Author: Eva Tushenkina
31 March 2022 15:49
Community: Life Stories
Tags: borrower loans collateral property stories life stories pawn shop for rent
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Many people think that pawn shop owners are entirely swindlers and deceivers who are just waiting to defraud someone. Of course this is not true. Sometimes a pawn shop can be the right place to help you. Here are some interesting stories and a list of the rarest items ever left in an American pawn shop.
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Gold shavings
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“One day a 20-year-old guy came into our pawn shop. He brought a box with him and said that he had some gold to sell. I decided that he would now take out some of my grandmother’s jewelry (the kind that usually turns out to be fake jewelry), but he opened the box and showed me this - a whole bag of real gold shavings. I was simply amazed! It turns out that this guy's father had his own pawn shop, and the father recently passed away, and this was only a SMALL PORTION of the gold they kept. Then the guy brought and sold us more gold. Moreover, he asked for very little, I gave him an honest price, four times more. He needed money urgently - for his father’s funeral and to pay his mother’s bills.”
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Attention, fakes!
Attention, fakes!
Dear Colleagues! The proposed material contains a number of the most typical samples of things counterfeited as products made of precious metals. Often such products bear a high-quality hallmark, sometimes the name of a well-known manufacturer. Please be extra vigilant when accepting similar products! Unfortunately, detecting the fact of falsification requires a deep cut. We ask you, in case of repeated appearance of counterfeits with typical characteristics in pawn shops, send photographs of the counterfeits with a description to our e-mail. Please look at the wishes for the materials sent! We will publish them on our website. We hope that such publications will help us all reduce the number of mistakes made by our employees and the income of fraudsters. We are waiting for your information.
Cross with enamel. General weight. 8.0 -10.0 gr. Clean weight 2.50 - 3.80 g. Good sample (585) Moscow. Assay inspections and names. There is a silver plate inside.
Cross. Weight 6.68 g. A very thick layer of spraying, with small sagging/shagreen surface visible (as if the product was dipped into liquid metal and it did not flow evenly). The mark and hallmark on the ring are quite clear. The ring does not differ in color from the cross itself. Inside there is white metal. The 750 acid reagent causes the sample to foam with green foam.
Bracelet with synthetic stone, total weight. 15.5 g., good standard (585) Moscow. sample inspections supervision and name. Thick layer of gold (not sawn through). Gold - 7 g, lead - 8.5 g
The chain has a total weight of 6.40. Imported sample (750) with our approval (750) Moscow Assay Inspectorate. The lock, plate and end switches are gold. The chain is gilded.
Bowl. The inside is thick plastic, the top is covered with silver. Total weight 128.9 g, silver weight - 56.9 g.
Cartier watch Total weight 46.54 g. Slim case and gold screws - 5.9 g. Mechanism - 18.99 g. Massive metal washer - 21.65 g.
Men's signet, yellow gold with diamond edge. Total weight 7.68 g. Weight of gold 2.76 g. 585 sample import. Mark of the Moscow Assay Office (electric spark method). One synthetic transparent insert. There was metal of a shiny gray color, heavy, and not magnetic.
Keychain icon. Total weight 23.71, purity 585 fake. There are 3 copper plates inside. The net mass of gold is 13.8 grams.
Brooch with gold plating. The castle is gold. Imported sample (750) with our approval. Total weight 18.07 g.
Four pawn shops simultaneously brought identical rings: 585 standard, weight about 16.5 grams. The shank is gold, there is also gold on top, metal (flattened coins) is inserted between the blind caste and the top overlay. After removing the non-gold parts, the mass of gold is about 8 grams.
Chains total weight: 19.6 and 17.5 g. Length ≈ 55 cm. Gold plated on top, silver metal inside.
Chain. Weight 63.50 g. False stamp 585, copper inside. A very deep cut is required.
Chain. Total weight 56.36, b/p. Externally, it is very similar to 583 sterling watch bracelets from Soviet times. The net weight of gold is about 30 g.
Cross. Weight 19.20. Contains 6.80 gold (585-583) (unassayed), the rest is metal similar to lead. There is a thin coating on top, the back part is made in the form of a tray (not sawn through).
Bracelet Total weight 15.75 g. Length with lock - 195mm, hallmark 585 (M - Moscow GIPN) plus imported 585
Bracelet. False hallmark (583 with a star), Yerevan Assay Office. The bracelet is silver with thin gold plating. Lock 500 standard. The total weight of the bracelet is about 40 g.
Signet. 10.92 g, standard 583 is indicated. Made entirely of brass, the reagent reacts in a few seconds.
Suspension. The shell is thick enough for cutting, but the weight immediately raises suspicion.
Keychain (in the shape of a dolphin). General weight. 9.0 g., good sample (585) Moscow. insp. samples supervision and name holder. Thick layer of gold (not sawn through). A large mass with a small keychain size (diameter 1.5 cm) should alert you.
Chain. Weight 51.76g. The hallmark is 585, the mark is unreadable. When a file is cut, gray metal is visible; when reagent 585 is applied, the reaction is instantaneous - the metal turns black.
Ladanka 32.24 gr. Silver inside. Thick coating. There are also some with images of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and the Mother of God.
This is how bullion is counterfeited.
Ring, synthetic stone, total weight 7-9 grams. The sample is excellent, factory. A hole is drilled in the factory ring, lead is pumped in, and a synthetic stone is inserted. The net weight of gold is 2.3 - 2.7 grams.
Chain from 30.00 to 60.00 gr. The sample is false (585). The lock is golden. The chain itself is metal with gold plating.
Suspension. 585 standard, weight 16.66 g. Metal is poured inside, the hole is hidden by a pin to which the bow is soldered. The bow and pin are entirely made of gold. The side walls are quite thick, it is very difficult to saw through. The back side, with a deep scratch, reveals a fake. Well, the rather large mass, which does not correspond to the size of the product, should alert you!
Chain. Total weight 47.19 imported sample (sun). Large rings are gold, small rings are copper wire (not all).
Chain. Imported hallmark (750) in a rhombus, locks and ring - gold, silver chain with gold plating. General weight from 25.0 to 30.0 g.
The bracelet is round. The total weight is 19.49 g. There is a sample with the birthday boy. The exact mass of gold is not known. The metals stuck together and could not be separated. Advice: make a 2 mm cut, density in water 11.
Bracelet with synthetic stones. Total weight 31.01, purity 585 imported. There is metal inside the links. Net weight of gold - 5-6 grams
Ring with synthetic stone, total. weight: 8.46 g. There is no sample or nameplate. There is rolled metal at the top of the ring.
Chain: weight about 78 - 80 g. Gold on top, thick layer of enamel. There are not gold plates soldered inside.
Bracelet 27 gr., imported hallmark 14k. Thick layer of gold (not sawn through). Metal is pumped inside.
Chain. Weight 18.23 g. Length 54 cm. Very thick coating layer. The mark and hallmark are quite clear. The metal inside is light yellow. The 750 acid reagent causes the sample to foam with green foam.
Medallion with gold plating, without hallmark, total weight 3.05 g.
The two rings are exactly the same design. Laser test (585). There is no nameplate. One ring is gold. The second is gold-plated metal. You should be extremely careful.
Bracelet. Fake 585 standard, silver rolled inside.
Fake with very low gold content, but costs 583 fine
Chain. The sample is false (750). The lock and end switches are gold, the chain is silver with gold plating. Total weight about 35 grams.
The ring is white and gray, with synthetic stones and even diamonds. The sample is good, 585 and 750. Check with reagents 500+950 - there is a black stain on the napkin from the reaction.
Dental gold. Weight 2.37. When applying reagent 750.900 there is no reaction. The color of the metal should be alarming; it is unnaturally yellow; when cutting, gray metal is visible.
Bracelet with synthetic stones. Total weight 16.87. Proof 585 and nameplate MYuZ - laser, very high quality. There is metal inside the links. The pure weight of gold is about 5 grams.
Weight 19 gr. The chain has lead inside. A blown product with a different metal inside. The blown thing should be empty inside. You can feel the weight when you pick it up. When the cut is deep, white metal is visible.
Engagement ring. Imported hallmark 750 in a rhombus, with silver rolled inside.
Keychain (in the shape of a lion). General weight 12.40 g, no sample. Thick layer of gold (not sawn through). The heavy weight and small size of the keychain should alert you.
Keychain with stone synth., total. weight. 3.5 g., good standard (585) Moscow. sample inspections supervision and name. Thick layer of gold (not sawn through). A large mass with a small size should alert you.
Ingot with tungsten filling. Tungsten has almost the same density as gold, so it is almost impossible to distinguish by weight.
Armor bracelet, General. weight. about 50.0 gr. without hallmark, clasps and ends - 585 gold, fairly thick gold sputtering 1-2 mm.
Cross. The total weight is 4.56, the purity is 585 and the nameplate is fake. The image of Christ and the ring for the chain are gold. The rest is coated metal. The net mass of gold is 0.56 grams.
The product was purchased in Turkey. Made from zinc and copper alloy.
Pair of earrings. 7-8 gr., good sample and MMChB name. There is wire inside, net weight 3.5 - 4 g. The large mass of the product should alert you.
Coin. The sample is not indicated, the color is bright yellow, the weight of the product is 18.25 g, when it is cut deeply and an acid reagent is applied to the 585 sample, it foams with green foam.
Forks and spoons. Hallmark 84 “BLANC”, thin silver plating.
Coins. The declared sample is 986, the real one is 710-715. The weight of the coins - 13.94, 13.97,.. - varies about 14 grams. The metal holds a reagent of 900 standard and even 950, but after chemical analysis it turned out that the Coins are 710-720 standard.
Suspension. On the ear, the sample in the shoulder blade is 585. The thickness of the pendant is 4-5 mm. Weight 14.65 g. Metal inside. The stones are set on plaster. Only the ear and bezel are gold
Wedding rings. Weight may vary. Hollow inside. Tin is poured through the hole where the stone is installed (the stone can be any). Sample 585 imp.
The cross is metal inside. Weight 19 gr. The chain has lead inside. A blown product with a different metal inside. The blown thing should be empty inside. You can feel the weight when you pick it up. When the cut is deep, white metal is visible.
Bracelet. Total weight 52.55 g. Length 210mm, width 18mm, fake hallmark 585 (M - Moscow State Institute of Petroleum Petroleum)
The bracelet is gold, partially hollow, one half of the ball is weighted with something. The disc is probed along the diameter with a needle and boils with 750 reagent. Doesn't respond to magnets. There were three specimens weighing 19.4 g, 21.5 g and 21.64 g. Upon opening it was discovered: the lower part is a white metal sleeve covered with thin gold foil (there is no way to separate it).
A pair of earrings is metal, total weight from 2 to 6 grams. The sample is false (583 with a star). Smooth rings - metal, total weight from 3 to 10 g. The sample is false (583 with a star).
A watch with a leather strap (the brand does not matter - in our case, “Patek Philip” and “Poljot”). The mechanism is attached to a massive brass washer. The watch case is attached to it with 8 screws. The weight of the watch without strap is 42-46g. The body is made of gold foil. Gold weight – 5.18g. When receiving, pay attention to the back cover. When pressed, it bends easily (foil). And, as a rule, there are small dents on it, which are not found on normal watches.
Ring in the shape of a panther's head, in the mouth there is a white stone with a diameter of 4 mm, the total weight of the product is 5.77 g. A very thick layer of spraying on the outside and inside of the tire, a thin layer of spraying inside the head - we were able to make a deep cut. The alloy “boiled” from gold chloride.
Bracelet. Total weight 31.50 imported sample 750 and Russian approval. Metal is pumped inside the links.
An imported bracelet is made of galvanic foil, lead and cadmium are poured inside.
Bracelet. Weight 24.69. The standard is 585. When a deep cut is made, gray metal is visible; when the reagent is applied, the metal inside turns black and darkens at the edges. Gold plating on top. The connecting ring is not gold.
Bracelet. 585 standard domestic, bad, weight 23-30 g. Thick plating and gold lock. Inside there is white metal.
Earrings. False sample 585, weight 5.35 g. A very deep cut is required.
Cross, with rolled synthetic stones. 750 is a good sample. Total weight 5.60 g. Thick layer of gold (not sawn through), metal filled inside. A large mass with a small cross size should alert you.
Gold items made half of copper. The products are 585 standard, perfectly tested. Washing down and checking do not give any results, since the products are made in the form of balls at the end, inside of which there are supposedly gold threads (gold-plated copper). You just need to have a snack to identify the fakeness. All delivered products had the same mass of 14.24 g.
Weight from 7 to 8 grams. Metal is poured inside. The pure mass of gold is about 1 gram. Imported sample 958
Rolex watches
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“This Rolex is a Lady-DateJust 28. It was the first real, non-counterfeit Rolex to come through our pawn shop. They were later sold for $7,000. And in 99% of cases they bring us fake Rolexes - this can be immediately understood by their weight, they are too light. Well, then check the serial number and everything else.”
Ring
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“This is one of many rings that have come through our pawn shop, but it's that big diamond in the center that makes it unique. In a jewelry store, such a ring would sell for about 10-15 thousand dollars (crazy, if you think about it!). I gave the guy who brought it $1,500, but then he never came back to pick it up. I ended up selling the ring for $6,000 (and then the person who bought it from me came and bragged that he resold the ring for $10,000).”
Old Pawn Shop Songs
Judging by online advertisements, there are four pawnshops for sale in Moscow, and Alexander Karamushka is engaged in the sale of two of them. Pawnshops sell from 1 million to 2.5 million rubles. “Basically, at the price of costs - how much was spent on repairs and organization. This is a very low price. The pawnshops have not yet been sold, there were only three people really interested in buying so far,” says Alexander. According to his estimates, 15% of existing establishments are already experiencing difficulties, although recently the talk was exclusively about the attractiveness of the good old pawnshop business. Mikhail Unksov estimates the number of problem pawnshops at 40% - all those that appeared during the crisis. Selling a business through a broker or through an online ad is rare: as a rule, it is done through personal contacts.
Bank of Moscow analyst Egor Fedorov notes that the crisis gave impetus to the development of pawnshops, but as the economy recovers, the share of pawnshop loans will inevitably decrease. “During the crisis, banks tightened their requirements for clients, while pawnshops have practically no requirements for borrowers,” says Fedorov. The client was ready for a percentage higher than the bank rate and a severe discount on the collateral - especially since antiques, valuable fur items, and, first of all, jewelry are suitable as collateral: banks practically do not work with all this stuff.
The restoration of bank lending, notes Alexander Karamushka, will take no more than 15% of customers away from pawnshops, after all, the segments are different, and the pawnshop market is stabilizing.
Mikhail Unksov believes that a pawnshop should take an individual approach to clients, flexibly determining rates. His opponents are for equal conditions and instant service
Photo: Vasily Shaposhnikov, Kommersant
During the crisis, some pawnshops, with their appearance, even dealt a blow to the idea of them as institutions for the poor. For example, Lombard 38, which opened on Stary Arbat in August 2009. There are no traditional windows where customers hand things over. Deals are discussed at the table. The client is offered coffee and tea and, if necessary, will be helped to park the car. Most of the visitors to Lombard 38, according to one of its shareholders Anton Zinoviev, are business people, their wives or girlfriends who are accustomed to a certain level of service. At Lombard 38, branded jewelry of the Chopard and Tiffany level, branded watches and antiques are accepted as collateral. They don't even consider technology - with the exception of Vertu phones.
“During the crisis, I realized that there is a segment of people who recently felt very good financially, but now they need money,” says Anton Zinoviev. “It has become impossible to take out loans. Borrowing from friends is probably the last thing these people will do due to reputational risk. We opened this pawnshop for such clients.”
Owners of branded jewelry have their own advantages. “In pawnshop networks there is no concept of “thing,” there is a concept of “metal price,” says Zinoviev. “A person who bought a watch for $200 thousand will not go to a regular pawn shop to pawn it at the price of metal for 20 thousand rubles.” Already about 70% of pawnshops do not value products solely by the weight of the metal, Mikhail Unksov disagrees: if the ring is artistic, the price per gram can be several times higher than the regular price. But still, when accepting expensive watches, simple goods inspectors are not enough. “It’s not so easy to distinguish an expensive Swiss watch from a good fake. With us, everything is based precisely on a professional assessment of things,” says Anton Zinoviev. According to him, “Lombard 38” could have worked just as well before the crisis, especially since gambling establishments, potential sources of clients, were operating then. It is obvious, however, that such an establishment can always occupy a narrow niche. “To break even, we only need to serve one person a day,” says Zinoviev. “The deposit is less than 10 thousand rubles. we don't take it. And if people ask for two or five million, we will be happy.”
In general, the activities of pawnshops, adds Yegor Fedorov, are partly related to the shadow segment of the economy, the share of which increases during a crisis and decreases as stability is restored. “Now pawnshop clients will come to the bank for consumer loans in order to pay off old expensive loans and get their collateral back,” Fedorov believes.
According to the League of Pawnshops, the monthly turnover of the Moscow pawnshop market compared to pre-crisis times has increased by approximately 70% and amounts to 3-3.5 billion rubles. The league associates this not so much with the influx of clients (there are ten percent more of them), but with the increase in gold prices: in February 2008, a gram of 585-carat gold cost about 700 rubles, now it costs more than 1 thousand rubles. Over six months, the share of chain pawnshops in the market’s cash turnover increased from 45% to 70%. But a lot of small pawnshops also appeared. Before the crisis, there were 350-400 actually operating pawnshops in Moscow, now there are about a thousand.
Mikhail Unksov believes that after the crisis the number of pawnshops will return to 350-400. “This is a stable market figure that was formed about ten years ago, and during critical events it “walks”,” he notes. The surge in the number of pawn shops during the current crisis repeats the situation in 1998. The only difference is that in 1998 the crisis occurred very quickly, but now it is protracted. “Then there was a leap. In August there was a default, in October-November a surge in the birth of new pawnshops had already begun, their number increased by 60%, but by March they saw that there were no mountains of gold, by the next August-September most of them had already closed, says the president of the League of Pawnshops .— The current crisis began in October 2008, by December the process of the birth of new pawnshops began and continues to this day. People are just starting to become disillusioned with them.”
According to the general director of the St. Petersburg network “United Pawnshop” Dmitry Terentyev, it is quite possible that at the end of the crisis the number of pawnshops will be even less than before the crisis: the networks will become larger, while simultaneously pursuing a tough internal policy. “Small, kiosk-type pawn shops should go away,” says Dmitry. “The chains, in turn, will monitor the profitability of each branch.” And yet, many of the small outlets will try to survive, argues Alexander Karamushka: after all, the founder spent about 1 million rubles on creating a pawnshop, it’s better to suffer the costs than to say goodbye to investments.
As Karamushka noted, pawnshops can still earn extra money by repairing jewelry, polishing, appraising, and buying mobile phones. “Half of the pawnshops earn money on the side—it’s a safety net,” says the consultant. “Although pawnshops are prohibited by law from engaging in other types of activities. Therefore, they use other legal tools: they register a separate legal entity, and the pawnshop, it turns out, has nothing to do with the accompanying business.”
Video game equipment
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“The story goes like this: a guy who owned a video game store came to us with a laptop and a Nintendo Switch (this was when it came out) and said he wanted to pawn them for $1,000. I replied that there was no way I could do that. Then he drove into the car and additionally brought all this. I gave him a thousand. After 3 months he still hadn’t come back for his stuff, so I sold it for about $3,000.”
The key to failure
A little over a month ago, Alexander Karamushka, a consultant for Deloshop (one of the ready-made business stores), received a call from the co-founder of a pawnshop that opened in August 2009. He asked me to help sell my creation. And the pawnshop has enough clients, and the location is good - on the outskirts of Moscow in a dense residential area, but there is no working capital: one of the co-founders, who was supposed to contribute his own funds, turned out to have nothing to contribute. “And money is like blood to a pawnshop. If they are not there, the pawnshop cannot issue loans,” explains Alexander Karamushka. “People bring things, but they are refused under various pretexts: they say there are problems with the bank or, say, the collectors did not arrive. In this situation, a pawnshop loses customers and is forced to buy only small and fast-turnover items for 5-7 thousand rubles. Since January, we had to stop accepting goods, giving out what we had previously accepted.”
Alexander is well aware of the economics of the enterprise. It took the founders, former bank employees, about 800 thousand rubles to open. At first they began to issue loans for only 300 thousand rubles. per month, the profit from interest paid by clients, and at the same time part-time work in the form of accepting scrap gold and cleaning jewelry did not exceed 80 thousand rubles. And the expenses are considerable: rent of premises - 57 thousand rubles. per month, manager's salary - 55 thousand rubles, salary of two receptionists - 50 thousand rubles, accountant - 10 thousand rubles, security company - 9 thousand rubles, cleaning - 2 thousand rubles, consumables materials and other costs another 6 thousand rubles. Total - 200 thousand rubles. per month.
To even break even, it was necessary to raise 300-500 thousand rubles. to increase the volume of loans issued monthly, but this opportunity just did not turn out to be. “If the turnover is pumped up, the pawnshop will not stop,” explains the logic of the business, the president of the League of Pawnshops and director of the “Your Pawnshop” network, Mikhail Unksov. “Like a steam locomotive, it accelerates slowly and slows down.” True, according to Unksov, for stable acceleration it is necessary to first distribute millions of rubles in order for serious interest payments to be made. “An established pawnshop has 1.5-3 million rubles worth of pledged property in its safe, from which it is slowly receiving stable interest,” says Alexander Karamushka. Not everyone has such resources, but in the midst of the crisis, it became easier to accelerate the “locomotive” itself, and many new players poured into the pawnshop market. Now, as clients urgently in need of money are no longer ready to take out a loan on any terms, the business of pawnshops that did not have time to accelerate has begun to slow down.
Self-loading pistol "Mauser K96"
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The Mauser K96 was popular during World War I, and was also the pistol used by Han Solo in Star Wars. An elderly man brought it to our pawn shop and pawned it for $300. And then he didn’t come back for him. We even tried to find him through relatives, but to no avail. Then they sold the thing for about $1,000.”
