Fortune’s Soldier

By: Maxine Hurt | January 08, 2010 | Local Shopping Profile

When interviewing a person, seemingly inconsequential details become important like what mischief he might have created the night before or how the world might have looked to him when he woke up that morning and, perhaps most important, his or her chosen meeting place.

Yossi Dina, owner and proprietor of the exclusive pawnshop and estate acquisitions brokerage firm known as South Beverly-Wilshire Jewelry & Loan/The Dina Collections, had a toothache the night before we met. In Dina’s case, this translates into a man who is accustomed to getting a full night’s sleep instead getting very little. Dina missed his morning advanced master yoga class as a result, which might have accounted for an impatient exchange with an employee that went something like this: “Pick up the phone, please. I asked you to pick up the phone, no?”

Regardless, with his golden glow, midnight gaze and hypnotic voice, thick with his Israeli roots, Dina seemed healthy, focused and years younger than 50-something. As for the interview’s location, instead of meeting at his Malibu home adjacent to incandescent vistas and the melody of waves lapping at the shore, we met at his Beverly Hills’ business location amidst hollering phones and the din of deal-making. Dina tells me they have outgrown the current location and are in the process of building a premier location from the ground up just down the street from here.

With a cool “Hello, darling!” Dina, a former member of an elite Israeli commando team, greets his clients, many of whom are L.A.’s A-listers seeking to obtain immediate loans using their treasures as collateral. Other clients are looking to purchase those treasures, as well as other Dina acquisitions, well below market value. And they can get them here. Dina shows me a white piece of paper out of which tumbles a plump diamond. “I am selling this diamond today for $500,000. It is 12 carats. Go to Harry Winston, Cartier — you will pay $3-to-4$ million for this diamond.”

For the past 30 years, Dina has been buying, selling and lending money against panoply of tempting finds that include fine art, antiques, estate jewelry, designer watches and luxury cars. Fantasy pieces that have passed through his hands include a 13th-century Buddha from Thailand, a Czarist Russian tiara, the Rolls Royce from the original Thomas Crown Affair film starring Steve McQueen, jewelry from the Lana Turner estate and a painting by Frank Sinatra.

“During my early years in L.A., [I] began with selling jewelry door to door, and some nights [I slept] in my car,” Dina remarks in a voice tinged with the sound of a man who’s not shocked by much anymore. These days, he deals with life on his terms and his own set of rules that are grounded in earning client trust, respecting karma and having no regrets. Dina’s rules, which I whimsically imagine are carved into a jagged piece of ancient stone painted in diamond dust, are vital, necessary for someone who says that although he doesn’t like drama, he finds a lot of it. Living his lifestyle, it goes with the territory.

Malibu Magazine: When People ask you what you do for a living, how do you respond?
Yossi Dina: I am a businessman, a broker of sought-after goods. I do different things: I deal in fine art, fine jewelry — almost anything sought-after. Because I never know what may come my way, I get some very interesting items, such as an Oscar. You know Lenny Dykstra the baseball player? I purchased all of his rings. I have some Lakers rings, Super Bowl rings — I buy everything and anything of interest to me.

MM: How has your business been affected by the economy?
YD: Today, I sell more than I did two years ago because you can get more for your money. Prices have gone down. Diamonds went down. Do you know about watches? Let me show you something. This watch is worth $350,000.When it sold in the market, it was only $6,000. It’s very rare from the ’40s. It has an original face. These kinds of goods are very collectible. We specialize [in items] from [the 1900s to the present]. I deal in goods people like to collect: important watches, important diamonds. If you go to Rodeo drive, you have 20 important stores. Well, I have it all. Everything is in one location at my store including goods from Chanel, Cartier, Harry Winston and Van Cleef and Arpels. Everything is in my store and at 20 cents on the dollar — 80 percent off what you might pay at retail store like Cartier.
And I deal with important art much the same way — huge discounts for sought-after fine art.

MM: What can you tell us about the general state of the economy?
YD: I am a barometer for what is happening in the current market. And you know it isn’t good right now. More people are coming in for loans. We are in [bad] shape and it might get worse. Honestly, I do not see the light at the end of the tunnel yet. I am unsure about the outcome.
People are not spending like they were before. People are spending less for cars, less for big-name items. I see people going from a big-ticket diamond to a smaller, more conservative one. They seem less likely to want to show off like they used to. Lately, I think people have become more humble, and I think it is good to be humble.

MM: If you weren’t a businessman, dealer, pawnbroker, what other profession do you think you would have chosen?
YD: You know I started going to temple in Malibu, and I always tell the rabbi that I would like to be the rabbi in Malibu. It’s something spiritual. Honestly, some day I will liquidate my business and maybe go to India — just go to an ashram and spend two or three years studying. I can’t tell you exactly what I want because I have never had a break. I have been working since age 12. I haven’t found the time to think about what I really would want. Everything just happens to me. I never planned to be a Jew. I never planned to be in this business. It happened, and I’m here and grateful for the successes.

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