[Leica] Pawn shops (was: Leica stigma)

[Alexey Merz <alexey@webcom.com>]

>At 01:18 PM 1999-01-26 -0800, Mark Rabiner wrote:
>>Are there frequenters of pawn shops that can tell us how often they see
>>Leica's and which ones? There is only one in Portland and that is off my
>>beaten path.

*not* true! I can think of several offhand, one owned by an aquaintance. 
Cash Now, on SE Powell, is owned by a guy I went to college with - he 
was an economics major. 

>I am a frequenter of pawn shops.  I have never seen a Leica of any kind in
>a pawn shop.  I did see a Rollei 35 a decade back (and knew the guy who'd
>pawned, incidentally, a client of mine, an honest one, at that!), and I've
>seen three Contaflex B's.  But, never a Leica.

I have in fact asked John whether Leica gear ever comes through
and in fact it does, though not often. The reason you'd never see it 
in his shop is that he can get much better prices through Internet 
auction sites than by selling through his storefront. So he does.

BTW, at least here in Portland, the pawnshops are pretty tightly 
regulated. The police are permitted to go through inventory to check 
for stolen items, and routinely do. When such items are found they 
are confiscated, and the pawnshop eats the loss. 

- -Alexey
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Alexey Merz | URL: http://www.webcom.com/alexey | email: alexey@webcom.com
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