About Pawn Stores

Pawn broking is the oldest method of lending money; it dates back to early China 3,000 years ago. Pawnshops served as primary lenders to their communities and provided financial bases for some of the more important historical events of their times. According to the National Pawnbrokers Association, even Queen Isabella of Spain pawned her royal jewels to finance Christopher Columbus' expedition to the New World.

The pawn industry came to America with the first settlers in the early parts of the 18th century. Pawn broking was regarded as the main source of consumer credit. With the rise of large consumer credit institutions, such as finance corporations, savings and loan associations, and credit unions, the pawn shop is no longer the main source of consumer credit but it plays a vital role in it. Pawnbrokers loan money to people based on the value of the items they pledge as collateral. In recent years many pawnshops became an easy way to get rid of unwanted goods.

The general public needs to borrow small sums of money that other financial sources are not willing to provide. What chance do you think you would have in securing a $300.00 or smaller loan from a financial institution for a 30 to 90 day period? The cost of the paper work alone prohibits them from making such loans on a regular basis. Pawn stores offer short term collateral loans ranging from ten to thousands of dollars.

All items obtained by Mark's Jewelry & Pawn are processed through an Internet-based crime-fighting tool where information on all pawned or sold items is shared with police departments nationwide. All items are held for 30 days before cleared by local authorities, and then put for sale. Each customer is required to present a valid government issued ID and fingerprinted at the time of business. Regardless of what people see on TV or in the movies pawnshops are the worst place to get rid of stolen merchandise. We train our associates to be on the lookout for any stolen items and someone attempting to pawn or sell in stolen property will be prosecuted.