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pawnbroker
Sign in to saveAlso known as pawnshop, pawn shop, hockshop, pawn store, pawnbrokers shop
~17 min read
Encyclopedic overview
13 sectionsContents
- History
- Business model
- Assessment of items
- Determining amount of loan
- Inventory management
- Auxiliary operations
- Upscale pawnshops
- Image Building
- Industry
- Three-ball symbol
- In Asia
- See also
- References
thumb|A pawnshop business in Munich, Germany in 2014 thumb|Helsingin Pantti's pawnbroker in Helsinki, Finland in 2023 thumb|A London shop displays the traditional pawnbroker's sign
A pawnbroker is an individual who offers secured loans to people by taking items of personal property as collateral. A pawnbrokering entity is called a pawnshop or . While many items can be pawned, pawnshops typically accept jewelry, musical instruments, coins, gold, silver and firearms. Home-audio equipment, computers, video-game systems, televisions, cameras, and power tools became pawnable as the world entered the Information Age. The items pawned to the broker or shop are themselves called pledges, pawns, or simply the collateral.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “pawnbroker” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.