I think I've been in a pawn shop twice in my life. Just looking. I groaned when he said 15% interest PER MONTH!!!

Oh, and last week, I stopped by a Habitat for Humanity ReStore. They had some hardware and some tools for good prices. And years ago, I bought some doors for the basement shop area there and they were quite cheap.

Only there once, in Philly, and bought a mandolin for about $20. Going to RF school at Frankford Arsenal and needed something to occupy my time.

I'm at the Habitat store maybe 3-4 times a year, admittingly to drop stuff off more often than to look for anything. But I did get some really heavy solid core doors that made a nice workbench, and some 3 drawer file cabinets. Maybe some other odds and ends, but the one we have locally doesn't normally have anything that's very nice. I visited one quite a few miles south in a little nicer city and they had some much better stuff. But going to any of them is a bit of a crap shoot, at least it seems that way to me. I went into a pawn shop once, and the prices struck me as being very high. I haven't been back to any since.

The ReStore I went to was in the same strip as my eye doctor.

The one I went to for the doors is bigger and I used to drive by regularly as I had a regular customer down the street.

And there's one a couple of miles from one of my daughter's place. If I'm bored, I run there.

Pawn shop prices also seemed high to me as well.

The restore near us is a good source of thin lumber for scroll work projects, dressers drawers from dressers that are too damaged to sell are a buck each. An old dovetail drawer can yield some clean 1/2" wood. Best deal I've gotten was 200 rolls of cash register tapes for $5.00, I've been using up my scrap wood & giving these away for the last 2 years.

Edited July 28Jul 28 by DuckSoup

On 7/28/2026 at 7:34 AM, DuckSoup said:

Pawn shop prices also seemed high to me as well.

The restore near us is a good source of thin lumber for scroll work projects, dressers drawers from dressers that are too damaged to sell are a buck each. An old dovetail drawer can yield some clean 1/2" wood. Best deal I've gotten was 200 rolls of cash register tapes for $5.00, I've been using up my scrap wood & giving these away for the last 2 years.

I always look at pictures first (to see if I can get away without reading you see)....

Until I read your post I was thinking "what a strange toilet paper holder...." 😂🤣