Tales From A Pawn Owner

Early Hollywood movies depicted a pawn shop as a place to purchase cheap firearms, or to hock stolen items, but not all pawn shops are created equal.

"A pawn shop is a reflection of its owner," said Dave Rizer, owner of in Dale City, which he opened in 1995.

Rizer used to manage grocery stores in Northern Virginia, and had moved to Seattle, Washington, before his family asked him to come back.

"My family was in it [the pawn business] already," said Rizer. "I was really worried and didn't like the connotations of a pawn shop, but my family said, 'run it how you want to.'"

Today, Rizer describes his shop as an "antique and estate jewelry" pawn shop. While guitars, home entertainment systems, power tools, and televisions make up the decor of Royal Pawn, Rizer explained that most of his revenue is derived from high-end antiques and collectibles which he sells online. He refuses to buy or sell guns, except for antique weapons.

"You have a great chance at getting rid of things here that you could not get a loan on at other shops, because other pawn owners don't realize what some of this stuff is," explained Rizer.

One of the first loans that Rizer paid out was to a man who had $14,000 worth of Tiffany frames that he couldn't sell to anyone else. Rizer said he recently sold the military uniform jacket worn by the commander of the D-Day invasion at Normandy on eBay for $5,000.

However, in the last six months more and more people have used Royal Pawn to obtain loans for, or outright sell, their gold, silver, and other precious metals.

"The biggest difference that we have seen is the hurt that people are feeling, and how much they need loans, or to sell items," Rizer added. "We had people that came in here to buy from us all the time, but they don't buy anymore."

Rizer also feels that Washington's politics, and more specifically the debt agreement that was passed earlier this week, have had a direct impact on his business.

"Of all the people we need to help in this country, we need to help those that need work," said Rizer. "[The debt deal] not only failed to get people back to work, it made things much worse. I'm over here trying to sell silver, thinking that the debt deal will cause the price of silver to plummet, but it was such a bad deal that the stock market tanked, and the prices of silver and gold went through the roof. At a time when people can afford it least, the prices are going up, because no one wants to be in the dollar anymore; the dollar keeps going down."

According to Rizer, the upper-class have never been more profitable than they are right now, yet, they are not expanding, or hiring, because it is not in their best interest to do so.

"If my brother was given another one million dollars tomorrow, he would not hire a single employee, but he would put that one million dollars in the bank; but putting it in the bank doesn't do anything for anybody," said Rizer. "I look at my business as being a ball, and part of what makes my ball roll is making loans to people and collecting the fees from it, or buying items from people and then selling that item. All of those things help the ball roll, but people not buying is a flat part of the ball."

Not only have the dynamics changed, and locals are no longer purchasing pawned items, but the clientele has also changed. Rizer said he sees more wealthy people bringing in antiques and collectibles in order to meet their cash demands.

"We've never given out more money than we have recently," added Rizer. "We've had a hard time keeping up with the demand for money, and had the debt agreement not gone through, we would've been wiped out of money in about three hours."

Rizer feels that Hollywood has given pawn shops a bad reputation and that what you see on television is nowhere near how the business is run in real life. He admits that a pawn owner's job is to obtain valuables as cheaply as possible and then sell them for as much as possible, but Rizer advises anyone looking to sell merchandise to a pawn shop to know exactly how much the item is worth, and know exactly how much he or she is willing to be paid for it.

"I've always been of the opinion that it is so much easier to take care of a customer than it is to treat them poorly and try to find another one," said Rizer. "I realize that what customers are bringing in to me is far more important and valuable to them than it will ever be to me, and as long as I can try to keep peoples items theirs, I will."