A Brief History Of The American Pawn Shop

Bloomberg:

Cable television has lately been bringing the art and science of owning a pawnshop to life -- even for those fortunate enough to experience it only vicariously. But pawning has been integral to Americans' financial lives for centuries.

Read the whole story: Bloomberg

Comments

[Drama Llama]

05:56 PM on 02/15/2012

I never understood the aspect of Pawn shops selling stuff in a store front.. I can understand the concept of loans at high interest and people giving you things as collateral but... the stuff in pawn shops seems to be more expensive half the time than people can find new.

Do pawn shop owners actually care if they sell the stuff? or have they already made all their money back and then some on the loan and they can just wait out selling it till the end of time till need be?

[yogajan]

02:28 PM on 02/15/2012

Check out Cash America as a good stock buy. Family member who works there tells me that their expansion plans are in the works. BTW, he loves working in a pawn shop. He gets paid well, has a wealth of knowledge about a variety of products and has some wild stories about the customers.

[Drama Llama]

05:56 PM on 02/15/2012

Interesting.. you are not the first person I have heard that stock tip from in the last 4 or 5 months.. and you have 777 fans... an Omen?? lol

[Xandal]

11:02 AM on 02/15/2012

Although I do like pawn stars, because I enjoy the history/story about various items I truly hate how "reality" shows have turned into scripted produced nonsense. I could do with it the fake drama and the horrible acting done by people that are not actors. Son of guns is by far the worst, they even built in a romance story arch...come on! There should be more reality in reality tv shows...well at least the ones n the so-called learning channels.

[born 2b different]

02:08 PM on 02/15/2012

They are TV SHOWS! Regardless of the genre, it's still a show.

[vesaversa1]

10:51 AM on 02/15/2012

Pawn Stars is great show you even get a history lesson behind everything that they purchase .

[cdecisneros]

09:17 AM on 02/15/2012

In Florida, If someone steals your stuff and sells it to a pawn shop you have to buy your own stolen items back from the pawn shop.