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News
Dec 14th, 2004
Las Vegas Entrepreneur Hits $90 Million Jackpot off Sale of SuperPawn
LAS VEGAS, Dec 14, 2004 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Las Vegas pawnbroker Steve Mack hit
the jackpot with his recent agreement to sell SuperPawn Inc. to Cash America
International for approximately $125 million, netting approximately $90 million
in personal profits.
Mack, a fourth-generation pawnbroker who took over the family-owned business in
1981, expanded SuperPawn from a single-store pawnshop into the largest
privately owned pawn chain in the country with 41 stores and revenues topping
$60 million a year.
Mack attributes SuperPawn's success to its proprietary software system --
zpawnsoft(TM), originally developed to allow an entry-level employee to utilize
his expertise in pre-owned merchandise evaluation. In the last 10 years, more
than 50 million items have been evaluated using this system, setting the
industry standard for valuing pre-owned merchandise.
In addition to a successful brick-and-mortar business, Mack led his company in
becoming the fifth largest seller on eBay in 2003. Using a hybrid of the
initial pawn software, Mack's research and development team created zdrop(TM).
This software was so revolutionary that it led to eBay's (EBAY) first-ever case
study. By cutting transaction times for posting an item from 23 minutes to less
than seven, zdrop(TM) reduced per-posting costs from $23 to 25 cents.
With the sale of SuperPawn to be finalized in the coming weeks, Mack is now
reinvesting into his new spin-off company, ztradingindustries, which licenses
the zpawnsoft and zdrop software to other businesses.
"I'm a pawnbroker turned software developer because my team has always thought
outside the scope of our traditional revenue stream," said Mack. "We saw an
opportunity in eBay and we acted on it, creating the zdrop software that was
able to easily and cost-effectively sell our merchandise online. Now, we're
offering our proven business solutions to other companies looking to increase
their profitability."
In October, Postal Annex+ began installing zdrop(TM) into their 275 mail
service locations, and by Spring 2005, PC Synergy will integrate zdrop(TM) into
the mail service systems it provides to 2,500 locations. Additionally, Best
Collateral, a nine-store pawnshop chain in northern California, installed
zpawnsoft in November 2004.
About ztradingindustries, Inc.
ztradingindustries has acquired, valued, and sold more than $600 million in
previously owned merchandise. This privately owned corporation is based in Las
Vegas. Please visit www.ztradingindustries.com for more information.
About Steve Mack
Steve Mack holds a business
degree from Arizona State University and an Owners-Presidents-Managers Degree
from Harvard Business School.
ztradingindustries and zdrop are trademarks of ztradingindustries. All other
company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with
which they are associated.
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