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Les Gold

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Full Name
  
Leslie Gold

Role
  
Pawnbroker

Books
  
For What It's Worth

Name
  
Les Gold

TV shows
  
Hardcore Pawn

Website
  
pawndetroit.com

Children
  
Ashley Broad, Seth Gold

Television
  
Hardcore Pawn

Spouse
  
Lili Gold (m. 1975)


Les Gold Hardcore Pawn39 star revels in unlikely celebrity

Born
  
June 20, 1950 (age 74) (
1950-06-20
)

Occupation
  
Pawnbrokerreality TV starauthorspeaker

People also search for
  
Ashley Broad, Lili Gold, Seth Gold, Jordan Broad

Profiles

'Hardcore Pawn' Star Les Gold on the Pawn Business


Leslie "Les" Gold (born June 20, 1950) is an American pawnbroker, reality TV star, author, media personality and speaker. He is known for his role on cable and satellite television truTV's reality series, Hardcore Pawn.

Contents

Les Gold Hardcore Pawn Photo Gallery

Cnn your money les gold hits the streets


Early life and career

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Leslie "Les" Gold, is a third generation pawnbroker/salesman, the grandson of a pawnbroker who once owned company "Sam's Loans", a now-defunct pawnshop on Michigan Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. Sam's Loans was where Gold made his first sale, at age 7. (The Sam's Loans building is in the process of being remodeled into a pawn shop-themed restaurant, to be called "Gold Cash Gold".) He has been married to Lilli Gold since 1975.

Les Gold Les Gold Tungsten Jewelry from Pawn Detroit YouTube

Gold began his first business at age 12, buying pizzas and reselling them by the slice to fellow students at Hebrew School. Gold opened his own pawn shop, American Jewelry and Loan, in 1978, at the Green Eight Shopping Center on 8 Mile Road in Oak Park. In 1993 he moved it to its present location on Greenfield Road in Detroit near 8 Mile - a 50,000 square foot building that was formerly a bowling alley. The business now employs about 50 people and serves about 1,000 customers a day.

Hardcore Pawn

Les Gold Les Gold lesHCP Twitter

Gold, his family, and his pawn shops are central to the truTV series Hardcore Pawn.

Les Gold Les Gold AJL President American Jewelry and Loan As Seen on

In 1998, independent producer Richard Dominick saw Gold's TV ads which ran during the local commercial breaks of The Jerry Springer Show, which Dominick was working on at the time. He saw potential in Les and his business as a reality TV show and approached the Gold family with this idea. Les's son, Seth, was initially reluctant, but Les overruled him and agreed to let the cameras in. The pilot aired in late 2009. Dominick is now the series co-executive producer with Mike Gamson. Les and Seth Gold were also credited as Executive Producers, beginning with the third season.

Les Gold Les Gold star of Hardcore Pawn stops by to talk on 7 Action News

The series premiere (August 16, 2010) attracted two million viewers, thus setting a record as truTV's most-watched premiere. As of June 2013, the viewership exceeded 3 million.

Publications

Gold's autobiography, For What It's Worth: Business Wisdom from a Pawnbroker, was published on June 1, 2013 by Penguin/Portfolio. The book deals with his personal experience in establishing a successful pawn shop, and gives details on how he did it, and how anyone in any field can "think like a pawnbroker". Writing for Forbes, fellow entrepreneur Josh Linkner explains how he has learned from Gold's advice.

The book ranked #4 on The New York Times Best Seller list in the Advice, How-to, and Miscellaneous category for the week of June 30, 2013, and #8 in the Hardcover Business Books category for the month of July 2013.

Gold, the book, and his "three simple steps to successful negotiation" were featured on ABC's Good Morning America on June 18, 2013.

Philanthropy

Gold supports The Heat And Warmth Fund ("THAW Fund"), which helps local families pay their heat and electricity bills. In February 2013, a fund-raising party dubbed "Hardcore THAW" and held after-hours in his store raised more than $40,000 for the organization.

References

Les Gold Wikipedia


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