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Bucs Super Bowl Ring Symbol Of Today's Upscale Pawnshop

Capital Pawn

A former Bucs player who had fallen on hard times pawned this Super Bowl ring for $6,000 about 1 1/2 years ago.

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 6, 2009

Updated: 02/06/2009 03:41 pm

TAMPA - The face of the neighborhood pawnshop is changing. Traditionally, they squatted on the poor sides of town, catering to the desperate and down-and-out; people who slink in with a piece of jewelry or a cheap stereo for needed cash.

The money customers got paid off a utility bill, bought a few more days worth of food or sprung a loved one out of jail.

But some pawnshops around town are noticing a different clientele. They still are desperate, but they come in wearing designer clothes or toting Rolexes or multi-carat diamond cufflinks, or even, at one North Tampa pawn shop, a Tiffany ring signifying that the wearer won a recent Super Bowl.

Secrets between a guy and his pawnbroker sometimes stay secret, and Capital Pawn owner Joe Cacciatore won't say which player pawned the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Super Bowl ring from 2002-03, but he did say the eventual buyer traded it for a "suitcase full of money."

Like many in all strata of income these days, the former Bucs player had fallen on hard times about a year and a half ago after he was released by the team, Cacciatore said. The player brought the ring into the shop to get a quick loan without the hassle of going through a bank.

At first, Cacciatore said he thought the ring was a fake or stolen. He had an undercover detective come in to witness the deal. But it all turned out to be legit.

Cacciatore kept the ring for the allotted 60 days and even longer. The ex-Buc was trying to negotiate a contract with another team and ended up getting $6,000 from the pawnshop for the ring that cost about $17,000 to make. Then, he moved out of Tampa and never returned to claim the championship bauble, he said.

At first, Cacciatore said he wanted to keep the ring but then decided against it.

"It's like someone else shooting a deer and you putting the head up in your living room," he said. "It just wasn't right."

He ended up selling the ring to a die-hard Bucs fan in Fort Lauderdale for $25,000.

"We gave him the ring," Cacciatore said, "and he gave us a suitcase full of money."

The ring is just one item that shows a shift in who walks through the doors of a pawnshop these days.

"We have over 60 Rolexes in pawn," he said, including an elite President worth $27,000, and a Pearlmaster worth nearly $50,000. He shows off a 5.33-carat diamond worth about $250,000.

He has an NFL Players Association ring and a diamond-encrusted marlin that was brought in by a Florida Marlins baseball player, he said. A Spanish coin that was recovered from the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, a Spanish ship that sank in a Caribbean storm in 1622, is among the collection.

All the stuff is appraised with documents available to show the stuff is genuine, he said.

"We have heirlooms and collectibles," he said, and some museum-quality sculptures and paintings.

In an economy that has investment bankers in the unemployment lines with roofers and landscapers, desperation is casting a wider net, and that has led to an upscale boom in the pawnshop business, he said.

"The way the economy is today," he said, "people are hurting, and they need help. We get businessmen coming in pawning things just to make payroll just so they can pay employees.""

When people need quick money, they bring their valuables in, he said. If they want a loan and plan to redeem the item, the shop gives just what the person needs, so they can come back later and get it back for a minimal amount.

If they are dropping the item off for good, it's a sale, and they get more money. Of course, it then belongs to the shop, which puts it on the shelf. The shop will look at anything of value, from jewelry to electronics to sports memorabilia, said Cacciatore, who has been in the pawn business for about a decade.

"I've even got heavy equipment from construction guys," he said. "The pawnshop is not for poor people anymore. We've got business owners and young professionals coming in getting loans to make payroll, keeping their businesses going."

Eric Walker, owner for the past 15 years of the Florida Estate Jewelry and Pawn on North Florida Avenue in North Tampa, said he has seen a shift in clientele over the past year.

"We primarily do the higher-end goods, mostly jewelry and vehicles," he said, "so, yeah, we have seen some more of that, some high-end watches, like Rolexes, and bigger diamonds."

Dorian Diaz, manager of A-1 Pawn & Gun on West Waters Avenue near Carrollwood, said he has seen expensive stuff in the past, including championship rings, but nothing like that lately. Now, more gold seems to be coming in.

"We are seeing a lot of gold," he said. "Not necessarily high end stuff, but a bunch more gold."

Business remains, more or less, constant, he said.

"More people are pawning stuff," he said, "but less people are buying."

Cacciatore runs two shops, one on Busch Boulevard, where expensive stuff comes in, including "nice paintings, collectibles, antiques and high-end jewelry." Inside, there is a VIP room where well-to-do people can come in and negotiate numbers without the public listening in, he said.

The other shop on Nebraska, "Well, that's where we get the chainsaws and power tools." Cacciatore said.

Owners redeem most of the items, he said. Typically, 80 percent of the merchandise goes back to the owner, who endures the hard times and comes back to get their stuff, he said.

Either way, pawnshops, help people who need quick cash, he said.

"Everybody's got situations," he said.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760.

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