The days of being able to walk into a pawn shop & find a rare guitar at a bargain price are, unfortunately, long gone - pawn shop owners now know almost as much about guitars as the guys who sell or make new ones... sometimes more!!
That said, I'm sure it's still possible to buy an instrument relatively cheaply, clean it up a bit & put it up for sale online at a profit. Instead of looking for the well-known brands like Fender, Gibson, Martin, Rickenbacker etc... look for the lesser-known & sometimes quite unique, or unusual ones. There are some older Japanese guitars, with brand names you've never heard of, that were once considered cheap copies of American models, but are now doing good trade online, mainly because they're actually quite good guitars!
If you know a guitar player (of any standard - doesn't have to be Joe Satriani!), maybe take him/her on a tour of 2nd-hand stores & see what you can find. And don't forget to keep an eye out for the unusual instruments as well - cheap keyboards, drums... If it makes an interesting noise, someone will be interested in it!!
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That said, I'm sure it's still possible to buy an instrument relatively cheaply, clean it up a bit & put it up for sale online at a profit. Instead of looking for the well-known brands like Fender, Gibson, Martin, Rickenbacker etc... look for the lesser-known & sometimes quite unique, or unusual ones. There are some older Japanese guitars, with brand names you've never heard of, that were once considered cheap copies of American models, but are now doing good trade online, mainly because they're actually quite good guitars!
If you know a guitar player (of any standard - doesn't have to be Joe Satriani!), maybe take him/her on a tour of 2nd-hand stores & see what you can find. And don't forget to keep an eye out for the unusual instruments as well - cheap keyboards, drums... If it makes an interesting noise, someone will be interested in it!!