Thursday March 18, 7:01 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
US Pawn and Sirco International Announce
Agreement on Development and Launch of
Internet Auction Site
WESTMINSTER, Colo./STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS
WIRE)--March 18, 1999--US Pawn Inc. (NASDAQ:USPN - news) and Sirco International Corp.
(NASDAQ:SIRC - news) jointly announced today the signing of an agreement whereby Sirco's subsidiary,
WebQuill Internet Services, LLC, was selected to provide development and management services for US
Pawn's new E-Commerce and Internet Auction Sites.
When completed, US Pawn's Sites will offer selected items from US Pawn's 13 store inventory of over
75,000 items directly to Internet customers through fully automated Online Auction and E-Commerce Web
Sites.
Charles C. Van Gundy, US Pawn's CEO, stated, ''Though the rapid growth and development of the
Internet, E-Commerce and Online Auctions has greatly impacted many industries, none will be more
positively affected than the Pawn industry. Due to the very nature of our business, we come into possession
of many items, which are both unique and valuable. Informed consumers have always canvassed Pawnshops
looking for rare musical instruments, jewelry and other collectibles at bargain prices. Though the use of the
Internet, we will be able to offer potential customers worldwide the ability to search our inventory for specific
items. In addition, we will be able to more narrowly define our merchandise for registration with Internet
search engines, which will facilitate our ability to reach online customers.''
Van Gundy continued, ''As opposed to many other Online Auction companies, which derive revenues
primarily from consignment fees and commissions, our Auction Site will generate substantially more revenues
from each sale as US Pawn will record gross revenue on the full sale price. In addition, we believe that the
Online Auction process will allow us to maximize the price that we receive from the sale of our inventory. As
important, we believe that the successful deployment of our E-Commerce and Online Auction Sites will
greatly increase our inventory turnover and efficiency, which will free up substantial capital that can then be
utilized in the planned rapid growth of our Company. These online capabilities will become our virtual Pawn
Shop, nicely augmenting our core business.''
Henry Azer, WebQuill's CEO added, ''We are pleased to have been selected by US Pawn. We think that
US Pawn is uniquely positioned to benefit from the use of the Internet and Online Auction capabilities. Unlike
other Internet auction companies, such as EBAY (NASDAQ:EBAY - news) and Yahoo!auctions
(NASDAQ:YHOO - news), US Pawn will be offering its own merchandise to online consumers and will
therefore be able to provide its customers with a guarantee of the nature and condition of the items to be
auctioned. We are excited about the potential of these sites and look forward to working with US Pawn.''
US Pawn is a publicly traded specialty lender and reseller of value-priced merchandise.
Sirco International Corp. is a diversified publicly traded Company with operations organized into three
divisions. Sirco's telecommunications division focuses on developing integrated local and long distance
telephone and Internet services in the converging communications industry.
This release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. The Company's actual
results may differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that might
cause such a difference include, among others, general economic and business conditions; industry trends; the
loss of major customers; changes in demand for the Company's product; the timing of orders received from
customers; dependence on third party sources of supply; the loss of licenses; availability of management;
availability, terms and deployment of capital; and changes in state or federal governmental regulations of
telecommunications.
Contact:
US Pawn, Westminster
Charles C. Van Gundy, 303/657-3500
WebQuill, Stamford
Henry Azer, 203/750-1000
haz@webquill.com
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