Pawn Nation Opening Monday at Former Tri-City Trading
By Robin Vinci at October 10, 2023 | 8:00 am | Print
Seth Sevimli and James Ahern started Pawn Nation in Newington about a year ago. Now the store is expanding to New Britain.
“We are going to turn the former Tri City Trading into the second location of Pawn Nation,” said Sevimli. “We will keep both stores open with New Britain open six days a week and Newington open seven days a week.”
The stores are located at 725 New Britain Ave., Newington and 23 Main St. in New Britain.
Both Sevimli and Ahern have strong ties to the City growing up in New Britain going to high school together and working at an appliance store delivering appliances.
“My parents both owned tailor shops in Newington and Jimmy’s father was a lieutenant in the New Britain Police Department,” said Sevimli. “I was in the car business for 20 years and sold my car dealership. Jimmy was a prison guard and retired after 20 years so I say he spent 20 years in jail. We said ‘so now what do we do?’ and we came up with this.”
The two wanted a philosophy to set them apart form other pawn shops. They came up with the idea that if they opened up a pawn shop in the mall, like a Macy’s, it would look like their store.
“Our stores are well lit and organized. We have over $150,000 just in displays,” said Sevimli. “We want to make sure when people come in here it more like Pawn Stars than Hardcore Pawn.”
The pair also wants to help people as well as make a profit. In order to stand out from other stores, Sevimli said the motto is “we take anything”.
“Other stores say ‘no’ and we say ‘yes’ to everything from kitchen sinks to gold jewelry and diamonds,” he said. “You can find anything in here like slot machines and UConn apparel.”
The Newington store is jam packed with stereos, TV’s, speakers, jewelry, coins, guitars, blue rays, video games, DVD’s, tools and much more.
“Tools and jewelry are our name sake, but other things just come in,” he added.
The new store will be 8,000 square feet compared to the 4,000 square feet at the Newington location.
“We are already in motion of opening up a third store,” said Sevimli. “We went from two employees to now six and plan on hiring three or four more. We would like to think we are contributing to the local economy.”
“I’m very excited,” said Ahern. “I will be in Newington and Seth will be in New Britain. We will swap now and then. I think downtown New Britain is going to be alright. It is going through some changes kind of like going through a revival. Eventually it will be a busy hub.”
One of the first things the pair plans to do in New Britain is buy items.
“We will buy like crazy,” said Sevimli. “We will still pawn, buy and trade. You name it and we can do it. If you want to trade a lawn mower for a snow blower, we will do it. If you want to trade in watched movies for new ones, we can do it.”
So far the owners of Pawn Nation, say it all has been a lot of fun.
“We wanted to go in New Britain and buy the best pawn shop, the oldest one and the largest,” said Sevimli.
For more information, contact Sevimli or Ahern at 860-436-5975.
