Lafayette, Ind. -- Just under 15 years ago, Robert Jones, a 48-year-old Tippecanoe County native, decided the time was right to achieve his lifelong dream of starting a local pawn shop. Soon after quitting his job as a high school teacher and cashing his mortgage, J&H Pawn was born -- and it has been serving the Lafayette area for over a decade. Unfortunately for Jones, it seems his original aspirations of operating a thriving mainstay have gone dead, as his business has developed into little more than a second-rate Best Buy exchange.
“I always envisioned J&H as a place where local intellectuals bring in and discuss items of historical significance,” said Jones. “But ever since 'Pawn Stars' started airing, we’ve had people coming in asking for appraisals on the most worthless garbage.”
Jones believes that the main problem is the high percentage of college students in the area who “only bring in hardly functional or probably stolen electronics.”
“When we first opened, we had everything from antique baseball cards to Civil War buttons coming through our doors,” exclaimed Jones. “If I am asked to appraise another semi-operational bluetooth speaker, I am going to crush it with a hammer.”
Jones, a graduate of Oberlin College with a degree in classical studies, claims he has had a passion for antiques since he was a child, and hoped that his pawn shop would feed his interests. However, it seems that residents of the Lafayette area do not offer the proper environment he seeks.
Said Jones: “So far today, I’ve appraised a heavily-used pair of Bose headphones, a Chromebook missing several function buttons, and a quilt with a fish on it that according to the customer ‘looked pretty old.’”
Jones’s statement was then interrupted by a patron looking for an "Old Style" neon bar sign from the 70s.
“I didn’t open my doors for this,” said Jones.
In addition to subpar items trickling in from college students, J&H Pawn frequently deals with locals who claim to have big-ticket items that turn out to be valueless. Jones cites the rising popularity of TV shows like "American Pickers" and "Antiques Roadshow" for this issue.
“Years ago, I would have envisioned myself assessing the price of a framed porcelain Victorian statuette to a customer,” Jones said. “I would have never guessed I’d be helping pawn a thumb radio for a lady who smells like malt liquor.”
J&H Pawn’s employees are doing everything in their power to turn the shop in the direction its owner originally intended. Unfortunately, according to Jones, there is no way to fix the business’s influx of valueless items.
“I’m here seven days a week and all I ever get asked is how much I’ll give them for a portable charger that has been warped from sitting in a glove compartment for years,” Jones said. “Why can't I be asked about appraising a French provincial dining chair? Or even a simple question about the history of a 19th-century U.S. presidential campaign button?”
Just then, two locals entered the store looking to sell a set of "Jaws 2" TV trays and a metal lunchbox found in their basement.
