Pawns are but Poor Men

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Leo would break a box and sell me one cartridge! June and Charlie Bassett — all good folks. Dad traded there for years. Remember the Plaza, the real porn theater, the Orange Peel sitting empty, Rogers plumbing, Fains,etc. My father purchased his first brand new car in from Ed Orr. And my parents had their own business on Biltmore Ave. I hope others will as well. Do you mind me asking what business your parents ran? I remember going in once and looking at a pair of end tables which looked like the price tag was Bunn was a personal friend of Thomas Wolfe — used to stop in and chat with him often — also regularly visited Mr.

Sidney Schochet Star Bootery and Mr. Zack who ran the Pack Square Cigar Store — fascinating folks with neat old businesses! Love to read and remember the way downtown used to be. We walked up from David Millard after school to catch the city bus home. Much better than riding the school bus.

They would only let you sit if somebody ordered something so we would pool our money hoping we could get enough for a coke! Thanks for a great Tuesday History, Thomas! I remember the Army -Navy Store — the proprietor was Mr. Of course we have many beautiful memories of Pop and the store. We thank you for keeping the legacy alive. Or login with Facebook, Google or Yahoo! Clubland Calendar Classifieds Guides. By , his son Leo changed its name to Finkelstein's Inc. He also moved the shop, formerly at 23 Biltmore Ave.

No longer in the family, it now operates at 21 Broadway.

Pawns are but Poor Men

After his recovery, Harry opened a restaurant. However, according to Leo: Even convicted felons can own stuff, right? And the customer is almost always protected. If we discover an article is stolen, the pawnshop generally reimburses the customer and the pawnshop takes the loss. Quietly -- indeed negotiations happen here so quietly, the loudest noise in the shop is the cash register -- Gorewitz, a gray, sweet-faced second-generation pawnbroker, explains the business of pawning. Note I said wholesale. This may seem less money than you expected, but it's fair. You paid a retail markup of or percent when you bought the watch retail.

I can buy that same watch, new, wholesale, for a fraction of your cost. Interest is not compounded; it's on the principal only. If you do neither we hold the item for 30 more days. At the sixth month marker we own the item. A pawn can be renewed repeatedly as long as the interest payments stay current. Because interest adds up fast, it's best to pay off the loan in 30 days, and many do.

At least half my clientele redeem their pledges on time," Gorewitz says. He advises that customers can make more money by selling an item outright to a pawnshop than by accepting a loan. He gives the following guidelines:. There are points to a carat. Watches, cameras, stereos should net you 20 to 40 percent of their retail price; pawnbrokers will sell them for about half their original retail cost. That gives some margin for bargaining. Gorewitz says pawnbrokers compete for clients, topping a competitor's offer by as much as 20 percent to get a new customer.

Since different pawnshops specialize in different items, Gorewitz advises that people find a shop that handles their kind of goods. To pawn or sell in D. One must prove ownership of the item to be sold or pawned or sign a statement attesting to it.

One copy of the paperwork goes to the police and the item is held for 15 days, 30 if it's jewelry, before it's put on sale. The shops send the records to the police who look for stolen merchandise by checking serial numbers or other identifying features. Some people like to query pawnshops over the phone, but the secret of a pawnshop's success is bringing the curious customer into the store. I say, 'All right.

Turn your TV to channel 79 and hold the ring up. I'll see the ring and appraise it over TV. And some allow you to take expensive jewelry or cameras to an outside appraiser before you finalize a sale.

Some, like Isaacoff, who is a licensed gemologist, will also give you a full refund within 30 days if the jewelry he sells you is not as he has described it on the sales receipt. In Arlington, legends of jewels that could rival the Smithsonian's gem collection hang heavy over National Pawnbrokers on Lee Highway. Genuine pawners cry when they part with something precious; it's the thieves who act arrogant," says owner Gary Chelec, a third-generation pawnbroker.

Chelec, thin and jumpy in a three-piece gray suit, makes a point of telling you that he does not fit the typical profile of a pawnbroker. He does not try to get to know his customers, and under Virginia law, he is entitled to charge more on a pawn loan than D. Unlike the cramped, object-crowded pawnshops of D.

It has 15 full-time employees, who follow you politely up and down the wide, fully stocked aisles. Though one of these employees may begin a negotiation with you, all deals ultimately go through Chelec. I operate too fast.

Only A Pawn In Their Game

He stands behind a block-long jewelry counter filled with gold chains, diamond tennis bracelets, alternately speaking in English to me and in Spanish to a couple pondering an engagement ring. Chelec explains how to bargain in a pawnshop. He tells me what he wants to borrow, a figure that reflects what he needs, not the maximum potential of the piece.

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People make the same mistake when I ask them what they want to pay for something. I'll keep asking you till you answer. Just then a Hispanic couple pawning a TV comes over to Chelec. He remembers them from a year before when they pawned and redeemed the same set. Chelec takes them, and me, to a vault, pulls out tray after tray of diamonds, emeralds, rubies, solid, thick ropes of karat yellow gold. People from around the world who want to buy big stones come here.

I have more variety than most jewelry stores; in fact most jewelry stores in D. He drapes me with an emerald necklace that looks like something Elizabeth Taylor would wear. The couple returns to the jewelry counter to speak, in German, with one of the store's employees. Chelec leads me to the elevator to take me two floors up to still more vaults.

The doors open onto a roomful of rifles. Chelec takes my elbow and steers me through aisles and aisles of guns and rifles, making the point that since hocking guns in D.

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We exit into a roomful of workmen's toolboxes, more than of them, Chelec says, all neatly tagged with the pawner's name and date of pawn. After the guns the toolboxes look both peaceful and personal, so customized to their owners that for a moment I imagine a roomful of men in workclothes, each conspicuously empty-handed, temporarily cut off from his means of making a living. My voice catches on the next question.

He propels me to yet another room of pawned merchandise: Still another room holds heirloom sterling silver and the kind of real gold-rimmed plates you cannot put into the dishwasher when you have to let the servants go. Finally we come to the second set of vaults loaded with diamonds, each diamond ingloriously stuffed into a little brown paper bag secured with a rubber band and inscribed with the name of the diamond's owner.

On the way down in the elevator I wonder aloud if Chelec has a private office where he takes the wealthy, famous or royal customer who wishes to pawn something discreetly. Chelec shows me the room. It has glass walls obscured by louvered blinds. Above Chelec's desk is a large cut-crystal bas relief of a naked man holding a naked woman in passionate embrace. It's what you see above Chelec's head as you negotiate a large deal.

Just as we exit this office a well-known, TV news reporter walks in. She comes over to Chelec and says, "I need to talk to you again.

Know the retail cost of the kind of item you seek in a pawnshop. Rule of thumb is you should be able to buy an item for 40 to 60 percent below retail. Best months for bargaining are the slower January, February and March. Christmas is the worst time to expect a bargain. Never pay the price on the sales tag. It's inflated 20 to 30 percent above what the pawnshops hope to get. Ask if the item has been sitting on the shelf awhile.

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