As the U.S. economy continues to slump during President Biden’s term, pawn shops across the country are seeing an increase in customers looking to pawn items rather than redeem them for cash, said former “Hardcore Pawn” star and Detroit pawn shop representative.・Mr. Gold told FOX News.
Mr. Gold, who appeared on the popular show True TV from 2010 to 2015 with his adult children and fellow pawnbrokers Ashley and Seth from American Jewelry and Loan, said pawnshops are precognitive. He said he was a capable “street-level economist.” economic situation It gets better or worse before the media does it.
“I see it every day,” he said, noting that pawnshops typically have two customer lines: “redemption” and “pawn.”
“Currently, the pawn line is probably twice as long as the redemption line for people receiving goods,” he told “The Ingraham Angle.”
Mr Gold said the past six months reflected a notable increase in customers visiting 8 Mile stores in desperate need of cash to procure basic necessities.
“They need to put food on the table, gas in the tank, and a roof over their heads. So now you’ll have more customers coming in for loans,” he said.
When host Laura Ingraham pointed out how this situation illustrated Americans’ daily lives, Mr. Gold responded that his clients’ financial woes were worse than that. He said he could see it.
“I mean monthly,” he said. “Our clients, our customers, are pawning items to get them through the week. They’re not worrying about next month.”
“They – you know – sometimes their paychecks come in and sometimes they don’t, but like I said, they just need money for necessities, so they pawn goods every day. come.”
Gold said this paradigm is not unique to American jewelry and loans, with pawnshops across the country reporting similar situations, and that they require things like credit checks rather than banks to accept cash on credit. He suggested that some people may look to pawnshops as a way to obtain them. .
“Pawnshops are good because they pawn items and it’s a non-recourse loan so it won’t negatively impact your credit score or your ability to get credit,” he says.
While many customers may try to pawn standard items such as electronics, furniture and jewelry, Gold also mentioned some unusual items that people come to pawn.
One such item was a van owned by the late Dr. Jack Kevorkian, a pathologist and right-to-die advocate, who Gold noted was from Michigan.
Mr. Gold said he made a bet with the man who pawned the car, saying he would pay between $20,000 and $40,000 for the spooky car.
Gold ultimately purchased the van for $20,000.
“So even though it still wasn’t really value for money, just the idea of getting something this iconic was the reason we had to sign the deal.”
