Customers Tell Their Tales, and Pawnbrokers Lend an Ear
In the 32 years since he and his father founded the first pawnshop in the San Fernando Valley, Paul Trietsch says they have made almost a million loans on everything from Super Bowl rings to Nazi swords. And with a million loans come a million tear-jerking sagas.
“The customers always feel obligated to tell you why they need the money,” he said.
Trietsch, 53, has witnessed a diverse parade of characters in his shop, Traders Inc., in Reseda: wife-beaters, parole violators, rich bag ladies and one ashtray-wielding lunatic who thought he could better his loan by clobbering Trietsch. Desperate customers often are driven to pawn necessities.
“I once had someone bring in an iron that was still hot,” he said. “They had to finish pressing their clothes before they brought it in.”
Another man tried to pawn two live bison that had been on exhibit in a Wild West show. “That’s when we decided we’ll never take anything that eats,” he said. “It would have cost us much more to feed them than we could have made from the interest, and I do have my limits.”
But, he acknowledges, sometimes the stories are really sad, “particularly if there are children involved. I’m compassionate, but I divorce myself from it.” If the customer seems destitute and the story rings true, he will try to find help through service organizations and, in moments of weakness, he has even been known to pay for motel accommodations.
Viewed as Heavies
“TV, movies and books always portray us as the bad guys, the crooks, the gunrunners, fences and drug dealers,” Trietsch laments. “It’s a tremendous stigma to overcome when the public is used to viewing us as the heavies.”
In an episode from the old “Twilight Zone” television series, an unsuspecting customer pawns his soul to a satanic broker who quickly issues him a small ticket to use for redemption. Not only do such scenarios unfairly condemn the pawnbroker, said Trietsch, but they are also just plain inaccurate.
Those little pawn tickets still so popular with scriptwriters have, in reality, been replaced by contracts, and, because of strict state government regulations, the actual pawning process is anything but simple.
Today, Trietsch said, a potential pawner must affirm that he is the legal owner of the item being pawned, show a driver’s license, passport or state identification, sign a police report and a loan contract and offer up his right thumbprint.
For all his troubles, he walks away with a loan of only a small percentage of his property’s value (the percentage varies from item to item and depends on marketability)--and ink on his thumb. Then the paper work is passed on to the local police department to determine whether the property is stolen. And it often is, says Trietsch, who is holding a video cassette recorder, a camera, jewelry and a set of golf clubs until they can be returned to the rightful owners.
Sometimes, Trietsch says, the theft victim’s insurance reimburses him for the money he lent on the stolen item, but other times, he is left holding the empty golf bag.
Proliferating Paper Work
Trietsch and other pawnbrokers say the ever-increasing paper work they are required to complete threatens to squeeze them out of business. “There are some states that no longer have pawn shops because legislation has made it impossible for them to run their businesses,” said Trietsch, who runs Traders Inc. with partner Pat Murtagh. “No one could survive following all their rules.”
But Dennis Hooker, president of the Collateral Loan Assn. of California, a trade group, said, “In states like Florida, where the laws made it very difficult for the pawnshops to operate, pawnshops became ‘buy and sell’ shops, where they buy an item from a fellow on Monday and sell it back to him on Friday.
“So the pawnshops always stay around in one form or another. In fact,” he said, “now they have more brokers in Florida than they had before.” But the “buy and sell” trend is not yet popular in California, he said.
Sam Rosenfeld, manager of Collateral Loans in Reseda, believes California pawnbrokers are better off incorporating. Unlike the family-owned Traders Inc., Collateral Loans is owned and operated by a corporation. “It’s easier for corporations to come up with the large amounts of capital and expertise needed to open a shop,” said Rosenfeld.
He predicts that individual ownership will pass and that corporations will take over, “but ultimately, they will also be forced out of business if over-regulation continues,” he said.
Hooker says that, although he has noticed no pronounced trend of corporate ownership in California, there are certain tax advantages to incorporating.
Abraham and Lucette Moraly are a French couple who opened the red-white-and-blue American Loans pawnshop in Reseda just three months ago. “We don’t have customers and we don’t have merchandise,” said Lucette Moraly.
Abraham nodded in agreement and said, “We give a little more money than we should, just to get the people in here and keep them coming back. Also, most of the time the people are down and embarrassed. We want them to feel a little better, so we decorate the place.” He was referring to the antique Brownie cameras he had bought to dress up the display case.
Abraham fought off a little of his own depression as he glanced out his store’s front window at Traders Inc., which is just across the street. “They do a very good business,” he said wistfully.
Trietsch concurs that there are seldom less than half a dozen shoppers browsing in his Traders Inc.
Typically, a customer gives the shelves an obligatory once-over, then slowly sidles up to Trietsch or one of his employees and timidly pulls out a watch engraved to him from a relative or even a celebrity--”from Georgie Jessel,” for example, and slides it across the counter for an appraisal.
The main thing to remember, Trietsch said, is to “always treat people with dignity and respect. For many, we’re the last resort. They can’t get a loan at the bank, and they don’t want to sell their possessions, so they come here.”
Of course, few people would consider asking a bank officer to float them a loan because they need a drink, but Trietsch hears it all the time. And drug addicts, he said, “don’t come right out and say it, but you can tell they’re high as a kite.”
Loan amounts vary. “We’ve gone up to $2,000, but we try to keep it below $300 per loan,” he said. Most brokers set limits for themselves, he said, depending on the amount of capital they have available for loans. If a high-roller waltzes in with the Hope diamond, “We send him to Beverly Hills,” Trietsch said with a chuckle, adding that it’s not unusual for flashy folks in limousines to pull up and pawn jewelry.
To retain ownership of their hocked goods, customers must make regular interest payments. The rate varies from a dollar a month for a $10 loan to 12 1/2% for the first three months on a $100 loan. Someone who just can’t do without that crock pot pawned last Christmas can retrieve it by paying off the original loan, plus interest.
15% Lose Treasures
Trietsch says that, despite intentions to reclaim their treasures, 15% of his clientele end up forfeiting the merchandise. And he has a tightly packed inventory room to prove it. The shelves bulge with hundreds of musical instruments, scores of TVs, VCRs, golf clubs and “enough guns to finance a revolution.”
“It really doesn’t make any difference to us if they pick it up or not because we’re winners either way,” said Trietsch. “It’s like Las Vegas: The odds are in the house’s favor.”
So he gets his money back with interest, or he ends up with the item, having paid only a small percentage of its value. After a minimum of seven months, he can sell it at the front of his shop.
Will the neighbors hear that you were reduced to hocking your possessions? Thanks to an unwritten code of confidentiality that Trietsch said almost all pawnbrokers abide by, wild buffalo couldn’t drag that sort of gossip out of him. He’d love to tell you which San Francisco ‘49er is minus his Super Bowl ring, but cannot.
What he will tell you is that those rings aren’t worth as much as one might think. “We can’t judge it as a Super Bowl ring, because to anyone besides the person who earned it, that doesn’t mean anything. We have to break it down to what the stones and metal are worth,” he said. The final estimate on such rings is often as low as $100 or $200, but he said it can be more, depending on the year and the materials.
Fame Helps Up Ante
Then again, if the previous owner was Roger Staubach or Joe Namath, that’s a ring of a different price tag. But you don’t have to be famous to up the ante. Trietsch said, “If you have a good story with anything, you can get more money for it.”
Rosenfeld of Collateral Loans agrees, but said, “It works only up to a point. We’re constantly saying, ‘Why did we fall for that?’ ” Then he acknowledged that the stories are part of what attracts people like him to the business.
“I’ve always been intrigued by used items, and I think most pawnbrokers are,” he said. “There is so much history behind all of the things we get.” No doubt, his stuffed ape, Japanese battle flag and Nazi sword have a few tales behind them.
Although Rosenfeld has seen his share of gold records, championship cups and the like, he has yet to make a loan on an Oscar. Similarly, Trietsch has only heard of such transactions, but figures that tomorrow just might be the day when one shows up on his counter, bringing with it a story that would make Rona Barrett’s mouth water.
“That’s why I always enjoy coming to work,” Trietsch said. “I never know what will be waiting for me when I get there.”
