History

  Mention the word “pawn shop” to a lot of people and their response is like a weather forecast: partly skeptical with a chance of caution.  For various reasons, the traditional image of a pawn dealership is that of a seedy arrangement where questionable characters are selling off items that once belonged to someone else and were obtained under less than honorable circumstances.  Perhaps it’s the nature of the business, and similar to many businesses, each establishment is only as good as the people behind it.  It’s probably not fair to judge a particular company just by the umbrella under which it exists, but you also have to live in reality, and simply find out for yourself on occasion.  A local man understood that notion and set out to discover what it was about the pawn industry that made people roll their eyes, and what he could do to change that opinion.

   Seven years ago, Travis Bishop, owner of Tannerman’s Trading Company in Martinsburg, was like most people when it came to pawn shops.  He understood that such operations had, over the years, acquired “less than favorable” judgments for themselves, despite having a rich tradition in society that once garnered a legitimate level of communal respect.  He wanted to plug into the industry but he certainly didn’t want to be labeled as a dishonest businessman and he didn’t want his company to suffer the fate of negative stereotypes.  So, he decided to at least give it an honest effort and find out for himself if the perceptions held any weight, and if they did, to build a business that put those perceptions to rest.  His research took him through many of the local and not-so-local pawn shops within the tri-state area, and beyond, and what he found, wasn’t exactly a surprise.

   “I visited many different pawn shops over the course of several weeks and I observed a lack of professional, courteous, clean, organized, and fair business practices in the shops in the tri-state area as well as the shops outside of this area,” Bishop explains.  “I have always strived for a higher mark, if you will, a ‘do it better – make it better’ attitude.  I felt that Martinsburg needed a shop which provided a service that I saw was lacking in other establishments.”

   Bishop, 40, knew immediately he didn’t want to be labeled as a “pawn” shop and risk receiving a categorical “black eye” before he even got his business off the ground, so he came up with “Tannerman’s Trading Company,” named after his son, Tanner.

   “People see the name and ask us what it is that we do.  Well, we are similar to and do business like a pawn shop but we do it differently – meaning that we pride ourselves on a foundation of buying fair and selling fair.  Our goal is to provide quality items at a very fair market value.  We trade, pawn, barter, auction, and more.  We are the one-stop shop for just about anything you want to sell or purchase.”

   Bishop emphasizes the importance of variety in his business model as it applies to chemistry and marketability, building upon the value of such diversification.

   “Customers visit our on-line auctions constantly to see what we have up for sale.  We place at least ten to fifteen items a day on eBay as well as on our website.  Much of the bidding on eBay starts at only a penny with no reserve – a secret chemistry in and of itself.  We sell what we buy via the retail storefront, our eBay store, and the web.  We see a lot of local folks and have a fair amount of customers from Hagerstown and Winchester coming in.  If you include the internet, we’re in all fifty states and the world.  In just seven years, we’ve sold over a million dollars worth of merchandise on eBay and have a 99.9% positive feedback rating based on over six thousand transactions.” 

   Whereas the original methodology for Tannerman’s was developed by Bishop years ago when he was simply selling items for people on eBay, the inspiration for the company resides within necessity.  He always had a passion to do his best for his family, but when his son had the first of three open-heart surgeries at just one week old, he knew that whatever financial success he found would be less about comfort and more about security.

   “I did eBay out of the basement of our house for a little extra income during Tanner’s surgeries,” he remembers.  “I would go to yard sales, auctions, pawn shops, and buy stuff that I knew I could resell online and make a profit.  It helped a lot when we lost my wife’s income as she had to tend to Tanner for most of the day.  I worked full-time at Kohl’s distribution center and spent many late hours in that basement trying to sell things.  I would sell anything; believe it or not, I was making three to five hundred bucks a week selling Silica Gel (those little freshener packs in shoe boxes) that I’d get from the trash at Kohl’s.  They were throwing it away; I was paying my bills with trash.  That’s what truly clued me in to the power of the internet.” 

   His wife reminded him one day that since he was buying and selling all the time, packing and shipping into the early a.m. hours, and was never home, why didn’t he just start up a shop where people brought it to him to sell on eBay.  Bishop took her advice and rented a “closet” on Raleigh Street for two hundred dollars a month and used a dry erase marker board propped up on a chair in the window as the sign.  Thus, Tannerman’s was born with only fourteen hundred dollars and no inventory in a three hundred square foot space on the west side of town.  The relatively modest operation led to a more substantial process that began to include trading items and buying items outright.  The eventual transition flowed into pawning items for a collateral loan.  Those early years can easily be seen in Bishop’s present day approach to the business. 

   “We accommodate people financially in so many ways because their needs are different.  Some customers need money today and borrow it against an item of collateral and pick it up later after paying the principal and interest, or they might need something sold on eBay, which is what we do best.  I’ve got a full-time employee working forty hours a week, just doing eBay for us.  We’re very concerned with getting you the absolute best market value for your item, and if it is not marketable, we’ll tell you why, and even give you referrals to help you move items that we cannot.  And that’s what separates us in this industry, we’re not here to bleed you, we’re here to help you.  Whatever you are selling or needing to pawn, we can take care of you.  People know that if they come talk to Travis, he’s gonna give it to you straight and fair.  Our shop is committed to helping people, getting someone the best deal.  We want both sides to be winners.  In the long run, what does it do for me if I treat someone poorly, or give them a bad deal?  How does that help me or them?  It goes against who I am and why I’m doing this.”

   The “shop” is very different from what you might expect.  Priding themselves on quality merchandise and customer relationships, the staff at Tannerman’s look forward to interacting with the community and aim to provide a fun and exciting atmosphere that is constantly evolving. 

  Bishop elaborates, “We buy and sell good stuff – clean, new and used, quality stuff.  That’s who we are, brokers of good stuff, and we have a blast doing it.  We buy, sell, trade, haggle, consign, auction, barter.  People love coming in to our shop, you truly never know who or what is coming in on a given day.”

   As a symbol of the diversity at Tannerman’s, Bishop employs a capable collection of staff to facilitate the many needs of his clientele.  Holly Stanley handles the secretarial duties, Gayle Richardson oversees internet sales and shipping, Curtis Ashcraft operates as a manager and the Archery Pro, David Simerly, the “knife guru,” is in charge of firearms and blades, Ken Davis, of KGD Technologies, maintains the website and network managing, and Bishop’s wife, Ginger, comes in part-time to handle a variety of administrative and day-to-day duties.

   A major focus at Tannerman’s is guns and archery.  The shop is divided into two unique spaces, with the Gun & Archery Shop as a store within the store by way of a door inside of the pawn shop showroom.  They go above and beyond the usual buyer-seller interaction, often tending to the equipment a customer purchases on-site, so the item meets that individual’s personal needs and requirements.   

   Bishop explains another service that Tannerman’s provides.  “We will make house calls for people who have an estate they want to sell.  We can come in and make an offer on the entire contents of the house as well as pick up larger items the customer cannot transport.  We can take pictures of larger items that won’t fit in the shop, to put up on eBay, as well.  We’ve probably sold over thirty antique cars, motor homes, dump trucks, you name it.  The auction structure we utilize on-line allows us an enormous audience.”

   “The website is basically an informational introduction of who we are and what we do.  We are going live with our inventory very soon on the site with a shopping cart checkout system for everyone to see and purchase.  We have links on the site to take you to our current items for auction or “buy-it-now” on eBay.  We also plan on implementing GunBroker auctions where we will auction guns from that website.  The consumer will be able to shop our items on our site or eBay or from GunBroker, from the comfort of their home or office.  If you win the item, you just come down and pick it up in our showroom.”

   As dynamic as the folks at Tannerman’s seem to be, it’s probably fitting that they’ve also figured out more than one way to interact with and give back to the community.  The company faithfully sponsors missionaries, churches, and even non-profits like Birthright in Ranson, local Rescue Missions, and Children of Africa.

   “We also assist various individuals who come into our shop, who are less fortunate due to life circumstances.  We offer what we can,” Bishop adds.

   Much of the fuel for his company’s humanitarian efforts is a result of Bishop’s faith.  “I believe God keeps very good score and knows our hearts are in this business.  Our highest goal is to try and always be remembered as givers and not takers.  We are not perfect people but we have good hearts.  My faith is pretty simple.  My life was a disaster at the time of my son’s birth – got turned upside down in that first week.  It was chaos.  We were exhausted, broke, uncertain, lonely – sick and tired of being sick and tired.  It was three years of hospitals, twenty doctors, bills, constant sickness with Tanner, helicopter rides to intensive care units.  I submitted to God, he got us through it all.  He was my strength, my certainty, my understanding, my friend.  I found Jesus to be as real to me as my son.  I would not have made it through that period without my faith.  As people see on my ads, on the site, etc., Jesus saves.  To honor him, I have an obligation to serve people.  We’re in a time where people need to get a fair deal, times are tough, people need to know that they are being treated fair, I want to help them.”

   Young Tanner is now nine years old and defying the odds that even doctors had given him.  Bishop recalls, “He has become a person he wasn’t supposed to become, according to the experts.  He gets good grades, he’s full of life.  He’s a symbol of my story.”

   That story encompasses a little more than just a successful business built on a desire to make a difference.  “I’ve got this picture of Tanner, after one of his surgeries,” Bishop reflects, “sitting there smiling.  He’s got tubes coming out of him, he’s hooked up to all these machines, and he’s just smiling, as if to say, ‘It’s gonna be o.k. Dad, don’t worry.’  That’s the kind of stuff I remember, the stuff that got me through it.  My mom died when I was twenty, from cancer.  I made it to her bedside for her last moment on this earth.  She could barely breathe, but she struggled to say one thing to me, three words.  She looked me in the eyes, gasping for air, and said, ‘Don’t give up.’  She knew I loved her and I knew she loved me, she had three words left, and she told me not to give up.  She died five minutes later.  I’ll never forget it.  I lived as a young man trying to find a use for those words.  I found out just how useful they were when we had my son.  Her words have come into play over and over for me.”   

   The family also has another miniature Bishop running around the shop, two year old Katy.  They are an example of “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”  Tanner’s complications forced Travis and Ginger to grow accustomed to such difficulty and when Katy came into this world, it was certainly a change of pace.

   “Katy’s running around, she’s perfect, we’re not living in hospitals or Ronald McDonald houses.  She’s got this energy, she’s just perfect.  We were so worn down with Tanner, but then he defied the odds, and now Katy.  We’re just so blessed.”

   From humble beginnings in a lonely basement while the world seemed to be falling in around him, Travis Bishop managed to find faith, fatherhood, and financial security amidst the chaos.  He now wants to provide the community with a service that is representative of his beliefs and his gratitude, and Tannerman’s Trading Company has proven to be exactly that. 

   “We’re all living in this world, paying bills, trying to make it, dealing with our struggles.  It can be done, I’ve learned this.  You can get through it.  You gotta find it in yourself and believe in it, and not give up, not fold.  I was able to do that and put it in a business.  I wasn’t supposed to be doing this, believe me.  But now I am, and I want to do it right.”