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With 50,000 square feet of merchandise, American Jewelry and Loan is Detroit’s biggest pawn shop. Seth Gold, pictured here, helps run the family business, which has dealt in items ranging from live alligators to pregnant mannequins to portable toilets.
reality television show Hardcore Pawn.
born into this quirky business, and he
use their personal items as collateral for
happily embraces it. While pawn shops
a loan, or to sell their items outright for
ing, long lines snake around the store,
have a reputation for being exploitative,
cash. He charges a three-percent monthly
totaling roughly 1,000 customers each
Gold thinks they get a bum rap. He sees
interest rate, plus a storage fee of one
day. They’re eager to pawn some prized
himself as part of a “helping profession,”
dollar per month. The customer can pick
possessions for quick cash. Gold stands at
providing between 500 to 700 loans each
up their item any time within a 90-day
the ready, dressed in jeans and a striped
day to some who would otherwise have
period, provided the interest is paid; if
shirt, with a heavy gold chain around his
nowhere else to turn. “I often help people
the criteria aren’t met, Gold takes posses-
neck and two hoop earrings in one ear.
who are worried about their next meal to
sion. Gold says 80 percent to 90 percent of
His is not the typical job of a University
survive the day,” he says.
customers pay off their loan and redeem
From the moment it opens in the morn-
of Michigan graduate, but Gold was
His company allows customers to either
their merchandise, and that he’s often
SPRING 2011 / LSA Magazine
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