Woodinville Pawn Shop: Quick Cash, Great Deals

With a Ronald McDonald figure in the front window, guitars hanging on the wall and shelves lined with power tools and DVDs, doesn’t look much like a financial institution. But that’s exactly what it is, say owners David and Marilyn Jaffe.

Pawnshops are for “people (who) need to get short-term loans,” says David. While you can’t get a same-day $100 or $150 “emergency” loan from a bank, he explains, you can from a pawnshop. It doesn’t matter if your credit score is 800 or 400; as long as you have collateral – personal goods that you can leave as security – you can get a loan.

He explains: At any time during the 90-day loan period, you can repay the loan, plus fees and interest (which are regulated by the state), and retrieve your goods. Or you can just pay the interest and renew the loan for another 90 days. If you don’t do either, the collateral becomes the property of the shop, and the Jaffes put it up for sale.

The good news is, even if you default on the loan, your credit record stays intact; pawnshops don’t report to credit bureaus, they explain.

It’s an age-old model; pawnbrokers have been around since the days of Ancient Greece. The international pawnbrokers symbol – three spheres suspended from a bar – dates to the medieval times, says David. St. Nicholas, otherwise known as Santa Claus, is their patron saint, he adds.

Pawnshop customers come from all walks of life, say the Jaffes. According to Marilyn, Woodinville Pawn has regular customers who repeatedly pawn the same items  for emergency cash. Others bring in their valuables before going on vacation; they get a short-term loan and secure storage for their items while they are away.

Customers can also sell items outright, says David; and they buy gold for scrap. He grew up in the pawn business. His father opened a pawnshop in Seattle in 1944, and his brother owns one in Burien. He and Marilyn have been operating Woodinville Pawn for 14 years.

Pawning is “basically having a garage sale without the work,” says David. “I don’t want your junk,” adds Marilyn, explaining she only takes quality goods that they can sell. If you don't know the value of the goods you wish to pawn, the Jaffes will help you figure it out.

“Why pay retail?” asks David, adding that Woodinville Pawn’s prices are low, and that they will negotiate on many items. And, they guarantee everything.

Contrary to the “Hollywood image” of pawnshops as dark, smoky establishments that pay pennies on the dollar for suspicious goods, the Jaffes stress that they take great care to make sure the items they purchase or accept as collateral are in good condition and are the legal property of the seller or borrower, and they pay fair prices for them.  

“Every single solitary item” is reported to the police, explains Marilyn. Saturdays, after closing, the Jaffes transmit the manufacturer, model and serial number of all pawned items to the police, who then check them against stolen property records. If there is a match, the Jaffes know by Monday morning.

“We’re helping them recover their stolen goods,” says David. Pawnbrokers have no desire to deal with thieves, says Marilyn, explaining that if they make a loan that is secured by stolen property they become victims of the same crime.

Through loans and purchases of items from customers, the Jaffes figure they have “infused about $2 million into the local economy” since they opened. And, says David, most of that money is spent right away, “pretty much in the local community.”

"We live and breathe Woodinville," he adds.

Oh, and about that Ronald McDonald figure… According to Marilyn, it came from a McDonald’s employee who got it when the restaurant remodeled and removed it from the roof. She sold it to the Jaffes when she needed some cash.

“Don’t you love him?” she laughs, admiting she keeps the figure priced artificially high because she really doesn’t want to sell it.

I can’t say I blame her.