Perhaps the biggest difference between a pawnshop and Gringotts was this: in Gringotts vaults, customers could arrange their treasures however they pleased, while a pawnshop's vault belonged to the pawnshop itself. Its goods were stuffed into sack after sack, each with a pawn ticket attached that displayed the original owner's name.
A pawnshop recognized tickets, not people. As long as someone brought the ticket along with the principal and interest, they could redeem the pawned item. Some objects had been removed from their sacks and placed on display shelves, as if they had become ownerless and no one would ever come to reclaim them.
These items came from all sorts of places: Egyptian-style bottles, porcelain from the East, exquisitely crafted jewelry boxes, shimmering fabric woven with silver thread, and all manner of gold and silverware. Golden star ornaments like flails hung from the ceiling, along with several dust-covered instruments that seemed related to astrology, their golden engravings still remarkably bright.
"Aren't you going to introduce these things?" Pomona asked the old Goblin.
The old Goblin bared his blackened fangs and sneered. "Do I look like a sales clerk?"
Pomona was thoroughly annoyed.
"When buying things in a pawnshop, you rely entirely on your own eye." Severus stepped beside Pomona and whispered, "Perhaps even he misjudged it and underestimated its value."
But it was also possible that the customer had been swindled by the pawnshop, buying a fake and taking it home to treasure as a collectible.
She added silently.
Hepzibah Smith had bought a fake Slytherin's Locket. Borgin and Burkes knew her habits well. She was an elderly woman living alone, with only a House-elf for company. Even if she acquired a treasure, she would not put it in a display case for visitors to admire, like the Black family