Pawn Shops

You should have asked anyway. My experiences with those places are that things in the back are things they don't want people to see. Especially law enforcement. If I were you I'd ask just to see what he is talking about.
One person I know does inspecting for the city plumbing and since most people in buisnesses know who he is and what he does, he sort of gets coins for what the pawn shops paid. If I went to the same place the prices would be tripled.

When Mom died and I needed help evaluating her collection, I went to a nearby pawnshop and asked if the guy knew his coins.
He said the owner was the coin guy and that he only came in on occasion due to age and failing health. I called him and made an appointment explaining that I would pay him a fee to spend time going over them with me because I needed a third party to value the collection for estate purposes. I was clear that I was not interested in selling.
We met and I spent large parts of the next two days there at his counter watching numberous coin sales and purchases as other folk came in to buy and sell. It was quite an education. The personality of the person on the other side of his counter had LOT to do with final sales price. Chatting him up or knowing him from previous fair exchanges seemed to go a long ways. An attitude could nearly get you thrown out of the store. Doing the talk-talk thing would encourage him to bring out other goodies from the safe in back. A very interactive place.