of maps, fools gold and professional pawn shoppers

Today you get the treat of an interim post because of the oddity that is my life.  Today started brutally slow and I was getting annoyed with the situation so I left the shop to handle my other life. 

My wife and I own an Employee Leasing company (EnterpriseHR).  We basically take over other businesses employees and provide the payroll, workers comp and benefits for them for a fee.  Nice business, not exciting but it does pay the bills and we get to employ our extended family.  I do the sales and Karen, the super mom, handles the day to day logistics of the payroll system.  We have 1800 shared employees in Florida and the payroll end of it is a real job.  So, I handle some issues there and between driving there and back all hell breaks out at the pawn shop.

When I get back we had purchased some gold and dvd's, but we also got a framed map of the world that I had found on Craigslist.  Hard to lose for $15.  When I finally saw it though I was blown away. This one had a nice frame, real plate glass, and a very old detailed map printed in Ye' Olde English.  Very cool and just my style...

You are reading this so I'll share a little.  I'm a pilot, private single engine.  I got my license becasue I've always wanted one and it was an accomplishment I could check off the list (more about the list later).  Maps facinate me, like automatic watches, fast cars, and big screen TV's I'm simple like that.  My day was suddenly much better.

After that normal pawn shop stuff, lots of looky-loos and shoppers, we didn't sell much but the shelves are still very bare.  It seems that no one is looking for the things we have but there is an endless list of stuff we don't have that they would pay a million dollars for.  Then we got a visit from out local professional pawn shop guy.

If you didn't know there is an actual vocation of going from one pawn shop to another buying and selling making a small profit.  Kevin is our professional, commission only shopper.  In the 3 weeks we have been open Kevin has brought us some cool stuff.

• Polaris ATV cheap
  
• Yamaha Jetski cheap
  
• nintendo wii's when no one could find them used...cheap
• tools....holy cow cheap
  

Kevin is a useful guy.  Kevin is also very under appreciated by other pawnbrokers.  As he explains the relationship with other pawnbrokers they tolerate him but hate the fact that he operates much like a mobile pawn shop without the licensing, etc.  I could see his side that he is treated poorly but, it's only his side of the story, time will tell.

Kevin calls me 30x per day....ahhhhhhhhhhhh, so today we changed the way Kevin works for us. 

The norm for him is to go to a shop and find something another shop may want and start calling the owners.  This is a problem for me as I loathe the phone.  Judging him on his short history Kevin would be a great pawnbroker but for whatever reasons, he just never put it together.  So today I gave Kevin store credit.  He has already made us more than $500, so I told him that he has the ability to buy for us up to $500 at anytime and we would settle it later.  I think I made a good friend and solid investment today.

Then the weirdness that is a pawn shop happened.  Store is bumping with lookers and this homeless looking guy comes in a wanders around obviously waiting for me to get loose.  As I find my way to him he is mumbling something about coins and holding a postcard for me to look at.  As I look at the card I don't understand the connection between the card and the customer.  It's postcard from a doctor.  Finally I get from him that he wants to know if we buy gold.  Sure, I say, then I ask what he has and he points to the card.  Again I feel like someone expecting to be in a college algebra class that accidentally sat in  a string theory class.  Then I really look at the card and it has a gold foil label. 

Finally, the light goes on, he wants to sell the gold foil label, he say he has 10 of them.  Instantly I want to burst out laughing and just as fast that is replaced by a wave of pity for him.  As politely as possible I tell him it's not gold and offer him a free pocket knife for coming in.  I could feel the shame and embarrassment coming from him. As a rule I never give money to the guys holding signs on the side of the road, (it's the independent in me) never felt the need.  I really felt bad for this guy.  He wouldn't even take the knife.  So that was my full circle of a day....how was yours?

Hey while I'm thinking about the blog if you like it please subscribe to it.  Really helps the Google score!

Tim Russell
www.bigtimspawn.com
www.bigtimspawn.blogspot.com
IWDTWMCAUTD

Posted via email from Bigtimspawn's posterous