When you sell to pawn shop do they give back decent amounts of money?

You don’t sell to a pawn shop, they make you a loan. They rarely give you even 50 percent of the amount it’s worth.

Taking a loan against an item from a pawn shop is a separate matter. Selling to a pawn shop is no different than selling to another below-wholesale dealer. That is what pawn brokers are, essentially. They sell items from their shop at as close to full retail as possible, with item condition and desirability being the major factors. If it’s not something they can readily sell, they will sell it to a specialty retailer in that business for below wholesale, because the re-seller needs to make a profit. That means the pawn broker is paying you well below wholesale. Time that the shop owner’s money is tied up while the item is unsold, and store overhead (utilities, rent, employee costs, taxes etc) are factored in. So if you’ve got something that you paid $50 for new, and it’s now used, if it’s something that can easily be sold in the secondhand market for $25, you may be offered $10. If it’s something that there is too many of already, doesn’t sell well or is obsolete (many electronic items, especially computer stuff, becomes obsolete and basically worthless very quickly), the broker will politely tell you that he doesn’t want it.

It’s all about assessing risk, when deciding how much to pay for something that you intend to sell for a profit. Lowest risk items will get you the highest return as a percentage of original cost.