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100% MONEY BACK GUARANTEE ON ALL ITEMS SOLD
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WHOOOO’S IN THE NEWS?????
Have you ever been to a pawnshop? For a lot of people, there seems to be something, well, shady about these places. But if you haven’t been to a pawnshop, you may be missing out on some great bargains. A pawnshop is a lot like a dozen estate sales and a flea market all rolled into one. Pawnshops also play an important role in many communities by providing people with an easy, fast way to borrow small amounts of money.
There are three things that happen in any pawnshop hundreds of times everyday.
· People borrow money by putting up something they own as collateral.
· People sell used merchandise.
· People buy new and used merchandise.
In this article, you will have the chance to learn exactly what is going on behind the scenes at a neighborhood pawnshop as we visit Island Lake Jewelry & Loan located at 125 E. State Road (Rt. 176) next to Culver’s in Island Lake and talk to its owners Daniel and Sandy Kriepke. You’ll realize that at the heart of a pawnshop is a fantastic lesson in economics! We’ll also look at the most commonly asked question about any pawnshop: “is the stuff in there legit?”
Pawnshops and pawn broking have been around for thousands of years. The basic idea behind any pawnshop is to loan people money. It goes like this:
1. You bring in something you own and give it to the pawnbroker as collateral for a loan (this act is called pawning).
2. The pawnbroker loans you the money against the collateral.
3. When you repay the loan plus interest, you get your collateral back.
4. If you don’t repay the loan, the pawnbroker keeps the collateral.
That, in a nutshell, is the basic pawnshop transaction. In a busy pawnshop, that sort of transaction happens hundreds of times everyday. In many communities, the pawnshop is pretty much the only easy way to borrow small amounts of money. If you needed $100 to make it through the week to your next paycheck, where are you going to get the money? A bank is not going to touch a small loan like that, and even if it did it would take a week or two to process the application. A pawnshop is a quick, easy way to get a loan.
Pawnshops are a business just like any other. But unlike many other businesses, pawnshops have a special set of laws that keep them on the straight and narrow. Pawnshops are specially licensed and state regulated by the Office of Banks and Real Estate, and it turns out that they have to cooperate with the police on a daily basis to prevent the movement of stolen merchandise. When you pawn an item, the pawnbroker takes your name and address, verifies it with your valid driver’s license and then inspects the item carefully.
A pawnshop must complete a lot of paperwork for each item they acquire. There are three reasons for this level of scrutiny:
· Every day, the pawnbroker must submit a list of all merchandise received, including serial numbers, to the police. The police compare the serial numbers against records of stolen merchandise. Anything stolen is recovered this way and returned to the owner.
· According to Kriepke, owner of Island Lake Jewelry & Loan, a typical item pawned at a pawnshop has about 90% chance of being reclaimed by the person who pawned it. This means there’s about a 10% chance that the pawnbroker will have to sell the item to recover the loan, so the item must be in a condition to be resold.
· Unlike someone running a garage sale or a booth at a flea market, a pawnbroker is running a stable business in the community and has to worry about his or her reputation. A pawnbroker cannot sell junk.
When you walk into a pawnshop, you are really seeing only half of the operation. The actual shop is twice as big as the part you walk around in. The unseen part is storage area for all the items in pawn. Let’s say that you pawn your TV- the pawnshop has to hold it for a minimum of 60 days. For those 60 days, your TV sits in storage. This allows for any claims of stolen property to be investigated by the police.
Part of the art of being a pawnbroker is having a sixth sense about how much things are worth both new and used. “The real experience comes from buying and selling things every day,” says Kriepke, owner of Island Lake Jewelry & Loan. He’s been in the business for 10 years.
Because many of the people never pick up the items they pawn, a pawnshop is a consumer store as much as a lending institution. People also come in and sell used items outright to the pawnshop. This makes any pawnshop a huge, daily garage sale! Some things you typically find in a pawnshop include:
· Jewelry * Video Game Systems
· Electronics * Video Games
· Tools * DVDs
· Musical instruments * Watches and more
According to Kriepke, owner of Island Lake Jewelry & Loan,” a pawnshop is the best place to buy jewelry!” You generally pay less than half the retail value. Worried about authenticity? Bring it to a jewelry appraiser and then tell your friends what a great deal you got. They will also replace your watch batteries and clean your jewelry while you wait.
ISLAND LAKE JEWELRY & LOAN
125 E. STATE ROAD (RT. 176)
ISLAND LAKE, IL 60042
847-526-9988
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