Rich's Pawn Shop

Rich’s Pawn Shop was founded in the 1930s.  Leonard and Charles Rich started the Leonard’s Loans and the Rich Pawn Loan companies.  They combined the pawn shops into the Rich & Company.  It was located at 108 S. Jefferson St until 1967 when they moved to 25 E second St to make room for the convention center.

David Bertke started working at the shop in 1963 while going to Chaminade High School.  He worked at Rich’s until he graduated from UD.  Steve Bertke worked at Rich’s while he went to Wright State,  He later cofounded Ace Music.

In 1981, the Rich brothers decided to retire.  They sold the business to a corporation made up of Davie and Steve Bertke with Russ Brock and Mark Bertke as junior members in 1982.  We earned a Federal Firearms License.  Russ later retired.

Mark went to jewelry repair school and has been repairing jewelry, sizing rings, mounting stones and setting up watch repairs and batteries since 1982.

We moved to Belmont in 1987.  We wanted to be in a nice area of Dayton with good businesses.

We discounted our guitars and amps, saxophones, clarinets, trumpets, trombones, drums and cymbals to compete with Ace Music.  Unfortunately, they closed.

We discounted the new and used solid gold chains, wedding sets, engagement rings, earrings and charms to compete with Allen Jewelers.  Unfortunately, they closed.

We discounted our rifles, shotguns, handguns and archery equipment to compete with Arms Depot.  Unfortunately, they do not sell firearms anymore.

Rich’s buys, sells, trades and makes pawn loans on most items.  All items are screened by the police to protect the citizens.

Buying preowned or used items.  Recycles (most items were used once or twice).  Saves money.  Helps people that may need money or more space to buy more stuff.