Best of 2000: Best Pawnshop

Unique Pawnbrokers
3039 University Avenue,
North Park
(619) 294-3305

Owner Steve Hirschhorn boasts he has more floor space than competitors, and he fills it with a wider range of stuff, including lawn mowers, large-screen TVs, collectible Barbies, leather jackets, coin collections, bicycles, video movies, tools, musical instruments, computers, and more. Customers sell him some items outright, but 40 or 50 folks a day walk in seeking a loan and offering their possessions as collateral. (They walk out with $50 apiece, on average.) About 20 percent of them never repay the money, and their belongings go on sale after four months.