Perhaps the evaluation is free in exchange for the free advertising.
Their affiliations are shown in the subtitles along with their names, so they get free advertising for their own businesses. ISTR Mark Hall-Paton (“The Beard of Knowledge”) has the producers donate the standard appearance fee (whatever that is) to the museum.
And, because somebody has to say it: “Write him up, Chum. Murder One.”
After the obligatory "not that there’s anything wrong with that…where are you getting your information? A quick look around shows that he got married just a little while ago. It is the third marriage for both. She has three kids. No mention of anything else even on TMZ who you would expect to reveal any other details. The articles I saw all say she has not desire to be on TV.
This varies widely from state to state. In my state most of the pawn rules are local and not state statutes so it varies widely from town to town here.
There was also an episode where they bought a coin that was stolen. However, they learned the original owner was paid for it by his insurance and they were allowed to keep the coin.
But after the insurance company pays the claim, don’t *they *become the legal owners of the property if it ever turns up?
Its obvious that it is set up. After the first season it would have to be. But not everything is fake. The guy who tried to sell the prints of the USS Maine is still pissed off and thinks the expert doesn’t know what he is talking about. If you want you can buy it from him on Ebay. If you don’t believe the Pawn Stars expert. I think he dropped his price a little.
That’s what I’d expect.
I was a extra for pawn stars…most of the high end stuff is owned by the experts…every guitar is owned by jesse of cow town guitars…i know this cause as a touring musician…he became a band friend
I don’t get what you’re saying … are you saying that every guitar that appears on the show belongs to Cowtown, or what? That’s not the case. For example, when Pete from A.J.'s Music went in to sell an odd Gretsch guitar, it was stock from his store, I’d seen the guitar hanging at A.J.'s for months.
I don’t know if the likes of SNL has ever taken a stab at Pawn Stars, but it could lend itself to some pretty easy parody.
“This is the left leg off a table from a 16th century Zulu harvest ceremony.”
“Okay. Is it alright if I call my friend who’s an expert in 16th century Zulu harvest ceremony table left legs to come take a look at it?”
“How much did you want for this collection of Jem pogs?”
“I was thinking $400 million.”
“18 cents.”
“Deal.”
“I already knew it was going to be a busy day in the shop. That’s why I wasn’t that happy when the Great Gazoo showed up and told me he’d give me an extra $200 if I’d jump over a shark on my motorcycle.”
Rick “What’s it worth?”
Expert “At least a million dollars”
Rick “So what do you want for it?”
Customer “A million dollars”.
Rick “I’ll give you fifty bucks.”
Customer “OK”
That’s one of the thing I find unbelievable about the show. If an expert tells you that your item could fetch $X, and you know the pawn shop will give you 1/2 $x or less, why the hell are you trying to sell it at a pawn shop?
If I want to get top dollar for a rare item I own, a pawn shop is the last place I’d try to sell it.
Yes and no. Let’s say you have an expensive rare item for which the expert tells you can get $X.
So what do you do now? The obvious thing is to try to find a buyer for it for $X for a private sale - just you and the buyer. Do you know how to find such a buyer? Probably not. A lot of stuff that is shown has a fairly small collector audience, and the higher the price the smaller the audience size. If you do know how to find such a buyer then yes, you should go ahead and do it without any middlemen.
If you can’t find a buyer yourself, you will need a middleman. Like an auction house. But that immediately lowers the amount of $ you can get.
First, there is the auction fee (or “seller’s fee”). That can easily be somewhere around 20%. That’s the part of the price that, when the item is sold, the auction house takes before giving you the rest.
Second, there is often a “buyer’s premium”. That the percentage over the price that the buyer pays to the auction house for the privilege of buying the item. That can be 10%-20%. And don’t be fooled by the “buyer’s” part - yes, the buyer pays it but the buyers are not stupid, and that fee lowers the price at which they will buy your item by that amount.
And, third, there is the time value of money. $20K in your hand today quite often may be worth more to you than $25K two years from now. And for expensive items with small collector crowds it may easily take years to find the right buyer or to get into the right auction.
When all that is taken into account, the prices that people get at that pawn shop, compared to the expert’s valuations, are usually very reasonable.
In The Life and Crimes of Don King, (which as you might guess is a biography of the fight promoter), the book talks about how Don King would go in the hotel rooms of boxers under contract to another promoter to the tune of $5 million, and get them to sign over to him on ridiculous contracts by dropping a briefcase with $40,000 cash on the bed.
Because some people would rather have $40,000 cash right now than $5 million “on paper someday”.
(I may be misremembering a bit on the numbers above, but that was the general
sentiment)
Not the brightest people in the world, mind you… but the brightest people in the world likely aren’t in Las Vegas pawn shops either.
I’m hoping they would ALL be in the same car and go together. A producers, ratings are all we care about, dream show.
I read something recently that Chumlee’s girlfriend had a brest enlargement. I am surprised that he could even get a girlfriend.
I know it is because that’s what’s expected, but I’m getting really tired of his whining.
Bob
I haven’t seen the show for a while, but I do remember during the credits, I think opening, there’s the senior son talking in front of a display of 3 guitars. One of the guitars is a Les Paul with a natural top. No sunburst, no flame, no quilting, just nicely grained finished maple. I really liked the looks of that guitar.
But most often, Rick is going to be selling an item like that at auction rather than sitting on it until he finds a buyer. So you are losing the auction fee either way PLUS you are losing on the profit that Rick needs to make on top of it. You are still better off going to an auction house yourself. Most of the people who are on the show are not looking for top dollar. They are looking to make it on the show for 5 mins.
New viewer just added!
That is because they are two different people.