The shop
The same guy has been behind this counter for forty years.
Pawn shops have a reputation. This one has regulars. Rob Van Gronigen has run the Hock Shoppe on East Belmont for four decades — long enough that customers who hocked a guitar in the nineties now bring their kids in to buy one.
That's the whole model, really. There's no "let me call in an expert" here, because Rob and his staff are the experts — on tools, on gold, on guitars, on what a used console is actually worth this month. You get a straight answer and a fair number, and if you don't like it, you walk out with your stuff and no hard feelings.
Three years running, the Central Valley has voted this the best in the business. Forty years of doing it the same way is how that happens.
Rob Van GronigenOwner — The Fresno Hock Shoppe