If you'€™re selling, Conrad'€™s buying

WASILLA — Conrad Holler marches to the beat of his own drum.

After more than 20 years working the North Slope oil fields, Holler started a second career nine years ago running his own pawn shop. Although he knew nothing about the pawn industry, Holler said the business seemed the best way to scratch his itch for buying things. His place is also as much a coffee klatch hangout for political banter as it is an outlet to find good used tools (his specialty).

“I’ve got the rep for the tools,” he said. “Everybody knows that. I’m the tool guy.”

He also roasts his own coffee and greets customers from an easy chair pulled up to a table covered with a red-and-white checked cloth. Although he spends Tuesday through Saturday running his pawn shop along the Parks Highway just past Pittman Road, Holler and wife Linda, a teacher at Wasilla High School, also are active in the school’s hockey booster club and the Meadow Lakes Community Association.

Holler took time to explain the pawn business and his take on an industry he said doesn’t necessarily reflect common stereotypes.

Frontiersman: You deal with people from all walks. How do know when someone’s trying to pull a fast one on you?

Holler: I read people’s minds before they first come in here. You take an average person. By the time they pull their car up, and I’m sitting here watching them, No. 1, I know if they’re coming to look for something that’s stolen. I know pretty much if they’re into illicit drugs and they need money.

F: What do you do when someone brings something in and you suspect it’s stolen?

H: If I really think it’s stolen, I usually pawn it and contact my local Gestapo. I go to the Grand Jury all the time, the reason being is, say, that camera’s stolen, if I don’t do anything, if I say that I’m not interested in it, you’re going to take that camera down to the grocery store or the café and sell it to Peter. You’ll get your money, but no one’s going to be alerted that you’re a thief.

F: What happens to stolen items that end up in a pawn shop and how do you respond to the stereotype that pawn shops are just warehouses full of stolen items?

H: It doesn’t happen as much as you think, believe it or not. People come in here every day looking, and the cops come in here every day and look. It’s like a told a state trooper once, he came in and said, “Conrad, we’re looking for those Snap-On tools. There’s been a lot stolen.” I said, “How much was stolen?” We figured it out that 161,000 pounds of Snap-On tools were stolen, not last fall but the fall before. That would fill this store up, fill it up right to the hilt. Say you bring that camera in and it’s stolen. I have a choice: I can say no, or I’m going to get that camera — since I’m pretty sure it’s stolen and anything you get for it is pure profit — for $10 or $20. So let’s say I give you $20 for it. Now you’ve got to fill out a whole sheet. You’ve got to give me your driver’s license, your name, birth date — all this stuff I’ve got now. And then you sign it. Now I call the cops and they go and arrest you. I’m glad to do that for $20, to take you off the streets for $20.

F: What happens when stolen merchandise is found at a pawn shop?

H: Here’s the next thing that’s going to happen. The cops will tell (the owner) to go down to Rainbow Pawn, he’s got your camera. He’ll come down here and describe it and everything, then his choice is this, and the cops will tell you this is the choice. You can pay Conrad the $20 he put out for it and he’ll give you the camera right back. Or, you don’t have to and you’ll still get your camera back, but the camera goes into evidence and more than likely will be there for three years. … The whole purpose of me giving (the thief) the $20 in the first place is to get their information.

F: Why do you think some people believe pawn shops are shady places?

H: Because they don’t know them. I have a great report with the state troopers. Those guys are top of the line, they really are.

F: You’ve said that you really make your money buying things. That means you have to sell them too, right?

H: Yes, I have to sell it. People don’t understand that if I could buy brand new Corvettes for $100 apiece, and let’s say I went out and bought a thousand of them, but if I can’t sell them I’m going to lose money.

F: You buy and sell just about anything. How does it work if someone wants to pawn something?

H: It’s a loan. You don’t have to give me any money for 60 days and it’s still yours. You take a loan out, and then I even have people who are so honest they just walk in and say, “Conrad, I need $50.” Not a problem, I give them $50 and they come back and pay me their money.

F: Many times your customers are people who are desperate for money. How do you deal with feelings of sympathy when doing business with them?

H: I don’t make near the money a lot of pawn shops do because of that. I can walk down any grocery aisle and I don’t have to worry about who I may run into. Hey, I’ve been gifted. I was raised by a fantastic family on a farm, never had a lot but was loved all the time. And you know, I’ve got the best in life, and money ain’t it.

F: On average, of the items pawned, how much is retrieved by owners?

H: I’m going to say, on the average economy you’re looking at probably 55 percent, a little over half. Now, for the last year and a half, you’re looking at about 35 percent. The economy’s been really bad.

F: Is the pawn industry regulated at all?

H: Well, we can only charge 20 percent interest and we can only loan up to $500. That’s state law.

F: How much of your business is dealing in guns?

H: Guns here are a big deal. Actually, 90 percent of my overhead is guns and 10 percent of my profit is guns, because there’s so much paperwork involved. In a pawn shop in Alaska, you have to pawn guns. I sell a lot of guns, but I also sell a lot of stuff because you came in looking for a gun and bought something else. It brings people in.

F: What is the most unusual thing anybody’s ever brought to pawn or sell?

H: Oh, there’s no question about that. I pawned 40 chickens, a goat and a 6- to 7-month-old Holstein heifer, all at once. I gave them $300 and that was the agreement that he take care of them. Well, I ate half of the 40 chickens. Then I took possession of the goat and the heifer. … OK, that Billy goat — and I’ve been on a farm — I’ve never smelled an animal so stinky. So, I got a goat and I got a calf, and the calf was one of the best pets I’ve had in awhile.

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.