‘We get everything’: Las Vegas pawn shops share most commonly hocked items

What are people most frequently pawning in Las Vegas?

Sin City pawn shop customers primarily bring in gold and silver jewelry, the easiest item to pawn, or in other words, to put up to obtain a cash loan, according to Sandor Orantes, lead pawnbroker at TNT Pawn in Enterprise.

“Wedding bands, wedding sets, engagement rings, diamonds, Cuban chains, rope chains,” Orantes said of the most common items.

After jewelry, the next most pawned items are firearms, including rifle brands like Rock Island and Daniel Defense or American-made handguns by Glock and Colt, Smith & Wesson, he said.

For the shop’s customers active in the local construction industry, it’s Craftsman and other name brand power tools — drills, sprayers and saws — followed by cameras, laptops and high-resolution TVs, he said.

His shop also displays classic electric guitars by Gibson, Les Paul and Fender, for which the owners “always come back,” settle their loans and reclaim because they treasure the instruments, Orantes said.

In Nevada, pawnshops must give borrowers up to 90 days to buy back their property, charge a maximum of 13 percent interest on the loaned money every 30 days and can take possession if the loan is not paid, according to Andrew Zimmerman, chief financial officer of the Gold & Silver Pawnshop downtown.

Jewelry is the mainstay for pawnshops because arriving at a price is pretty straightforward, Zimmerman said.

“For gold and silver there is market value for that every day,” Zimmerman said.

Jordan Bock, a pawnbroker for John’s Loans & Jewelry Co. just off of the Strip, also pawns mainly gold and silver jewelry.

“We get everything,” Bock said. “Grills (decorative gold tooth covers), pill boxes, people’s personalized pendants. Mostly it’s rings.”

Bock’s customers also commonly hock smart phones, computers, video game consoles, handbags, shoes and musical instruments, he said.

‘It could be anything’

Trey Simmons, lead pawnbroker for Max Pawn Luxury off of Sahara Avenue and Jones Boulevard, specializes in the expensive designer side of pawned merchandise, what his business refers to as “preloved” instead of secondhand.

Monogrammed designer handbags, those with the company logo printed on them, are particularly popular to both pawn and buy from him, Simmons said.

The shop recently offered a Louis Vuitton reverse monogram bag for $2,900 and a Chanel navy-colored patent leather bag for $2,800, after the former owners did not pay their loans.

“Louis Vuitton is probably about the biggest,” Simmons said. “Then I’d say Chanel, Gucci, then of course it kind of falls off from there.”

It happens often that people come in trying to pass fake designer bags, he said, but “they don’t get past our counter. We just say we cannot authenticate the bag and hand the bag to them.”

Pricey watches, like a recently displayed Rolex Yacht-Master model for $75,000 and a Patek Philippe Geneve for $39,500, are also prominent in Simmons’ inventory. Then there are Apple products like iPads and iPhones.

“Somebody could bring in honestly anything that they place a value on, and they bring it to us just to see if they can get some type of income from it,” he said “And that can be from plants to urns to crystal. It could be anything.”

Contact Jeff Burbank at jburbank@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0382. Follow him @JeffBurbank2 on Twitter.