Over the last 15 years Chris Herst has been involved in buying, selling and trading primarily silver and gold. Recently Herst opened CCI Trading Company in California. Through his trading, he saw a need for a place for people to be able to buy, trade and sell goods along with using goods for pawn loans.
"I have owned a lot of different businesses around the Eldon area," Herst said, "and just found myself doing a lot of buying and selling. People in times of need, need a place they can to sell things or need loans for taxes or bills. My main goal is to buy gold and silver scrap, old coins, paper money and old war relics. We do pawn loans on most anything that has a resale value. Typically when we come to an agreement and I loan money on an item, it is at a rate of 35-40 percent of the street value of the item I loan on a monthly basis."
Herst said he has lived in the Eldon/Lake of the Ozarks area for 26 years and is a cattle farmer by trade. He has a similar remote business in Eldon at Red's Antique Mall which offers the same services as CCI. One of his main concerns is to run his shop as a reputable business in California.
"Sometimes pawn stores get kind of a bad name," Herst said. "You think of dishonest people stealing things and taking them to a pawn store. I have not put bars on my windows because I want to give it a good atmosphere with more of an antique/hardware/museum type setting. I want people to feel comfortable when they come in. I take ids when people sell me things. I want to give a fair price for items I believe to be obtained in a proper manner. We work with local law enforcement to assure if someone has lost an item, if it ends up here by accident, it would find its way back to its rightful owner. I do not ever want to be associated with any misdoing. I run an honest business with a family atmosphere."
For more of this story check out the Nov. 2 issue of the California Democrat.