Once u-pawn a time
The Stockton Record
An elderly woman walks with her head down and slowly pushes open the door to Annette's North Stockton Jewelry in California. She is warmly greeted by a voice behind the counter. The woman looks around at the old accordions, black leather jackets, stuffed animals and electric signs displayed throughout the longtime Stockton pawnshop before opening her purse to show the clerk a family heirloom. When many people are scraping to make ends meet, pawnshops are being leaned upon for small, short-term loans without a credit check.More

People re-discovering pawnshops
KHQA-TV
When times get tough, the tough get going to pawnshops. That's the word from McPike's Pawn shop owner Lori McPike in Quincy, Ill. She's been in the pawn business 22 years. Lately, she's seen a 50 percent increase in the numbers of people coming in off the street with items to sell for cash. And some of the most popular these days are DVDs and video games.More

Pawnshop steady eddy
Forbes
An operator of pawnshops and payday-lending stores, EZCORP ranks in the top 20 percent of stocks in our research universe for five of the six Quadrix category scores," says portfolio manager Richard Moroney, who's also editor of the Upside and Dow Theory Forecasts newsletters. "The exception is earnings estimates, though that score may rise now that EZCORP has reported December-quarter results. Per-share earnings surged 58 percent to 52 cents in the December quarter, beating the consensus by 10 cents. Total revenue jumped 44 percent, also exceeding the consensus."More

EZCORP Inc. picks new president
Austin Business Journal
Austin-based pawn and loan giant EZCORP Inc. added president to its chief operating officer's title. Paul E. Rothamel will take on the new pawn president duties from current CEO Joe Rotunda, who is expected to retire sometime within the year. Rothamel was also elected to the company's board of directors.More

Pawnshop power plays
Investopedia
Typically someone visits a pawnshop when they are desperate for money and the only way to get their hands on cash is to sell valuables, including electronics, jewelry and anything else that was once worth something to the seller of the item. As you can imagine, during tough economic times this type of business will benefit from people in need of cash to pay bills and feed their family.More

Luxury San Diego pawnbroker buying more silver and platinum
24-7 Press Release
Over the past year, pawnshops and jewelry buyers across the country have seen a gold rush, with cash-strapped consumers looking to capitalize on the high price of gold by selling their scrap gold and outdated gold jewelry. Luxury pawnbroker San Diego Jewelry Buyers now reports that an increasing number of men and women are coming to SDJB to pawn or sell their silver and platinum jewelry, watches, coins, and other items fashioned from these precious white metals.More

Undercover Pawn: Des Moines' pawnshops refuse "stolen" items
WHO-TV
Back in November, several teens were charged with ransacking homes on the South Side of Des Moines. Police believed some of the things they stole, like laptop computers and other high end electronics, could have been pawned off. So we wondered how tough it would be for teens equipped with a hidden camera to try to pawn off about $2,000 worth of home electronics for about $100. The good news is none of the pawnshops we went to took the bait. The bad news is none of them called police.More

Pawnbrokers opens in Berwick
The Berwick Journal
Berwick has its first pawnbrokers for over a century. Pawnbroking chain, Ramsdens Financial Ltd, has opened an outlet in Berwick - its most northerly shop in England and the first pawnbrokers in the town for more than 100 years. As well as traditional pawnbroking, the outlet also sells, repairs, buys and values jewelry as well as offering check cashing, payday loans and foreign currency.More

Let's go hocking! Pawnbrokers on the rise
Global Times
It's hard to think of a more incongruous pairing than a pawnshop in a high-end shopping mall, but that's Beijing for you. Huaxia Pawn Shop officially opened its sixth chain store at the Jinyuan Yansha Mall earlier this month, the first to open in a mall in China, much less the largest mall in Asia.More