By Claudie Benjamin
What is the coolest thing you’ve ever brokered?” That’s a question pawnbroker Daniel Kalter is often asked. He said the answer has got to be “a vintage Rolls Royce.” Daniel kept the vehicle in his home garage until the owner, having paid his debt, came to pick it up.
Kalter is co-owner of Lincoln Square Pawnbrokers at 724 Amsterdam Avenue. The family business was opened in 1946 by Murray Zeeman and a partner. Murray was Daniel’s great-grandfather on his mom’s side. Originally, located at 1937 Broadway, where David Geffen Hall is now, the shop was relocated to 101st Street and Broadway when the San Juan Hill neighborhood was being demolished for the development of Lincoln Center.
Daniel’s Dad, now retired and living in Boca Raton, FL, moved the business down to Amsterdam Avenue in 1988. Daniel recalled helping out in the store on weekends and school holidays, “and eventually I got paid.” My Mom told me not to get into the business,” Daniel said. Why? “It can be dangerous.” The sensor picks up movement and you get calls in the middle of the night with concerns about trouble in a store that deals in valuables. “My mom was just looking out for me and preferred I pick a less overtly dangerous profession.”
Daniel is proud of this business that has supported four generations of his family. He said the work has always been engaging and became increasingly interesting to him once he entered management in 2006 and led modernization, particularly in terms of the use of the internet, website development, and other technological advancements. Pawnbroking is fundamentally a loan operation. And Daniel views it as offering a practical community service to people trying to make ends meet (whether that is rent, a bill, meeting payroll, or an expense for another small business). When you bring a valuable in, you are offered a sum of money while agreeing to pay back with interest during a set amount of time, which may be extended. This transaction is kept confidential. “If you default on the agreement, the property is then forfeited.”
Determining the value of items people bring in to pawn is an expertise that comes with experience. “I pretty much know jewelry. When it comes to some of the newest technology, electronics, I research (to stay on top of current trends).” The most commonly pawned items are coins, jewelry, and gold. “The value of gold is constantly fluctuating, but recently has been going way up.”
Deciding the value of collections of vintage items like comic books is trickier depending on trends. A major change in the process of determining value has developed with the evolution of the internet. “Customers have access to research as much as I do,” Daniel explained. Interacting with customers is something he enjoys, and satisfaction with communications is reflected in many positive posts on the business website.
Yes, likely some stolen goods are brought to the pawnbrokers. Tracking this is generally the purview of the police. On the pawnbrokers’ side, “Of course, there are scenarios where customers may try to pawn or sell an item that doesn’t belong to them. We use our best judgment and common sense to avoid taking in stolen merchandise.”
More generally, Daniel explained that all items are listed along with serial numbers provided daily to the police department. One law enforcement incident that occurred at the store’s original Lincoln Center location was described in detail in a March 23, 1956, Daily News article. The all Upper West Side event involved an off-duty NYPD detective who followed two young burglars to Lincoln Square Pawnbrokers where they were arrested. They were identified by a man who had surprised them in his friend’s apartment near Columbia.
Lincoln Square Pawnbrokers posts items that customers have relinquished on its website and also on eBay, but the business of loans is conducted only onsite at the store open Monday–Saturday, 9 am-5 pm.
“People come to us not only from Manhattan,” said Daniel, “but from Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens…because they trust us.”