Everybody tells Troy Standard that it must be a great time to be a pawnbroker. He’s not so sure.

“Actually, in the 18 years I’ve been in this business I’ve never been as concerned as I am now,” said Standard, manager of Ace Buyers, a licensed pawn shop in Albany. “People need more money but they are also spending less money.”

Although Standard has seen a huge increase in the number of people walking through his door, he says money isn’t flowing.

“I’m at the point where stuff I would take a year ago, I’m not taking now,” he said.

At the Cash House, owner Kevin Hart says the slower economy tends to bring a shift in his customer base.

“We see people we wouldn’t normally see,” he said.

Hart said a slowdown will mean changes in the way he does business.

“It affects what we can give for items,” Hart said. “If people aren’t buying, the price for used items goes down. I don’t think things have really hit Albany yet.”

At Ace Buyers, current economic conditions have resulted in a steady stream of people wanting to pawn something, but not so many wanting to buy.

Pawn shops in Oregon are required to hang on to a pawned item for 60 days. After that, people have 30 days to redeem their item or face forfeiture.

How the current economic situation will impact the business is uncertain, Standard said.

“Right now I’m not seeing people default,” he said. “But the really big financial crunch just happened so 60 days from now I don’t know what to expect.”

Transactions usually result in a buy-back for the original cost of the loan plus interest and a storage fee. If that doesn’t happen the pawn shop assumes ownership and may sell the item.

Standard prefers transactions to go as planned, with customers reclaiming their items, but he understands the current situation.

“There are more people hurting out there. They need money,” he said.

Hart also has yet to see an impact, but admits that could change.

“If people need to pay electric bills or make a house payment then we could see fewer people coming in to reclaim their items,” he said.

Hart said the Cash House still has more than 85 percent of its customers return to reclaim what they left.

Tools, TV sets, jewelry and computers are among the most popular things customers bring in, according to Cash House manager Ernie Ellis, who also noticed a change in clientele.

“We are seeing a lot of people who have never pawned anything before,” he said. “We see new people every day.”