Archive for the ‘Pawn Shop Stories’ Category
Friday, January 6th, 2012
From Heartland Connection Dot Com
By Ela Soroka
KIRKSVILLE, MO. — For Thursday’s Facebook Story of the Day, the majority of you wanted to know what the rules are for pawn shops regarding checking the legality of items pawned.
According to the owner of Double B Pawn & Jewelry in Kirksville, Bob Jones, there are several things they must do before purchasing an item from someone.
“First of all, they have to sign paperwork stating that the item is theirs and they have the right to sell it,” said Jones. “On a form we fill out their personal information including name, driver’s license/ID number, height, weight, color of their hair and eyes and their address. We then make a copy of their identification card and attach that to the paperwork. From there it’s recorded into a data base.”
In order to help keep track of the items purchased, pawn shop owners must also record all their transactions in a national data base.
“In the state of Missouri, pawn shops are the only buy-sell kind of business regulated by the state where we have to record all information on the seller and the item being purchased, and then we have to download that information within 24 hours into a national data base,” said Jones. “Police and sheriff’s offices can then go into that data base and check case numbers against serial numbers to see if an item was reported stolen.”
So what happens if an individual comes into a pawn shops to see if that store has an item of theirs that was stolen? According to Jones they are not allowed to disclose information on the individual that pawned the item.
“We’re a lending institution just like banks so we are governed by federal law and state law which have the right to privacy act, and we can’t divulge any of our activity to an individual,” said Jones. “However, the police or sheriff’s office can come in and check those records on a daily basis if they need to. But we can not divulge anyone’s transactions as far as purchases or pawns to a private individual by law.”
According to a survey that was done a few years ago, less than one-tenth of 1% of stolen items go through pawn shops because there is a paper trail.
“Thieves don’t like that,” said Jones. “They rather go some place where there’s not a paper trail and sell that item. For example, places that buy gold and silver, some stores melt everything on a weekly basis so once that’s done, it’s gone and there’s no record on who brought it in.”
So what happens if an item a pawn shop purchased turns up stolen? According to Jones, they will take legal action against the person that pawned it.
“We do prosecute to the fullest extent of the law and we have done that before when we found that we’ve had stolen merchandise,” said Jones. “We’re not afraid to do that. We like to see those people off the streets anyway.”
Tags: consumer credit, Pawn Loans, pawnbroker, pawnshop, stolen merchandise
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Thursday, December 29th, 2011
From Herald Tribune Dot Com
Pawn shops collect food and toys for needy
America’s Super Pawn officials say its “Season of Giving” event was a success at its stores in Manatee and Sarasota counties.
Beginning Nov. 1 through Dec. 14, the goal was to collect 2,500 nonperishable food items for All Faiths Food Bank and 100 toys for The Boys & Girls Clubs in both counties.
The total numbers collected from customers and business partners were 2,675 food items and 148 toys.
Tags: America's Super Pawn, Bradenton, Pawn Loans, pawnbroker, pawnshop, Sarasota
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Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
From HealthyCal Dot Org
Callie Shanafelt
Changes at local pawnshops give a small glimpse into how the recession is hurting the middle class.
Despite the Hollywood image of the seedy pawnshop full of stolen goods, pawnbrokers throughout California are now catering to higher income clientele.
This change is due in part to a rising need among the long-term unemployed who need cash to pay their bills, according to Emmett Murphy, spokesperson for the California Pawnbrokers Association.
They turn to pawnbrokers to borrow against valuable items they bought during better economic times.
They go to pawnshops like Numis International Inc. in the middle-class town of Millbrae near the San Francisco International Airport.
At first glance Numis International Inc. looks like a discount jewelry store.
“I have people who come in sometimes and say, ‘do you know where the pawnshop is?’” said Jacob Notowitz, Numis store manager. “And I’ll say yes, it’s right here.”
Notowitz has seen a steady increase and change in his customers during this period of long-term unemployment.
“Five years ago they were in excellent shape, and unfortunately they’ve run into hard times, and it’s taken them a long time to run out of their savings,” Notowitz said.
At the beginning of the recession, his average customer was in their 30s or 40s. “They were out of college and had a job, they were kind of the first to be let go,” Notowitz said.
Now his average customer is in their 40s or 50s, and many have never pawned anything before. “As the economy has maintained its downturn more people are coming in with higher quality merchandise that they need to borrow against,” Notowitz said.
Gordon Winter came in to pick up his 1978 Fender Precision bass guitar that he pawned four months ago. “I ran out of money. I didn’t have the means to make it to the end of the month,” said Winter. A former musician, Winter has been unemployed for the past three years after being laid off from his job at Xerox where he worked for six years.
Notowitz’s customers aren’t just the long-term unemployed. One recent customer was a construction contractor who borrowed fifteen thousand dollars to pay his employees. During good economic times he has enough money coming in from completed jobs to pay his employees for current projects. But today business is slow, so he has to borrow the money for his payroll for six months until his client pays for the project.
Sixty percent of the customers that walk through their door come into the shop to get a pawn loan. The process is pretty simple: customers bring in an item, the shop staff appraise the value and give the customer a cash loan for a little less then the item is worth. The loan is usually for a period of four months and the customer pays about 10 percent more in loan fees and finance charges to the shop for the loan. They can extend the loan by paying the fees and agreeing to a new loan with a new set of fees.
If they do not extend or repay, the shop keeps their item and resells it. But the pawnbroker doesn’t report the default to any credit agency and it does not affect customers’ credit score. Ninety-five percent of his customers return for their items or to extend the loan, Notowitz said.
While Notowitz loans out anywhere from twenty-five dollars to five hundred thousand dollars, the average loan they make in the shop is two or three hundred dollars.
California’s unemployment rate, which stands at 12.1 percent, is one-third higher than the national unemployment rate. As state and national politicians struggle to create jobs, the pawn industry continues to grow.
While politicians talk about the difficulty of creating jobs, Notowitz hired two new employees in the past two years.
Tags: California Pawnbrokers Association, consumer credit, Numis International, Pawn Loans, pawnbroker, pawnshop
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Monday, October 31st, 2011
From Money-Market UK Dot Com
London’s oldest pawnbroker Suttons and Robertsons reports brisk business.
With Banks closing their doors to many customers wishing to borrow money, a growing number is turning to pawnbrokers for help with cash flow needs. And as operators report a huge upsurge in business, customers find that borrowing against valuables is quick and cost-effective short-term when compared to other forms of lending, particularly unauthorised overdrafts.
Suttons and Robertsons, London’s oldest pawnbroker reports brisk, repeat business with many of its customers returning and borrowing cash of around £2,000 on average against gold jewellery, diamonds, antiques and even works of art.
In its South Kensington store, the average loan is £6,000 and the largest amount the group has loaned to date is £250,000 but, has the funds to lend up to £1m should the need arise. It has just opened a branch in Fleet Street offering quick and discreet service to the City – so there is every chance a £1m-pound customer may walk through the door!
Director of Suttons and Robertsons Jim Tannahill has worked for the firm for near 30 years: “In the early 80’s pawnbroking saw a resurgence in popularity; but it was the start of the credit crunch around six years ago when business really started to boom. We suddenly started to see lots more Rolex and other luxury watches, large diamonds and items that were directly the trappings of wealth from years of prosperity. A typical customer was not someone to be regarded as being in financial difficulty”.
Most were simply used to a certain lifestyle and using our services to cover holidays, school fees, and even business deals, because it was becoming much easier to borrow from us than from the more traditional high street lenders.”
And growth in the industry shows no sign of slowing. But using a Pawnbroker does come with some caveats: “We are a short-term lending option” says Tannahill.
“Anyone looking for a loan term of over six months really should explore other options before using a pawnbroker. They should also be sure they will have the means to repay the loan or they will lose their goods” he adds.
To borrow from a pawnbroker you need two forms of ID. If happy with the offer, you can usually walk away with your money in 15 minutes. All pawnbrokers are required to observe the Consumer Credit Act, and there is a legal obligation for the Pawnbroker to write to anyone who defaults on their loan of their intention to sell the goods, giving them 14 days’ notice. “At Suttons and Robertsons we have a much greater than average redemption rate with only around 10-15% of customers defaulting on their loans,” says Tannahill. “People who do redeem their valued items, quite often bring the same things back in the next time they need to borrow money. We are seeing a lot of repeat customers making us more like a bank than ever before…I guess it’s just a sign of the times and we are glad to be able to offer a valued service to our customers during periods of financial difficulty,” added Tannahill.
Suttons and Robertsons has branches in four London locations – Victoria Street, Edgware Road, South Kensington’s Brompton Road, and Fleet Street. For further information visit www.suttonsandrobertsons.com
Tags: consumer credit, Pawn Loans, pawnbroker, pawnshop, Suttons and Robertsons, United Kingdom
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Wednesday, September 21st, 2011
From RGJ Dot Com
Dayton Valley Pawn
If you’d enjoy meeting a man who really
loves his work -drop by Dayton Valley
Pawn and say hello owner, Gary Barwig.
Barwig says, “It’s like Christmas every day
for me. I never know what’s going to come
through that door!’
While living in Southern California, he
owned several second-hand stores. But,
this is the first time he has owned a
pawnshop and is able to offer loans to his
customers.
Dayton Valley Pawn first opened in the
Occidental Square in Dayton three and a
half years ago, but when a great location
was available for lease on highway 50
across from Terrible’s casino he jumped at
the chance to relocate his shop last year.
Dayton Valley Pawn has a wide selection of
new and used firearms, specializes in
buying and selling gold and silver jewelry
and has a large inventory of other items for
sale.
One of the perks for the pawnshop’s
customers is the ability to shop on-line at
http://DVPawn.com -just scroll down to the
Ebay site, click on it and Dayton Valley
Pawn’s store appears. Barwig’s wife, Liz,
runs the on-line aspect of the business.
Barwig was in law enforcement for many
years, but when he realized how fast his
pawn business was growing, he soon put in
for retirement. He said, “Looking into the
future when I reached the age of 60, I
knew I definitely didn’t want to still be
working for someone else. Now I’m my own
boss and enjoying every minute of every
day I’m in the shop!”
Dayton Valley Pawn gives back to the
community by helping many of the area’s
schools with fund-raisers as well as
purchasing ads in Silver Springs and Dayton
school yearbooks. They also offer
sponsorships to Little League teams.
“I like dealing with people on an every day
basis. There is always someone who needs
money and needs to sell, and someone
who has money and wants to buy,” Barwig
said.
Bonnie Matton covers businesses in west-
central Lyon County that cater to locals and
those who pass through our rural
communities. Questions or ideas? e-mail
editor@daytoncourier.com.
Tags: consumer credit, Dayton Nevada, Pawn Loans, pawnbroker, pawnshop
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Friday, September 2nd, 2011
From Finance Dot Yahoo Dot Com
Secrets From a Pawn Star
By Jeff Macke | Breakout
The business model of the pawn shop dates back over 3,000 years and remains largely unchanged: A customer in need of some cash gets a loan from a merchant, using a personal possession as collateral. The pawn shop holds the property for a predetermined amount of time, charging interest on the loan. If the customer can pay his debt before the deadline, he gets his property back. If not, it’s the pawn shop’s to resell.
While the basic transaction is much the same as it was in ancient China, the reputation of the pawn shop industry has fluctuated wildly. Pawn shops have often been portrayed and viewed as vaguely threatening stores located in seedy parts of town, where only desperate customers would dare venture to.
Today, the modern pawn industry has become something else entirely. Many of these shops, which also operate like small banks, are publicly traded companies and are becoming cultural phenomena. The embodiment of the new era of the pawn shop is Rick Harrison, star of History channel’s monster hit Pawn Stars and author of the book “License to Pawn”. Harrison, who runs the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas, Nevada recently sat down with Breakout to discuss the economy, misconceptions about his business, and the endless number of curios he comes across when dealing with the 3,000 to 4,000 customers coming through his shop every single day.
Harrison immediately addressed the lingering perception of pawn shops preying on the down-and-out, or especially in Las Vegas, desperate gamblers down to their last chips. Despite the tough times, nearly 80% customers reclaim their goods; meaning a pawn shop transaction is more like a bridge loan for the roughly 25 million Americans without a traditional bank account, rather than a legitimized loan sharking operation.
Which isn’t to say the pawn shop business is impervious to the economy. Most assume the stores do better in a weak economy; but they don’t. Harrison explains that it’s the nature of buying and selling that changes based on economic conditions.
“When times are good, I’m buying less stuff and I’m selling more stuff. When times are bad, I’m buying at lot of stuff but it isn’t moving like it used to,” says Harrison. Reflecting the building slump in Vegas, there’s a glut of construction-related goods coming into his shop, but very little demand from buyers. As any student of economics will tell you, too much supply and little demand means lower prices. “At this point, we have just stopped taking construction tools altogether. That’s how bad construction is in Las Vegas,” says Harrison.
While Harrison’s front line view of his local economy is troubling, the beauty of the pawn shop business is that it can capitalize on whatever trend is hot at the moment. A car dealer is stuck selling cars regardless of vehicle demand. In contrast, the players in the pawn industry specialize in trends. Of course that brings us to the trading craze of 2011: Buying and selling gold and silver.
“I cannot keep gold and silver bullion in my stores at all,” the retail rockstar said. “We buy it every day. Every morning I put it in my showcase and it’s gone by noon.”
But if you’re ready to run to your local pawn shop to sell your jewelry, think again. Nobody in retail ever made money overpaying for goods then selling them at a discount. Harrison, like any successful pawn business, will offer a discount to the price you see quoted in financial news, and then sell your stuff at a premium if you don’t pick it up before the end of his 120-day holding period. It’s not personal, it’s just business.
Pawn shops are also the last place to go if you’re looking for a sucker to overpay for your junk. Harrison’s store carries as many as 22,000 different items at any given time, or as he puts it, the shop has “one of everything.” After 30 years in the business, he says it’s “pretty simple” to spot counterfeits. And if an item is questionable, he calls in an expert to vet the goods. It’s a good thing because there are plenty of hard-to-value oddities at any pawn shop, particularly one based in Las Vegas.
Harrison’s store alone has a fist full of Super Bowl rings, four Olympic gold medals, the boots that jockey Hall of Famer Willie Shoemaker wore in his 8,000 race, and a Pee-Wee Herman doll sealed in its original packaging. But those aren’t anywhere near the strangest thing on his shelves. At the moment Harrison is in possession of a 200-year old Japanese “pillow book” of the type he says were once given to Japanese brides on their wedding nights.
Ok then. Harrison says many of these rarities are more valuable to him as museum-type pieces than retail items. Museums may be the last thing you think of when considering pawn shops, but it’s a new day for an old industry. Whether to hock an heirloom or simply check out the modern version of Ripley’s Believe it Or Not stores, it’s time to change the way you think of the pawn shop business.
Tags: consumer credit, Las Vegas, License to Pawn, Pawn Loans, Pawn Stars, pawnbroker, pawnshop, Rick Harrison
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Saturday, August 20th, 2011
From TBO Dot Com
By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune
Published: August 20, 2011
A Land ‘O Lakes man was arrested this week, accused of selling a baseball autographed by Babe Ruth to a Largo pawn shop in November. Problem was the signature — and an accompanying certificate of authenticity — was bogus, authorities say.
The arrest is part of a larger investigation that spans the state, as investigators say Marc A. Szakaly, 40, may have sold dozens of phony autographed balls from here to Orlando and Daytona Beach, and beyond.
Largo police detectives arrested him at his home in Pasco County on Wednesday night, charging him with a single count of organized fraud. He was released Thursday after posting $50,000 bail, jail records show.
The probe began March 18, when Largo police went to the Pawn Mart on Seminole Boulevard after the shop found that the Bambino-autographed baseball they had purchased from Szakaly in November was counterfeit. The ball came with a forged letter of authenticity, police said.
The pawn shop had cut a check to Szakaly for $1,500 and had put the ball on display, employee Lisa Matassa said. The ball was offered for sale for $4,000.
A month later a customer came in and put down a deposit on the ball, and that’s when it was sent to an authenticator in California who declared the ball and certificate to be fakes, Matassa said.
Largo police Lt. Mike Loux said the Pawn Mart was hooked by Szakaly’s story of woe. “He kind of gave them a sob story, that he had two kids and he was trying to make ends meet,” Loux said.
Szakaly offered to sell the ball for far less than market value and the pawn shop jumped on it, the lieutenant said. “They were thinking they were getting a good deal.”
After the Pawn Mart complaint had been made, investigators checked pawn shop databases across the state and found that Szakaly had sold Babe Ruth baseballs all over the place, Loux said.
“They all were pawned by the same person,” he said. Szakaly gave his real name each time. “It was odd that he used his true identity,” given the quality of the forgeries of the signatures and certificates, Loux said.
The incident sparked a larger inquiry with 19 Florida law enforcement agencies in 15 counties and the Office of Statewide Prosecution.
Statewide Prosecutor Nick Cox said Friday that more charges are likely.
Baseballs with authentic signatures of the New York Yankee Hall of Famer typically can fetch as much as $10,000, according to some online pricing guides. In 2005, a mint-condition ball signed by Ruth was sold for $150,000.
kmorelli@tampatrib.com (813) 259-7760
Tags: Babe Ruth Baseball, Pawn Mart, pawnbroker, pawnshop
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Monday, August 8th, 2011
From News Times Dot Com
John Pirro, Staff Writer
DANBURY– During his 10 years as a Waterbury police officer, Doug Mineo spent a fair amount of time in pawn shops and realized that business “fills a niche in society,” providing small, short-term loans that help people through tough times.
So when a bum knee forced the 50-year-old Plymouth resident into retirement a few years ago, opening a pawn shop seemed like a good idea.
“When somebody needs $50 to get them through the week, they can’t go to the bank for a loan,” said Mineo, who owns Hat City Pawn on Federal Road.
But they may have something of value — a laptop, tools, a camera or video games — that can serve as collateral so they can borrow a few bucks until their situation improves, he said.
“I had a vision of a shop based on honesty and integrity. If you’re going to do business in a community, you build it by doing the right thing,” Mineo said.
Pawn shops may be considered seedy and disreputable by some, he said, but in the year he has been in business he has collected a stack of letters from customers praising him for living up to his values.
One satisfied customer is Lenny Engelman, of Danbury, who a few months ago walked into Hat City Pawn with some of his wife’s old gold jewelry and a two large, silver-colored coins inherited from his father-in-law.
Mineo said he was concentrating mainly on the gold and only gave the coins a quick glance.
“I thought they were Eagles,” he said, referring to the one-ounce, silver bullion coins issued by the U.S. government. He paid Engelman $20 apiece for them.
“He called me back the next day,” Engelman said, “and he told me it was worth a couple of bucks more, so he asked me to come by the shop the next day so he could settle up.”
Assuming that the difference was only a few dollars, Engelman didn’t return immediately, so Mineo called him again the following day.
This time when Engelman went to the shop, he was surprised that Mineo counted out 10 $100 bills and placed them in his hand.
“He said, `I didn’t realize the coin was platinum,’” Engelman said. “He could have sold it for $1,200, and I would be none the wiser. But in this day and age, it was nice to meet someone who did the right thing.”
Other letters — with copies sent to the Police Department, which monitors the operations of all the pawn shops in the city — describe how Mineo helped the writers recover items that had gone missing from their homes.
In one, a Brookfield man recounts how Mineo returned two expensive guitars that had been taken in a burglary.
The man visited area pawn shops after discovering the theft and provided the staff with descriptions of a Les Paul guitar with a broken toggle switch and a brand-new red Fender bass.
So Mineo was prepared when two teenagers walked into his shop and tried to sell the instruments.
After opening the first case and finding the Les Paul, Mineo placed it behind the counter and waited as one of the teens placed the second case in front of him, unopened.
“I said, `This must be the red Fender bass.’ You should have seen their faces,” he laughed.
Mineo kicked them out of the store with a stern lecture, and they were later arrested by police. But the bottom line, he said, was the guitars ended up with their rightful owner.
Contact John Pirro
at jpirro@newstimes.com or 203-731-3342.
Tags: consumer credit, Pawn Loans, pawnbroker, pawnshop
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Thursday, July 14th, 2011
From TBN Weekly Dot Com
Article published on Wednesday, July 13, 2011
CLEARWATER – Big Tim’s Pawn recently opened its second retail store, located at 1690 Clearwater Largo Road.
Big Tim’s Pawn Clearwater is a 5,000-square-foot store serving residents of Clearwater, Largo and Belleair and adjacent communities six days a week, providing cash loans and retail deals with superior service.
“Opening a Clearwater store is a huge goal for me being a local guy,” said Tim Russell, president and CEO of Big Tim’s Pawn, in a press release. “I graduated from Largo High in ’85 and never could get away from the area I loved.”
According to Russell, his first store opened in 2009 in Pinellas Park. His customers were looking for a more northern county location.
The staff at Big Tim’s Pawn Clearwater has more than 20 years of pawnshop experience.
Big Tim’s Pawn is committed to improving the Pinellas County community by sponsoring local police and high school events like the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Athletic Program and the Northeast High Cross Country program.
Copyright © Tampa Bay Newspapers: All rights reserved.
Tags: Big Tim's Pawn, Clearwater FL, consumer credit, Pawn Loans, pawnbroker, pawnshop
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