So.... You worked at a shop not a pawn shop then....? The main idea of a pawn shop is that they give you a loan for maybe 50-70% of the worth of the thing you pawn. If you pay back in x amount of time you get your thing back, if you don't, they get to keep (and sell) your item. They keep the collateral but until the time of the loan is up it's not their property and they aren't allowed to wipe anything. It seems that this particular shop allows you to extend the time of the loan by paying a small amount. Even if he pawned it in September last year he kept paying to renew the loan. I haven't had a PS since PS2 but I can't believe that important data wouldn't be stored on your account on a PS5. So his reasoning sounds like bullshit or he never backed it up. Either way, pawn shops are for losers unfortunately. It's often predatory and you will never ever get a good deal.