"People who wouldn't ordinarily go to a pawnshop are considering services like this, " says Marketdata research director John LaRosa.

WSJ: SmartMoney: Hocking the Jewels: Pawnshops Dipping Into Deeper Pockets

The manager of Dongkai Pawnshop says his business has benefited from the crisis.

ECONOMIST: Wenzhou��s shadow banking system has taken a knock

It'll never force me to subscribe to a channel with a show about pawnshop owners making customized bikes for ghost-hunting housewives.

WSJ: A Year Without Cable

He bought his first camera in a pawnshop in 1937, and that would set him on the road to becoming a world-renowned photographer.

NPR: Tribute to Photographer, Filmmaker Gordon Parks

Gamestop has recently suggested that it might start selling more refurbished hardware as well, making the transition from a software retailer to a high-tech pawnshop.

FORBES: Gamestop Cedes to Steam and Starts Selling Its Vouchers

He used a .22 that he had bought at a pawnshop.

NEWYORKER: Battleground America

In a survey of pawnshop customers, Elaine Kempson, from Bristol University's Personal Finance Research Centre, found that over half had pawned possessions to buy daily necessities, including food.

ECONOMIST: Why pawnshops' business is booming

If, for instance, a Catholic sees a relic in a pawnshop, he or she is obliged to buy it, so that it won't be used for blasphemous purposes by a nonbeliever.

FORBES: Magazine Article

But pawnshop owners say more upscale clientele are responding to a different kind of economic pressure: With credit tight, even the rich can't always get a traditional loan on short notice.

WSJ: SmartMoney: Hocking the Jewels: Pawnshops Dipping Into Deeper Pockets

Beautiful and brown, the tiny creature lands next in a sleazy pawnshop, then in the cramped Prague apartment of a childless couple, dreamy Mila (Natasa Burger), who has wanted a baby desperately, and her rent-a-cop mate, Franta (Jiri Machacek), who can't adopt because of his criminal past as a soccer hooligan.

WSJ: Bouncing Czechs -- and Besieged Nazis