shaft, so it's 3 vs. 1. Just kidding, all the pawn shops I go to seem like fairly respectable places. My favorite two are part of chain called EZ Pawn, and they have a good, ever changing selection at nice prices.

Just today I picked up:
A Clockwork Orange - $4
Kentucky Fried Movie - $4
Bananas - $4
Meet Joe Black: Ultimate Edition - $5

Nah, I'm one of those people who avoids pawn shops for "moral reasons." It's not so much the stolen property thing... I mean, that's part of it, but what really bothers me is that these places profit by exploiting the misfortunes of the poorest and/or most desperate members of society. Pawnbrokers are parasites, IMO, only a step above pimps and loan sharks. I'd rather spend a few more dollars on a dvd (and live with a clear conscience) than line some scumbag's pockets. :)

I understand the qualms about "stolen merchandise," but used DVDS at places like EB or GameSpot still may be stolen.

For me, I've only bought two DVDs in a pawnshop -- I got Man on the Moon (w/Jim Carrey) and Edward Scissorhands for $5 apiece.

I don't agree with some of the other clean conscious objectors; the way I see it, pawn shops are legit businesses.

This thread makes me wish that we had pawn shops period in NYC :mad:

Can't help you there Cameron, but there are several in Murfreesboro; Whenever I'm there I believe there are four pawn shops I make the rounds of. As for Nashville, whenever I go to The Great Escape (by the movie complex on the north side of town) I wander the length of that street to hit the pawns as well; there are probably half a dozen on that street alone.

A few months ago I was in Colorado Springs. It seemed like there was a pawn shop on every corner. I stopped in a few and they all had the same crappy dvds like Malibu's Most Wanted and the titles found in Walmart's 5.88 bin.

I too wish there was a pawn shop or two in my area. The used CD/DVD stores are too in-the-know to let the rare stuff get onto the sales floor. On the other hand Game Stop and EB seems to let a few slip through.

Generally speaking, DVDs at my local pawn shops originate from Walmart, and for older movies that usually means fullscreen.

I find good deals all the time... of course some shops are much better than others!

Chinatown $5

Star Trek: Nemesis $2 (yeah, I know it sucks but you can't beat that!)

Starsky & Hutch $4

Mallrats $6

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble: Live At El Mocambo $5

South Park: Season One $8

T2: Extreme Edition $8

Lion King $7

O Brother, Where Art Thou? $6

Somewhere In Time $2

Dinotopia $2

I've actually never been in a pawn shop. That site BrentLumkin posted said there's one nearby, hopefully they'll have some bargains for me.

Robocop CC for $5. Ebayed for $61. I have found about 5 Armageddon CC through the years and quite a few Flash Gordons.

I've actually had a bit of good luck in Co. Springs. Within probably the last six months I've stumbled across Sanjuro CC and Rushmore CC for $5 a piece. I also found a Wings of Redemption Spawn figure NIB for 5$. I'm thinking about selling that as it's going for around $40 now on ebay.

You seem to have better luck than I. I tried a few shops on Academy, all they had was junk. I tried a few downtown, more junk. The CD/Dvd place by the park on Bijou (I think) had some good stuff but not at those asking prices. All in all I was pretty disappointed with the hunt.

I'm really curious as to why are there so many pawn shops there?

My guess? All the military bases out here, although why any self-respecting movie collector would pawn or worse sell a Criterion besides Royal Tenenbaums is beyond me. When CD Warehouse was open, I found the Rock CC for $15 too. You'd think that if someone forked over the cash for a CC, they'd know what the had. I guess some people are just stupid.

My latest pawn shop run is just insane:


A Night to Remember (Criterion Collection) - $6

The Blob (Criterion Collection) - $8

The Element Of Crime (Criterion Collection) - $12

Gimme Shelter (Criterion Collection) - $6

Grand Illusion (Criterion Collection) - $8

WWE Westlemania XIX (OOP) - $8

Phantasm: Special Edition (OOP) - $4

The Lion King: Platinum Edition (OOP) - $6

Snow White: Platinum Edition (OOP) - $12

Fellowship of the Ring: Extended Set - $8

The Two Towers: Extended Set - $8

Earthquake (OOP) - $6

Peter Pan: Special Edition (Disney classic, OOP) - $8

Alice In Wonder Land: Masterpiece Edition (OOP) - $7

Toy Story & Toy Story 2: The Ultimate Toy Box (OOP) - $12

Toy Story (OOP) - $6

Fletch (OOP) - $8

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (OOP) - $8

The Osbournes: Season 1 - $5

The Osbournes: Season 2 - $5

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Fifth Season - $5

Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (OOP) - $5

sounds like somebody came on hard times or got robbed for that stash...wish i could come across one of these finds

Not recently, but back in the day, I searched them for LDs.

Good lord, that wasn't from one single pawn shop. I got all of that from a series of pawn shops all within 50-100 miles from my home.

This past weekend, I came across the Wolfman Legacy set for $10, so I picked it up. It had a tin picture-type thing of the Wolfman from Van Helsing, so I just think of that as a bonus. I also picked up the Spiderman '67 collection for $25 about a month ago. Not outstanding deals, but definitely not something to ignore either.

i gotta start looking for the toy story set in pawn shops...i have both movies but never gave in for the box....all these deals i keep hearing of...gotta find some shops

I've bought a couple things from pawn shops in the past. Just if I saw one on the way home or something, I would swing in and take a couple minutes to see what they had. Today, I decided I was gonna go on an adventure, so I printed up a list of pawn shops from yellowpages.com, and hit about half of them in a 3 hour period. Most of them had the same crappy movies, but I did find a couple bargains to add to the library.

The Last Temptation of Christ: CC 7.00
Six Feet Under: Season Two 20.00
X-Files: Season One 19.99

I think I'm gonna try to hit up a slew of pawn shops maybe once or twice a month, and hopefully I'll do at least as well as I did today.

I like how a previous poster found salo, killer and hardboiled...........right, that musta been a month after they were released back back back in the day.

Another good example of this is Fort Knox, Ky. area.......there are several pawn shops there and in neighboring Elizabethtown.
As for people just being stupid, pawn shops are in the business of buying items to make a sizable profit off of, lets' face it, other people's hard luck.

I'm in New Orleans for school, and I have no idea where any pawn shops are in the city, and in THIS city...they'd probably be a little frightening, lol.

Yes all the time.

Soprano's season 1-$45 unopened
Soprano's season 2-$35 opened but flawless
Jarasic Park 1-$5 bucks

And countless $5 flick's,and he has deals 1 for 5 2 for 10 or 3 for 12,I go in there about once a month and I walk out everytime with at least 1 flick.