I don’t think there’s a law that’s stopping you. It’s just the question that will a pawn shop want it? And also are you interested in making a profit or do you just need to dump some swords anywhere?

Unless you buy them extremely cheap, there’s no way a pawn shop will give you a higher price - especially if you order multiple items (or even worse, in bulk).

If you’re looking to make a buck, I would take those things to a bigger LARP event and sell them directly to the clients for a margin.

Alternatively offering these to weapon stores or comic book stores might also get a foot in on the door.

Pawn shops are in the business of buying things well below that they are worth. Therefore it’s also their business to know exactly what things are worth. They aren’t going to buy anything from you for more than what you’ll be paying. Maybe if import a shipping container of these items you could have a price worthwhile to make a deal.

I see no mention of your country. In Canada you can legally sell knives and swords that can legally be owned (so no butterfly knives or switchblades). In the UK you need a special license. In the US, I have no idea, but I found info on the other two countries in thirty seconds of googling.

You heard of this thing, the 8-Minute Abs? Yeah, this is going to blow that right out of the water. Listen to this: 7… Minute… Abs.

Are there enough pawn shops within driving distance for this idea to even be lucrative? I’m gonna say no. They’ll catch on if you try to sell more than one every few months…doncha think?

You could do this but you’d have almost certainly have to have some super unique offering to gain any traction, or offer a ton of stuff besides knives that pawn shops sell. They’re not going to want to have a different supplier for every individual item in their shop. For example M&M is a wholesaler that sells to pawn shops but they sell cheap guitars, electronics, knives, scopes, you name it.

I would also be willing to bet the juice isn’t worth the squeeze here. If you’re good at sourcing products, selling and dealing with B2B clients, managing a warehouse, and all while managing cash flow. Why not get into a larger market or more lucrative niche?

I think you’re overestimating how much a pawn shop is gonna give you for anything lol

What if the pawn shops only offer $40 each or less? I deal in this space and at maximum you will be offered 50% of what they want to sell them for.

Pawn shops are already known for deals less than retail. If retail averages $120, they might want to sell them for $90-100 at most.

Now you’re stuck loosing money. Pawn shops will not give you $100 for a $120 retail item. Not happening but good luck!

Congratulations, you’re trying to become a distributor.

Can I borrow $500 ? I’ll pay you back with interest

Dude my neighbor did this for years. Pocket knives, brass knuckles, and swords all flea market and trade shows his profit was 30k a year working almost every weekend

I would try to sell to the right end consumer. If this is a niche you want to explore, meet your target audience. Try a ren fair, comic con, and the likes. But go as a visitor first, get a feel for the scene, compare prices.
The type of swords is really important though.
If you want to sell to ppl who want to use it for more than a prop to mount on a wall, look into eastern European blacksmiths. Or at least check the quality of the work of the supplier you found.

I’m going to try to say this in the kindest way possible. But your plan is possibly the least thought through plan i’ve read today. This is coming from someone who likes to trade sports cards, literal pieces of shiny cardboard.

Of all the odd money making schemes I come across on reddit each day, I think this takes the trophy.

Buying wholesale swords, and going to pawn shops to try to convince them they are getting a deal by hoping the find the price of a certain sword listed on 1-2 specific websites for the already niche group of people that would buy swords.

And on top of that, thinking that you wouldn’t saturate the market in literally 1 go (if you could somehow trick them into buying the first round anyway). You can’t seriously believe people would be buying up those swords from the pawn shops after you sell it so that you can go and sell more to said pawn shops right…?

I do this already… be wary of how often you sell. I single handedly over saturated an entire regional market once lol

Why is it that ‘entrepreneurs’ always want to cut prices?

Small businesses shouldn’t be looking to cut price!

Small businesses provide the higher quality (or niche) to customers who want their problem solved.