Hock Talk

INTERVIEW BY ELIN UNNES

PHOTOS BY JOHANNES ROMPPANEN

Helsingin Pantti is the largest chain of pawnshops in Helsinki, with 11 outposts dotting the Finnish capital. The most recent store opening coincided nicely with an uptick in the poor-people- selling-their- cherished-belongings business. Right now, the place is processing about 800 loans a day, which makes the rest of the hocking world look like it’s just not trying. Ralf Karlberg has worked as a broker since 1982.

Vice: How’s the recession treating you?

Ralf Karlberg:

We saw a good increase in business last year, and it has carried into this year. Both the amount and value of things have increased.

I’m going to take a guess: Your inventory is mostly jewelry.

Yes, about 80 percent of it.

Are people having a harder time buying stuff back from you?

Strangely, no. Five to six percent of all things we receive go to auction, and that number hasn’t increased. During the 90s, when we had the huge bank crisis, we didn’t notice an increase either. It seems that when times are hard, people are even more mindful of hanging on to the things they’ve been able to acquire. Even if they’re not able to buy them back when the loan expires, they will make sure to pay the mortgages and extend the loan until they can.

Has anyone tried to pawn a giant ball of pubes or something equally troubling?

In the 80s a man came in and handed me his dentures, straight out of his mouth. And we’re not talking about gold teeth either. He was just like, “What can you give me for these?” and yanked them right out of there.

What’s the most valuable thing someone has tried to get rid of?

We will take house shares, and we’ve gone as high as $135,000.

I hear that in New York, trophy wives are so paranoid about their husbands losing their jobs and divorcing them that they buy expensive furs and then go around the corner to sell them with the tags still attached. It’s like they’re creating their own pension fund. Does that happen here at all?

We still do get the odd mink fur, but they’re never brand-new. The only new stuff we get is electronics, which people seem to covet very highly but then tire of after only a week or so.

INTERVIEW BY DANIEL LÓPEZ VALLE

PHOTOS BY MIGUEL FIGUEROA

There is a pawnshop in Barcelona named Renuevo that caters to working-class Spaniards and immigrants. The shelves are stocked with Nativity scenes, Cartier jewelry, guitars, and ceramic clocks with soccer teams’ shields imprinted on them. Perhaps not that surprisingly, as most other businesses slash staff, Renuevo employs more than 20 people. Pere Arnau, a pawnbroker, agreed to speak with us about his job right after he finished counting a huge stack of money and depositing it in a big safe.

Vice: It looks like business is good.

Pere Arnau:

More than that. The number of our total sales has increased by 20 percent.

Since when?

Sales started to rise around a year ago.

Maybe all those clever bankers should copy the pawnshop business model.

Absolutely. If someone would’ve asked me, I would have predicted this recession a long time ago.

Has your clientele changed much since the money meltdown?

Yes. Before the crisis they were mostly from the lower-middle class. But now we have noticed that it’s more varied. Some of them are coming from other provinces, and it’s not unusual to see “high-class” people. They arrive ashamed and give excuses.

What crap are the rich looking to unload?

Jewelry, mainly, but one day a guy came and left an Audi outside. He said we could keep the car for $675. He was desperate.

Or it was stolen.

Could be, but we are in touch with the police. We’ve had cases involving laptops and cameras that contained pictures that had to be reported.

Has anything weird come in recently?

A stripper came by with her car full of dildos. Some people try to sell us their guns, but we don’t accept those kinds of things.

So no dirty stripper dildos and no deadly weapons?

The first case is a matter of hygiene. The second, we simply can’t.

Please don’t take this the wrong way, but you don’t seem like the type of person who feels bad when everyone else is taking it in the ass.

Of course not. I feel fucking great! If I knew the way to maximize or create a new crisis, I would!

CONTINUED:
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