Looking at bikes in a pawnshop shouldn't be any different than shopping for used bikes at any other store. Most bikes at pawnshops are pretty subpar though, because the good ones get cherrypicked pretty quick. At the same time, I 've seen some really nice bikes at pawnshops. Nicest I found was a titanium Hercules Cycle Works mountain bike- beautiful head badge- a lot of tri bikes, etc. Looking in suburban areas instead of downtown cores usually guarantees a better quality of goods but it isn't guaranteed.

You should have some clue as to sizing, the style of bike you want, and have a little knowledge of bicycle components. The ability to discern quality helps too.

Even though many pawn shops have a lot of safeguards against taking in stolen goods, (many municipalities require ID collection and reporting to the police department, and serial ##'s computer crosschecked) pawnbrokers are NOT engaged in a morality play every time possibly stolen goods are presented for pawn.

With a half a decade of personal experience as a pawnbroker, I know the industry pretty well from the other side of the counter.

if it's a nice bike at a pawn shop, it's probably stolen. A legitimate bicycle owner has many ways at their disposal to sell a bike for more than any pawnshop will give them.Pawn shops offer as little as possible, a tenth (average)to a third (high plunk gold) of used value on something brought in for pawn. So, if you brought in a two year old lemond poprad, for example, a fair pawnshop might offer you $60 to $100 dollars and try to sell it for maybe $350. No pawnshop worth its smoke is going to offer you more than $100-150 bucks even on a relatively nice bike. One school of thought on bikes in pawnshops is offer no more than $40 bucks and sell for no more than $200. I know one pawnbroker, she's the devil incarnate, will offer no more than $20 regardless of the quality of the bike. She knows if that person is desperate enough, they'll take the 20.

A crackhead who just stole a bike, however, is less concerned about fair market value.