Sad news — a good customer lost

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Mary Unwin in her Aston-Martin

From England, a story about a minor celebrity pawn customer. Mary Unwin was featured on a British TV show about luxury pawnshops.

Following her divorce, she wanted to buy an Aston-Martin but was about 5,000 pounds (say nearly $10,000) short, so she pawned a diamond ring to get it.

She told the interviewer, “Since when do ladies want to wait for anything.”

Sadly, it looks as if her impatience may have cost her her life.

Since that show, according to the Mail Online, she had remarried her original husband and over the weekend bought a sailboat. (She paid by check, no word whether she had to resort to her pawnbroker.)

Jerry Hobkirk, who owns Falmouth Yacht Brokers, said he had warned the couple against trying to sail the vessel without proper training.

He said: ‘They came in and bought the boat, which was moored up in Falmouth marina.

‘Mrs Unwin seemed totally determined to take the yacht as quickly as possible.

‘She told us she had a ‘navy ticket’, which didn’t mean anything to us but which she said was some sort of qualification.

‘We urged them to go and get some proper sailing qualifications at a local yacht school and assumed she would do so over the next few months.

‘But the next thing we heard she had taken the yacht and set off.’

But it appears that the sailboat wrecked, and Mary Unwin, who couldn’t wait, is missing at sea.

 

 

 

More pawn reality TV

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According to Zap2it, truTV is about to introduce yet another pawn shop reality show, Hard Core Pawn: Chicago:

Hardcore Pawn: ChicagoHardcore Pawn: Chicago – New series premieres Tuesday, Dec. 18, at 9:30 p.m. (ET/PT)
Hardcore Pawn: Chicago takes viewers behind the scenes at “the baddest pawn shop in Chicago.” One of the city’s largest and oldest establishments in the pawn and gold-buying business, Royal Pawn Shop is owned by Randy and Wayne Cohen, two brothers who don’t always see eye to eye, except when it comes to finding the best deals for the business. These over-the-top siblings will wheel and deal with just about anyone, from a sweet kindergarten teacher to an intimidating mob boss. Hardcore Pawn: Chicago comes to truTV from Bischoff-Hervey Entertainment. 

 

The original Hard Core Pawn is in Detroit, and is reported to be one of truTV’s biggest hits. Well, more power to ’em. I cannot see a “Hard Core Pawn: Maui” in anybody’s future, though.

That other reality TV pawn shop

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Crowds flock to Las Vegas pawn shop

Pawn Stars shop flooded with customers and celebrity hunters

Right. While we’re working on turning Kamaaina Loan into a reality TV show, that other shop in Las Vegas is livin’ the life.

Now, it is http://www.vegasinc.com/news/2012/sep/26/buy-items-featured-pawn-stars-online/reported, they are selling the stuff you’ve seen them buy on the show online.

Not sure why this is news; most pawnshops, ours included, have an online department.

Still, you might prefer to buy on line than to visit. We’re told that up to 4,000 Lookie Lous pass through the pawn shop a day, thanks to the popularity of Pawn Stars. The business has had to hire guards to separate the celebrity-seekers from the real customers. One stream to the left, one to the right.

Laughing all the way to the bank, we’re sure.

 

Gold and Pearl

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So, we’ve been excited at Kamaaina Loan about (maybe) becoming the subject of a reality TV show. Here’s part of that reality: We’d have to leave Maui and tour.

Here’s a http://www.wlbt.com/story/19674098/reality-pawn-star-greets-fans-in-pearl about “Hardcore Pawn” celebrity Seth Gold visiting the shop of our friends in Pearl, Mississippi. Pearl, Mississippi isn’t a very big place, but it has its own pawn shop.

The pawnshop in Pearl

Postmortem on the reality shoot

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Bob McCullough of Pawn  Stories says he got enough good footage in 2 days to fill 3 30-minute shows  (with 22 or 23 minutes of program per show).

Our customers came through like champions.

Pick of the litter were 2 Father Damien postcards that were authenticated by out expert and valued at several hundred dollars.

So check the back of your desk drawer for old postcards, yeagh?

Dog of the days was probably the old home-remedy case containing about 20 vials of medicines that go back to the days of ancient Greece and beyond, like nux vomica (an emetic) and aconite (a nasty poison).

Most of the vials were empty, but the one marked “opium” still had 7 tablets in it. Our customer hadn’t noticed that.

The tablets may have been about 100 years old, and no doubt the opium has lost its potency by now. But we had to tell him, “We cannot buy opium.”

Stay tuned for even more news about reality pawn television.

Father Damien

 

 

 

Fun, fun, fun

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Kandi and Bob share jewelry tips

Kandi of Kamaaina Loan and Bob McCullough of Pawn Stories, both veteran jewelry salesmen, trade tips at our store Thursday. Bob is showing the size of an ivory tusk he bought one time.

First day of shooting for Pawn Stories is in the can. Nobody showed up with a knickknack from tutu’s attic that was really a rare artifact worth $50,000, but we had fun anyway.

Filming continues today (but not Saturday), and you do NOT have to bring an item to take part. One customer brought her voice and sang an aria from “La Boheme.” Very loud.

Bob McCullough, owner of the Pawn Stories production company, says that was not unique. He has had one other singer show up for his reality show. Not La Boheme, though.

We are no threat to “American Idol.”

Tonight is First Friday on Market Street, so we will be here and be busy all day. Stop by and join the fun.

The cameras are rolling!

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Amber and Carl

Pawn Stories camera crew Amber Smith and Carl Johnson ready to work

As of 8 this morning, the Pawn Stories crew was at work, filming behind-the-scenes at the pawnshop.

When Kamaaina Loan opened its doors at 9, there was not a line of people carrying stuffed monkeys, but there was a short line of regular customers coming in to make and pay off loans.  We’re hoping the cinematic element grows as the day wears on.

Pawn Stories cameraman Carl Johnson and his sidekick and second camerawoman Amber Smith were impessed by the Iao Valley rainforest, which they hope to hike before they leave the island.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Carl.

Carl and Amber have been filming pawn operations for Pawn Stories for years now, and they’ve never seen anything like Kamaaina Loan. But, as Carl noted, every pawn business is different.

 

Secrets of reality TV

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Secrets of reality TV

 

Most reality TV shows are staged. You knew that, right? I mean, all those coincidences in “The Amazing Race” didn’t just happen.

 

There’s an exception, though, and it’s right here. Only we need you to make it happen, fo’ real.

 

On Thursday and Friday (and maybe Saturday, too), Pawn Stories will be filming at Kamaaina Loan. No script, no fakery.

 

What we are trying to do, however, is to compress the interesting things that really do happen in the pawnshop over a month, or six months into two days – in the interest of efficiency with the production crews.

 

Thus, we want you to bring your most curious item in and let us give you a reading. Did tutu tell you the diamond in her wedding ring was “perfect”? You always wondered if it really was. Find out.

 

In reality, Kamaaina Loan does get a lot of curious stuff. Not every day. Jimi likes to talk about atmospheric clocks, “the closest thing to perpetual energy.”

 

We really do get atmospheric clocks in. We have one on pawn right now, and we purchased another about three years ago.

 

They’re real but rare.

 

So what we’d like you to do for us is help us concentrate all that reality into two days. Should be fun.

 

We’re open 9 a.m.-6 p.m., and the early bird will get the worms.

 

Call 242-5555 if you have questions.

 

And, yes, if you have regular business and don’t want to be filmed, we’re setting up a no-camera area.

To mall or not to mall

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Some background on the controversy about the Kihei megamall:

Less than 30 years ago, the sum total of national retailers on Maui was Sears, National Dollar and Woolworth, among general retailers. No Kmart, no Wal-mart.

Today, no Woolworth and no National Dollar.

There weren’t a lot of specialized national retailers here 30 years ago, either: no Pier One, no Sports Authority (which didn’t yet exist).

Today we have outlets from Tiffany to Home Depot and it night seen that rural Maui has caught up with national urban retailing trends. Far from it,

Around 1990, a speaker brought in by the Main Street Association asserted that there were 140 national chains that were NOT on Maui.

I haven’t seen any more recent estimate, but although we have added many, many national chains since 1990, my guess is that the number today would be even higher than 140.

There are a lot more national (and even international) retailers like Ikea than there used to be.

If you think about just fast food chains, Maui lacks dozens. Chick-Fil-A is in the news, but on Maui you cannot either support or protest its position about marriage, because it isn’t here.

Neither is Sonic, Long John Silver’s, Popeye’s, Boston Market, Friendly’s and many more.

Among non-food retailers that are still absent are Target (probably on its way soon), Kohl’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, Pottery Barn and on and on.

This helps to explain the desire of developers to build more malls on Maui. Maui may or may not be a top tier location — it wasn’t for J.C. Penney — but national chains have to expand to satisfy Wall Street.