King of Trade & Mr. and Mrs. Pawn
Over the 5 or so years that Vaughn and I have lived in Medicine Hat, we have made a number of trips to the pawn shops of Medicine Hat. Two noteworthy shops include King of Trade and Mr. and Mrs. Pawn. I cannot count how much time (and money) I have spent in these places, let alone what Vaughn has spent.
King of Trade is an upscale second hand store in downtown Medicine Hat, and they have everything.
Their merchandise ranges from the typical stuff you would find in most pawn shops, like old board and video games, VHS and DVD movies, appliances and tools, to more extravagant items like full band instruments, including drums, guitars (acoustic and electric), some horns, amps, etc. Lots of televisions and cameras (both analog and digital), and a multitude of provincial, territorial and country flags.
Some other more rarer finds I have seen there have included a Sai, Templar Daggers, Scorpion Daggers, other types of swords/weapons, high end paintball guns and rare Nintendo and Super Nintendo games (usually purchased by Vaughn).
King of Trade is definitely the place to go if you are looking for cheap videos, flags, or any common thing you might find cheaper than anywhere else.
King of Trade is located at 645 3rd Street SE.
Mr. and Mrs. Pawn is a pawn shop located in downtown Medicine Hat that has more recently joined into one store (previously being two stores separated by a music store), and they have a wide array of this and that.
The store contains much the same as King of Trade, but in a much lower capacity and more affordable, as it is a much smaller and local store. Video and board games can be found on their shelves, as well as VHS and DVD movies, tools, musical instruments, and televisions and cameras (I bought my analog camera from Mr. Pawn). The store also boasts a number of household items, articles of jewelry and sporting equipment.
They often have featured items in their windows that catch your eye as you drive or walk by, such as musical instruments, scuba gear, skiing equipment, and so forth.
I cannot recall how many times I have needed an odd tool, such as Allen wrenches, a chisel, a “Torx” (6 point) screwdriver, and have found them in the tool barrel, and usually are extremely cheap, usually about $1 each.
Mr. and Mrs. Pawn is located at 222 South Railway SE.
http://www.mrspawn.com/
August 5th, 2009 at 1:53 PM
travis says:
I love King of Trade!
I have spent countless hours (and dollars) in there looking through their video games. I almost always find something that I just can’t pass up.
August 5th, 2009 at 2:10 PM
Vaughn says:
I would agree, King of Trade, really went all out on their video game section in terms of size, I think it grows every time I stop in there which is a plus for a video game collector and player like myself. I’d also like to stress my two of my other favorite second hand locations: Value Village (mostly overpriced though), and The Post (mostly junky though). Maybe we can do a post about those two sometime?
August 5th, 2009 at 2:14 PM
Sean says:
Those posts are to follow. I didn’t want to do them all at once, as King of Trade and Mr. and Mrs. Pawn are more pawn-related, while with Value Village and The Post, people just drop their stuff and they sell it (for 100% profit?). I will be doing those over the next couple days probably.
August 5th, 2009 at 4:02 PM
Vaughn says:
I’m not exactly sure on the details but Value Village purchases a few of their items but I’m not sure from where. They also donate most profit to some type of organization or charity, might want to look it up. The Post, I have no idea if they do any charity at all; however, the do have some type of repair and testing service from what I can tell (different from Value Village) – might be interesting to get more information on that as well.
August 5th, 2009 at 5:09 PM
Sean says:
Lots of Value Village stuff comes from Taylor’s family. We go there and see stuff donated like a week ago.
I’m sure a lot of it comes from other places though, or bigger cities; because they advertise 5000 new items weekly or something, and Medicine Hat can’t do that.
Both places probably do charity though, since a lot of it is donated and they make lots of profit, or I would imagine…
August 7th, 2009 at 3:59 PM
Taylor says:
In my defense the reason we donate so much to Value Village is because we know it isn’t going to sit in the rain for 3 weeks like donations to the Sally Ann seem to. Even though selling for profit seems selfish it does motivate them to have a clean, presentable store with merchandise that is in good shape. Every time I’ve gone to the salvation army the store isn’t overly clean and doesn’t have much variety, probably because they let their donations get ruined by leaving them on the street for weeks.
I’ve heard before that the Value Village chains cycle their stuff around a lot so smaller cities can get variety and volume that they couldn’t get otherwise.
February 4th, 2010 at 3:52 PM
Lucy says:
I used to work at Value Village. A great portion of the company’s profits go to the Canadian Diabetes Association. It may seem “wrong” for them to make profits, but they put a lot of work into their stores. Each item is inspected by at least one person before it’s carefully evaluated and priced. Anything dirty, or with holes, or unsaleable is recycled. Value Village then sells this excess clothing etc in bales to impoverished third world countries. Clothing that has been on the racks over five weeks gets the same treatment. I will admit I also think some things are overpriced, and you should always do your own inspection for holes, stains. But as far as second hand stores go, it’s the one I never leave empty handed!
March 26th, 2010 at 3:55 AM
Dean says:
Dorothy & I purchased a few rings from Mr & Mrs Pawn a few months ago (which needed to be resized), and they said to go to Lido at Goldpro Jewellers for quality work. If Lido told us any of the rings could not be done properly, Mr & Mrs Pawn would promptly refund our money on any ring.
Lido first checked each stone on the rings to make sure none were loose, and that each type of stone configuration could be resized. No problem.
Lido did excellent work and we are happy customers of both Mr & Mrs Pawn and Goldpro Jewellers.
Goldpro Jewellers
Co-op Mall
Bay 118, 3030 13 Ave SE
403-528-3398
July 10th, 2012 at 9:37 AM
cody briere says:
Yeah i have to agree they do have good games like halo combat envolved but other that that the store rocks for movies games eletronicts thanks king of trade. Sincearily Cody a happy 10 year old.