It used to be that scouring pawn shops and second hand stores could yield fabulous guitars at next to nothing prices. Most of the time neither the store owners nor the "pawnees" knew what they had. If it wasn't Martin or Gibson, or old enough to missing the stamp on the headstock, it wasn't anything special. Now it seems just about any pawn shop owner has a blue book for guitar values. They are still happy to let the pawnee pawn it to them for next to nothing but don't expect to get a deal if it comes for sale. Usually one can purchase a new guitar of the same model from a retailer for the same price you will pay used at a pawn shop. I'm sure the occasional one slips under the radar but like they say, "That was the good ol' days."

What are your Pawn Shop thoughts and experiences?

Great post Matt. I once (I think it was in 1995) picked up an Alvarez Yairi at an old Pittsburgh pawn shop for $100. It was about 10 years old at the time, and it was completely missing strings and the pawn shop owner didn't know what it was worth and thought he was getting the deal. Go figure. I took it home, strung it up, played it for a couple years and ended up selling it for $200!

Nothing like doubling your money!

I've never had any great pawn shop wonders, but I did pick up a Line 6 ModPro used at a music store once for $149.99. It was a year or two after line6 stopped making them, and they had gone for over $700 brand new. I still own it and it's still in pristine condition like I bought it. It came with manual and everything and couldn't have been more than a day or two out of the packaging. It's almost always in my rig at least for a chorus effect.

I also have a bass playing friend in Pittsburgh who managed to score a natural finish Warwick Thumb 5-string for $600 at a pawn shop. The owner thought it was an exorbitant price at the time I guess, and figured he made out like a bandit. Had he known more about basses, he would've understood that that bass was probably worth in the ballpark of $2,500. He played for the band Jazzam for a long time. I believe they just split up a bit ago. Who knows what they're all doing now?

I know this is an old thread, but I found the question intriguing. And yes, it seems pawn shops have this idea that somehow every old guitar that comes through their doors is a collectible. I've lost count of how many Squier basses I've seen in pawn shops that were priced higher than the street price for a new one at the local music store.
Personally, I would never buy a guitar from a pawn shop unless I knew for certain I was getting a bargain.