“A lot of people are saying, ‘You know what, I bought this chain for $3,000 in the ‘80s,’ ” said Boghossian. “With the way gold prices are, now it’s worth $10,000.”

Many of Arcila’s customers at Daddy’s Cash pawn the same thing over and over again whenever they need money and time is of the essence. Rashaun Frasier, a bank teller from Pembroke Park, pawns her diamond earrings every two months. She goes to Daddy’s Cash, hands Andy her diamonds, gets about $200 to help with rent and bills, and two months later, she pays about $220 to get her earrings back. And the cycle continues.

“Nowadays, I can’t imagine living without a pawn shop,” said Frasier, 30. “Before it was no big deal, but now an extra dollar always helps.”

At the annual pawnbrokers association meetings that he attends every year, Arcila said he tells pawnbrokers from other states that his store does 700 to 1,000 transactions a month. He says they are stunned and say their stores get no more than 250 transactions a month. One reason for that, according to Emmett Murphy, spokesman for the National Pawnbrokers Association, is that pawn shop regulations differ state to state.

“Florida has a higher interest rate, and it’s less regulated on a local level,” said Murphy. In Florida, pawnbrokers can charge interest of up to 25 percent, compared to states like New York, where the maximum is just 4 percent.

Sixty days is the typical length of a pawn shop loan in Florida. With one of the highest permissible interest rates in the country, Florida’s pawnbrokers can make more money on the loans they deal. While pawn shops made most of their money in sales prior to the economic downturn, today it is a drastically different story. And although there is less of a market for selling expensive jewelry and electronics, there is no shortage of need for loans.

“We’re not in the business to buy stuff’ we’re in the business to lend money,” said Arcila, adding that his and other pawn shops in Miami rarely charge the maximum 25 percent in order to keep customers and stay competitive. “The more money we can lend, the more money we can make.”

Another factor that sets Florida apart from other states, said Murphy, is the large proportion of “unbanked” and “underbanked” people. According to a recent report by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, there are 44 million Americans without access to traditional banking, and Florida has the fourth highest concentration of them. Across Florida, 7 percent of households fall into this category. In South Florida, the figure is 8.4 percent.

“These are people that need safety net loans,” said Murphy. “They’re borrowing money to get gas in their car or take their child to the hospital or get through to the next paycheck. So Florida is a very unique state and the pawn industry is very strong in Florida.”

Florida’s pawn industry also benefits from the popularity of pawn shops in Latin America.

“In the Latin culture,” said Arcila, who is from Medellin, Colombia, “pawn shops are part of life. I think Miami has so many pawn shops because Latins are really used to doing this. It’s not a strange business for us.”

While the reality shows Pawn Stars and Hardcore Pawn are opening the doors of the pawn world to mainstream society, there is still a perception held many people that pawn shops are havens for stolen merchandise. Yet in Miami, pawn shops are quite possibly the worst place a thief could go, thanks to a partnership between pawn shops and law enforcement officials.

“It’s actually one of the most clean-cut businesses,” said Boghossian. “When you come in here and leave your engagement ring or your Rolex, by law we’re governed to not only give you a receipt, but ask for your ID, your fingerprint and keep records of all of this.”