Conventional wisdom maintains that certain enterprises are recession-proof because their business booms when times are tough. But the magnitude of this recession is changing the rules, say the repo men, pawnbrokers and collection agents on the front lines of economic turmoil.

Many describe the pace of defaults, repossessions and other indicators of financial woe as "the worst" they've ever seen, and they pointed to signs that things are different this time:

• While repossessions of automobiles and other property are at all-time highs, the increased workload has not resulted in equally increased profits.

• The explosion of repossessed vehicles is being fueled by more people losing homes and jobs as well. One repo car was found outside a homeless shelter.

• A new kind of debtor has emerged: the normally responsible guy who usually pays his bills but just doesn't want to let go of his cash now in case he needs it.

For the repo men and collection agents, this translates to one sad story after another, an endless stream of business that's so good it's bad. Some have changed the way they do business to break even. For pawnbrokers and check cashing operations, it has meant watching business crawl to a near standstill.

TOUGH ASSIGNMENTS

For all, what's happening portends worse times to come.

Perhaps no one has had a thumb on the pulse of personal financial meltdowns like the repo man. When the economy plunges, his phone bounces off the hook.

"I've never seen anything like what's going on now, and I've been in this business 23 years," said David McCollough, president of RT's Service, the state's largest car repossession operation.

He's never had so much to do.

McCollough said his modus operandi has changed dramatically since the economy tanked. Where it was once relatively simple to retrieve a car, now it's much more difficult. True, McCollough has a huge overflow of assignments. But he says it takes twice the effort just to find the target vehicle — and that's where his trouble really kicks into high gear.

"The banks think I'm some sort of miracle worker," he said. "They send me this assignment — 'Go repossess this guy's car, he hasn't made a payment for 90 days.' So they give me his address and his work information.

"Now, you go to his address and knock on the door and the house is empty. You talk to the neighbors and they say, 'Yeah, his house got foreclosed on, and he moved.' So, you go to his workplace and they're like, 'Oh no, he got let go. We don't have any work.'

"And we're like, 'Holy smokes — where do we find this guy, now?' "

Frequently the guy is hiding out with family or friends who aren't about to blow his cover, McCollough says. If he and his team are able to locate the offender and his vehicle, they know they're in for a major hassle.

"Because he's lost his job, he's lost his house — he's at the point now that he just does not care," he said. "That's very new."

Recently, McCollough says, his team had all but given up on finding one repo car only to stumble across it sitting in the parking lot of a homeless shelter, where the buyer in default had taken up residence. That's another new experience, he said.

STUCK IN MIDDLE

Meanwhile, he's challenged by yet another obstacle: what to do with the vehicle once it's in his possession. The protocol is for the repo man to sell it at auction and collect a service charge from the lender.

Trouble is, "nothing's selling," said McCollough. What little does move is going at fire-sale prices. Recent-model high-end vehicles are rolling off the auction block at half their wholesale value, he said. More and more, McCollough ends up stuck with repossessed inventory that the overstocked auction dealer won't accept.

Pawnbrokers are experiencing a similar dilemma. Patron saints of ready money since ancient times, pawnbrokers find themselves holding inventories they can't get rid of, said John Spiker, president of the Hawaii Pawnbrokers Association.

"Talking to my colleagues, I can tell you these are some of the slowest times we've ever seen," said Spiker, proprietor of the A All Hawaiian Gold & Silver Company in Kaimuki. "In 30 years in the business, I have never seen it consistently this slow. People aren't buying."

Spiker said that because inventories aren't moving, pawnbrokers are losing money at the same time as they're overstocked. Worse, people who pawn possessions increasingly forfeit instead of paying off loans, which further adds to the stuff on the shelves.

"Ukuleles Wanted," reads Spiker's yellow pages advertisement. "Instant Cash Loans for Jewelry."

That's changed.

"We're forced to be more selective and not take certain things — tools, electronics, cameras, musical instruments," he said. "Even diamonds.

"You know, most pawnshops have diamonds and gold. But people don't have money. And you don't want to keep bringing in inventory when you can't sell what you already have."

PAWNSHOP PROBLEMS

The result is that fewer people are coming in to buy at the same time that fewer people are coming in to pawn, he said.

"You just sit there," said Spiker. "The misconception is that when things are bad people have all these valuables at home they can just run in and sell. It doesn't work that way. I can't see someone losing his job and telling the wife, 'Oh, let's go sell our TV.' "

Dave Ketzenberger, who operates the A R Recovery Solutions of Hawai'i collection agency in Waipahu, says his volume of work has never been higher. The down side is that his ability to collect has never been lower. Reason: The number of tight-fisted debtors has skyrocketed.

In addition to the customary credit criminals and procrastination payers, Ketzenberger talks about a new sort of debtor that has surfaced in recent months.

"That's the normally responsible guy who just doesn't want to let go of his cash in case he needs it, because of these times," he said. "Right now, cash is king."

With home equity lines frozen and credit spigots gone dry, hitherto dependable types have joined the swelling ranks of defaulters who hide their cash, fold their arms, and refuse to pay.

Two years ago, Ketzenberger's job was essentially to remind people that their bill was overdue and urge them to pay. Now, he has to be part pal, big brother, shrink and financial adviser.

"I tell them, 'Let's talk about your credit score and how that can affect you for years after this has passed,' " he said.

Ketzenberger says he's working harder now to earn a smaller yield than he pulled in two years ago. With so many borrowers out of pocket, he spends extra time suing and going to court. Meanwhile, clients have started twisting his arm to cut his commission to the bone. Some of the folks he's chasing today were his clients yesterday, he said.

"Everybody's trying to bring in all the revenue they can because they too need their cash," he said. "That's the vicious circle."

Hard times have fallen on other so-called recession-proof bastions. At least one payday loan and check-cashing concern has resorted to cutting expenses and reducing its hours of business.

In addition to operating a dozen PayDayHawaii offices on O'ahu, Maui, the Big Island, and Kaua'i, Craig Schafer is president of the Financial Services Providers Association of Hawaii, which represents payday and check-cashing operations throughout the state. Schafer said his business showed double-digit profits through 2007. Then, beginning last summer, he saw an accelerated and uncharacteristic decline in revenues. Since autumn, as more and more of his customers have lost their jobs, "it's like somebody turned off a switch," said Schafer.

"What's really been affected is check cashing," he said. "In November we were down something like 40 percent."

The only comparable business decline in Schafer's memory was the aftermath of 9/11 — but to him what's going on these days seems deeper, and, he suspects, will be longer-lasting.

"Something's different this time," said Schafer.