O.C. Hocks Its Future for Christmas Presents : Consumers: With economy shaky, pawn shops are stuffed with pricey ‘toys’ left behind for holiday cash.

Rolex watches. Matte-black stereos. Portable compact disc players. A 1988 Jaguar XJ6, three Porsches and several Corvettes.

It looks like fewer of these pricey baubles will find their way under Orange County Christmas trees this year, but they were piling up last week in the “Hock It to Doc” pawnshop, where business is at an all-time high, according to owner “Doc” Kilgore.

With the economy in what Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan last week called “a meaningful downturn,” loans to cash-strapped customers at Kilgore’s are up more than 25% over last year. And if Kilgore’s clientele is any indicator, the slump that Greenspan refuses to call a recession is clearly making itself felt in middle-class homes.

Interviews with several dozen county residents last week found many who are already feeling the squeeze. Some whose jobs once felt secure are now antsy about the future. And even people who aren’t hurting say they are keeping an eye on the Persian Gulf news and rethinking their free-spending habits.

There was middle-class Angst aplenty in Kilgore’s pawnshop last week.

“I got laid off from aerospace in the middle of August,” explained Bruce Crissman of Huntington Beach, who pawned a $1,000 set of golf clubs at Kilgore’s three months ago.

Crissman said he now has a temporary job that pays $3 less per hour and offers fewer benefits. He has enough cash to retrieve his clubs, but he was waiting in line at the pawnshop to extend his loan for another four months. “I prefer to have the extra for Christmas,” he explained.

Meanwhile, at Kilgore’s jewelry counter, bargain-hunter Monique Graham, 27, of Fountain Valley, was eyeing a $189 blue topaz-and-diamond pendant as a Christmas present for her daughter.

“I never thought to shop at a pawn shop until my husband mentioned it,” Graham said. “Part of it’s because the economy’s lousy, but part of it is, who doesn’t want a deal?

“We’re not hurting in any way in our family, but I don’t want to be wasteful.”

Kilgore, a retired dentist, says the banks won’t give his customers loans these days and more of them are abandoning their hocked wares. Usually, about 85% are reclaimed, but in recent months that has dropped to about 75%, he said.

And customers are hocking far more expensive belongings--from glitzy jewelry to late-model cars--and loans of more than $2,500 have doubled in the last eight months, he said.

Most of these larger loans are to self-employed and small business people who are feeling the crunch first. “They need money quickly to tide them over or to meet payroll,” Kilgore said.

Among recent customers are a woman who pawned her 1990 Chrysler to help her daughter make a house payment; a man who borrowed $300 for “Christmas money” against a diamond-and-gold bracelet worth more than $8,000; and a self-employed consultant who used to put together manufacturing deals in Mexico, and failed to retrieve a shiny new Toshiba lap-top computer that lists for $7,799.

Business is so brisk that Kilgore has cut back on what he buys. “Color TVs and VCRs, which are popular items, we won’t take them now if they’re more than three years old,” he said.

Other pawnshops report a similar uptick.

“People are trying to borrow money desperately,” said Victor Pahl, owner of Orange County Pawnbrokers in Fullerton. “A year ago, about 85% of the people I was dealing with had jobs. And at this point, about 85% of them do not.”

On paper, unemployment remains relatively low at 3.6% for October, the state Employment Development Department said Thursday. But few of the 50-odd people who waited for three hours in line at the unemployment office in Garden Grove were optimistic about finding jobs soon.

“I’ve never seen it like this. This is scary,” said Joanne Vincent, a 58-year-old widow who was laid off two weeks ago by a school picture company. A package of photographs now costs $27 to $31 per child, Vincent said, and orders are way down.

“People just don’t have the money,” she said.

Just ahead in line were two roommates, both construction workers, who had been laid off within weeks of each other.

“This is the first time I’ve seen good weather and no work in about 13 years,” said Thomas Payne, 34, a concrete form setter from Huntington Beach. “Nobody’s pouring concrete.”

Payne said he expects to survive the downturn because he’s been saving 20% of his salary. “Thirteen years ago, I was young and stupid and I didn’t have a bank account. But I saw this one coming.”

“This recession we’re looking at, if we end up going to war, I could be out of work for six months,” Payne said. “And fuel will be $3 a gallon.”

His roommate, Robert Hudgins, 34, a house framer laid off in early October, said if he doesn’t find work soon his truck will be repossessed.

“I need to do something quick,” Hudgins said. “Matter of fact, I’m going to the swap meet this weekend to see if I can sell some personal belongings to make the payment on my truck.”

Hudgins said he is thinking about seeking work in Laughlin, Nev., or even a higher-paying construction job overseas. “I’m not going to go flip burgers or anything,” he said.

People like Kathy Duran haven’t shown up in the unemployment lines yet. Duran figured her job as controller for the Baycrest Development Co. was secure because the owner, Cary Bren, would have his billionaire father Donald Bren’s credit to back him. But the company was rolled into his father’s firm, and Duran’s job evaporated.

“I do the forecasts, so I kind of felt it was coming,” she said. “I had no idea it was going to go all the way up to my level.”

But Orange County home resales plunged 32% in October, and Duran believes the downturn could last into 1992. So she accepted a job in Phoenix, and hopes she’ll be able to unload her home.

“I didn’t think I’d ever do it, but I had to do something or I’d lose my house,” Duran said.

Duran said she and her husband have survived without unemployment because they have few debts.

“But there are so many other people who will go into bankruptcy really quickly because they don’t have any savings and they have big debts,” she said. “It’s just the California lifestyle.”

In fact, bankruptcies in Orange County jumped sharply in October, when the total number of filings were 32% higher than the monthly average for 1989.

When she gets to Phoenix, Duran said she’ll set aside 10% of her salary.

“I’m going to be 40 this year,” she said. “I’m not getting any younger. I need to save.”

In a county that prides itself on affluence, the well-to-do seem pinched if not anxious. Or, perhaps, 1980s-style conspicuous consumption is passe.

Cartier has canceled its hallowed champagne-and-caviar Christmas parties for jewel-studded customers everywhere except New York and Beverly Hills, a company spokeswoman said.

Instead, the amount the jeweler would have spent on Beluga and Veuve Cliquot will be donated to United Way.

The rich are also cutting back on their maritime pleasures. Yacht sales are disastrous, especially for luxury cruisers in the $100,000-plus price range, according to boat brokers, builders and charter companies.

“The market’s being flooded with people trying to get rid of their boats, and there are no buyers,” said one Newport Beach yacht broker who declined to be named.

In 1988, about a third of all boats were sold to Japanese buyers. This year, 80% of the buyers are Japanese, the broker said. American business owners jittery about the economy are not springing for luxuries, he said. Even for those who want to buy, financing is iffy.

“They’ve tightened it up so bad that King Farouk couldn’t get a loan,” he said.

Even business for the “repo men” is off. That’s because so few people have been buying new cars to repossess, said Michael Riley, general manager of U.S. Recovery in Anaheim.

“Our business is like any other,” Riley said. “People are not buying like they used to. . . . We pray for it to change.”

Burdened with steep mortgages and consumer debt, Orange County’s federal workers are buying more used cars and less expensive ones, said Mary DeSilva, who heads the 17,500-member postal and federal employees credit union.

The number of used car loans is up 8% over last year, while new car loans have dropped 20%, credit union statistics show. And the average amount of a new car loan dropped 21%.

If people lack money for car payments, they have even less to spend on psycho-therapy, said Floyd Metz, president of the Family Service Assn. of Orange County, which counsels low- and middle-income patients. Many are depressed over job loss or a pay cut, but are postponing treatment.

“They’re telling us, ‘We’ll drop out for a while and come back when things are better. We want to use the money for Christmas gifts,”’ Metz said. “So we’re finding we’re doing less counseling, but the need is greater than ever.”

Recession talk has, however, spurred charitable giving in a county with a history of parsimony. A 1988 survey of Orange County residents found their per-capita charitable donations were less than half the national average.

But indicating a new generosity, United Way’s latest appeal raised 40% more in employee pledges than last year, said Merritt Johnson, who heads the charity in Orange County. At Shiley Labs, which recently laid off employees, pledges from those still on the job jumped 34%, he said.

Some companies plan charitable donations in lieu of Christmas gifts to business associates, said William Steiner, who raises money for Orangewood, the county’s emergency children’s shelter.

“People and companies are wanting to do something more cost-effective and a little bit more personal to give back to their communities,” Steiner said.

It’s more than checkbook social consciousness.

Matt Fidiam, a 33-year-old property development firm employee from Corona del Mar, looked the picture of yuppie splendor last week as he stood in front of Nordstrom in a navy blazer, chinos and blue broadcloth shirt. Turns out he’s at South Coast Plaza three times a week ringing a Salvation Army bell.

A growing concern for the needy and childhood memories of hard times prompted him to volunteer this year for the first time.

“You just feel a connection with certain things,” he said. “We used to shop at the Salvation Army when I was a kid.”

Shopper after shopper interviewed last week said they intend to give fewer and less expensive Christmas gifts. They expressed fear of war and recession, but also an unpleasant aftertaste from a decade of materialism and extravagance.

Nick Ebreo, 36, and Gail Landburg, 24, say they are a “typical $40,000-a-year family”--which means they are cutting back. He’s a real estate relocation closing specialist, and business is lousy. She’s a secretary.

“We’re not going to be shopping at Bullock’s this year. Now it’ll be Sears and Target,” Ebreo said.

“We watch the sales for toys, and now we’re saving coupons,” said his fiancee.

“Instead of throwing away our leftovers, we’re eating ‘em,” he added.

Melloni Cherry, a 29-year-old lance corporal at El Toro Marine Air Station, was lured to South Coast Plaza by the promise of sale prices, but left empty-handed.

“There’s no sale going on once you get in the mall,” she grumbled. “I’m telling you, my shopping is going to be a whole lot more selective. I’m going to be buying more sensible things--things people need--instead of just frivolous shopping.”

A rare event occurred Thursday evening in the deserted electronics department of a Sears store: A customer came in and bought a portable CD player. She had the sales clerk all to herself. “I don’t know if I can remember how to ring it up,” the clerk joked. “It’s been so long since I sold something.”