San Fernando Valley’s oldest pawnshop, Traders Loan and Jewelry, hits 70
Owner Diane Taylor expects a lot of customers at her daylong bash in Reseda on Saturday, May 18, to celebrate the 70th birthday of Traders Loan & Jewelry, which she says is a staple in the community and the oldest pawnshop in San Fernando Valley. Former Los Angeles City Councilmember Dennis Zine is expected, as well as officials from the West Valley Warner Center Chamber of Commerce.
The company was founded in 1954 when the Valley still had orchards and crops, the population was 17,000, and the powers that be sought a site for the planned San Fernando Valley State College, now known as CSUN.
Taylor has been at the helm of the pawnshop for 27 years. From her perspective at the business — a mix of jewelry store and jewelry repair shot, musical instrument shop, watch store, pre-owned electronics store and gun store — “I’ve seen lots of changes in our neighborhood and in the world.”
After all these years, she still enjoys, “helping people that want to get a loan but they don’t have relationships with any bank. We serve people from all walks of life — from the very, very wealthy to those without the means to borrow money.”
The business is dramatically different from a bank or a traditional lender. As she explains, “we are non-recourse lender — that means we do not report to credit reporting agencies. We base the loan on the item that they bring — not on the person.”
Each item brought in that they base a lend upon is reported to the California Department of Justice, and she notes that less than 1/2 of 1% of stolen properties ever show up in a pawnshop. “We don’t want it,” she says
She has nine employees and “we make everyone feel like family. We’re your one-stop pawnshop.” The celebration is from 11:30am to 4pm on Saturday, May 18.