Local company creates online pawnshop

A Fort Collins-based company has launched an online pawnshop that has drawn interest from a few dozen pawnbrokers nationwide.

Deal4it.com, developed by subprime lender Mister Money Holdings, combines live auction bidding with real-time dealing.

Customers can submit bids for products or avoid an auction and buy them at the full asking price immediately. They can also request products if they don’t see them on the website. But there are already thousands of items for sale, including cameras, cell phones, guns, computers, DVDs, jewelry, watches – just about everything one would expect to find in a pawn shop.

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What differentiates Deal4it.com from other online shopping sites is that only licensed, pre-qualified pawnbrokers can sell on the site. It also features used products.

Unlike some other sites, Deal4it customers won’t have to wait for a seller to respond to their bids. Instead, a pre-recorded video showing a pawnbroker appears on the web page after a Deal4it customer makes an offer for a product.

Customers negotiate back and forth on price with the virtual pawnbroker as though they were in a store.

“Our pawn shop members are constantly listing new items, and shoppers have a blast exploring the site, making auction bids and negotiating instant deals with our one-of-a-kind virtual sales team,” said Tim Lanham, CEO of Deal4it Technologies and COO of Mister Money Holdings.

Since Deal4it.com went live in December, about 50 pawn shops nationwide have listed products, Lanham said.

The site has grown 20 percent every month, but so far only has a few hundred visitors daily.

Connecting Point president inducted in IT Hall of Fame

Ted Warner, president of Connecting Point in Greeley, has joined the likes of giants Steve Jobs, Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer in CompTIA’s IT Hall of Fame.

The nonprofit IT industry association included Warner and associates Jane Cage and Steve Harper among the prestigious group of information technology gurus at its annual meeting April 11 in Chicago. The hall of fame recognizes people who have made outstanding contributions to the IT world.

Warner, Cage and Harper were computer resellers with distributor Intelligent Electronics when, in 1992, they met in the basement of the company’s then-headquarters in Denver.

They collaborated to form a peer community that gave small- and medium-sized resellers a greater voice in the industry. The inductees organized events and created programs to help shape the way products and services were delivered in smaller markets.

“The people who were selling technology products in New York, Chicago, L.A., Dallas, et cetera, were getting all the attention from vendors,” Warner said. “We wanted to put together a peer group of smaller resellers in tertiary markets that focused on the small and medium business.”

Ingram Micro acquired the successful organization several years later and renamed it the VentureTech Network. Today, it is one of multiple industry peer groups that benefit resellers worldwide.

Peers, distributors and vendors submit nominations for hall of fame candidates, Warner said.

Warner, who has worked in the industry for more than three decades, wasn’t sure who nominated him. But he was excited and honored to be inducted.

“It was very humbling,” he said. “I’ve been in the business a long time, and I guess I have a little bit of experience.”

There are about 100 people in the hall of fame, in addition to a dozen companies.

Steve Lynn covers technology for the Northern Colorado Business Report. He can be contacted at slynn@ncbr.com or 970-232-3147.