From today's news:
NEW YORK (MainStreet)—The problem: you need $100 to take your sweetie out to dinner tonight for her birthday and you are tapped out. The bank account comes up goose eggs, the credit card was maxed out last year, mom and dad hang up when you call. What do you do?
[Read: Do Cool Sh*t]
Remember that $500 Bulova watch granny gave as a graduation present? The watch that is sitting in a drawer, because who wears watches anymore?
Bingo: you are prime to join the pawn revolution, borrowing for those without credit and who want a kind of on the fly liquidity that, suddenly, is gaining popularity "with new kinds of customers," said Emmett Murphy, spokesman for the National Pawnbrokers Association.
"Pawn has become a mainstream financial service," added Murphy. "People need access to credit, they have to get through to the end of the month."