enlarge Photos by Jack Milton/Staff Photographer

Steve Libby, left, manager of Jimi’s Trading Center, Portland, negotiates a loan with James Pickett, of Portland, who pawned a computer monitor on Tuesday for $75 – a 30-day loan with 25 percent interest.

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Steve Libby, manager of Jimi’s Trading Center, repairs a guitar on Tuesday. He said current customers are defaulting on three of four loans he gives, compared to one in four last fall.

James Pickett shifted from foot to foot Tuesday as he waited in line at Jimi's Trading Center in downtown Portland. Under his arm was a sleek black computer monitor.

"Yeah, I'm pawning it. I don't want to. I really don't want to, but I've got to eat," said Pickett, 21, who lost his job at a restaurant just before Christmas and is still looking for work.

Pickett is among the increasing number of Mainers turning to pawn shops like Jimi's to get cash in a difficult economic time, experts say.

Overall, pawn shops are taking in an extra 30 percent to 40 percent in merchandise, in line with nationwide trends in the industry, according to store owners in Maine.

They say that with jobs scarce, home-equity loans drying up and credit cards maxed out, people are finding pawn shops an efficient way to get quick cash or take out a loan.

"I'm seeing a lot more commercial lending, like with contractors," said Rick LaChapelle, who owns four pawn shops in Portland, Lewiston, Augusta and Brunswick. "(Contractors) do a job for someone who says they'll pay in 30 days, then it turns into 60 days. So the contractors will pawn off a couple of big pieces just to make payroll because everyone is delaying payment."

Customers bring in things such as musical instruments, stereo equipment and jewelry, and leave it as collateral in exchange for cash loans. Under Maine law, the loan period is 30 days. That means if a customer fails to repay the loan, plus interest, within that period, the pawn shop can sell the goods.

"In times like this, the customer base kind of broadens some, from low income to white collar," said Dana Meinecke, executive director of the 2,400-member National Pawnbrokers Association. Maine has about 45 pawn shops.

Brian Dagle, the manager of LaChapelle's pawn shop in Portland, Coastal Trading and Pawn, said he can practically trace the housing boom and bust based on his customers.

"I always say it starts with the Realtors and ends with the contractors," Dagle said. "When the housing boom ended, we saw a lot of Realtors coming in. Then the contractors come in. When you see the roofers and the plumbers coming in, you think, 'Oh, this is getting bad.' "

At Jimi's, Pickett was just one of a dozen customers over the lunch hour Tuesday. Several got loans, and a few sold items outright for cash. By the end of the day, the store had made more than $2,300 in 30-day loans, and bought $890 worth of goods.

Pickett wound up getting $75 for his monitor on a 30-day loan with 25 percent interest. That means it will cost him $93.75 to get the monitor back.

"That's awesome, thanks," Pickett told the store manager, Steve Libby. Turning around, he said simply: "I have got to get a job."

The store gets a lot of customers like Pickett.

"We are definitely seeing more stuff, but people are also looking for more money. I hear from a lot of people that they're out of work," Libby said. Before the economic crisis hit last fall, about one in four customers defaulted on their loans at Jimi's, which meant the store was free to sell their merchandise. Today it's about three out of four, Libby said, noting that people seem to be abandoning their goods after 30 days.

LaChapelle, who's been in the business for 27 years, also reports a much higher default rate and is working hard to move his inventory. Because of the glut, he's had to turn down many items he'd normally buy, such as circular saws, and lower his prices to move the goods out of the stores.

He also has to compete with deep discounts offered at many retailers.

"How do you compete with a Circuit City going-out-of-business price on a flat-screen TV?" he said. "We're definitely more aggressive in our pricing. Consumers are trying to be as frugal as possible."

The reasons people are pawning their stuff changes with the economic climate, LaChapelle said.

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