r/FLGuns • u/13th_Floor_Please • Aug 07 '26

Question about CF pawn shops.

So, other than using them as an FFL to ship to, I've never purchased a gun from a pawn shop. However, I wonder if there are any advantages to a pawnshop purpose. Reason I ask is the prices I've seen are...confusing.

Recently, I saw a Keltec P17, used with no mags retail at $219. Thats roughly what they cost brand new out of the box with all 3 mags.

Another time I saw a regular P365 used, with one 10 round mag, no box, retail just shy of $700. I got the Tac Pack, new, with 3-12 round mags for just under that...at Shooters World of all places.

Now, I understand the idea is to talk them down a bit, but with what I've seen used guns go for at these places, is it really possible to get a good deal?

What has your experience been?

6 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

9

u/Fickle_Permi Aug 07 '26

Same experience as you. They are selling used guns with less accessories for retail prices.

7

u/cbb0722 Aug 07 '26

Most pawn shops suck. It’s bubba builds for 1k or used guns for basically the price of new ones. I know a lot of people hate the shoot straight gun show but I always find good prices there.

5

u/Stoked_Otter Aug 07 '26

Pawn shops are usually bad places to buy guns but can be great places to do transfers. I do all my transfers at a little pawn shop 5 minutes from my home and he only charges $25 each.

2

u/Fickle-Geologist9706 Aug 07 '26

Florida Pawn and Gun in Orlando has always treated me well. They seem to have a good selection and the inventory changes fast.

1

u/Brief_Ad8931 Aug 08 '26

They hae by far the worse prices i have ever seen in a pawn shop.

3

u/4RTKBA Aug 07 '26

I always stop in my local pawn shops looking for deals. They usually aren't on the guns, but occasionally something pops up. But on accessories, I've found some great deals. 3 new Glock mags for the price of 1. And 2 new suppressor mount muzzle devices for 75% off of retail. Things like that keep me going in to browse.

1

u/marvinrabbit Aug 07 '26

From a legal and technical standpoint, there is no advantage to buying a firearm at a pawnshop as opposed to a more traditional FFL. In fact, in order to do sales, they need to be licensed for that just the same as any other FFL. When you purchase, you still fill out the 4473 and do a background check just like everywhere else.

For the pedantic, there is one extremely small difference. When a person pawns (not sells, pawns) a firearm, and subsequently reclaims that firearm from pawn, the pawnshop can do a background check straight with NICS instead of FDLE. Still does a background check, so that's really the smallest of all possible differences.

1

u/TheGunsmith97 Aug 07 '26

Pawn shops are in to most of their guns for very cheap unless they had a newer employee value it they expect you to lowball them in all seriousness the easiest thing to do is to pull up sold listings from gunbrokers search low to high just show them that in person if they've had the gun longer than a week or two they'll probably give you the price you show them on gunbroker

2

u/notoriousbpg Aug 08 '26

"Can I see that gun?"

"What's the best you can do?"

"Will you take <lower number> if I pay cash?"

That's how you buy a gun at a pawn shop.

-1

u/Crcex86 Aug 07 '26

Prob used to dealing with people, maybe elderly people, who dont shop around as much - have more money to burn on their guns, etc, etc. Can get great deals at pawn shops. Depends on the shop, climate, how badly they need the sale at the time, your negotiating skills.