They are running a marathon today. Just saw the one where a guy brings in this gorgeous 19th century hand made tool chest. The thing was as big as a steamer trunk. Ebony and Ivory inlay on the compartment coverts. Several tiers of sliding drawers. Rick called it the master carpenter’s resume. All his skills were there on display.
Here’s the kicker. It was still packed full of 19th century tools. :eek: I’ve seen one ebony hand plane sell for hundreds of bucks. The collector market is just sky high for those tools. I bought some damaged ebony hand planes (wood was split) for my den’s decoration and they cost me nearly a $100 20 years ago.
The guy wanted 10k and Rick offers 2k. I think Rick went up to 3k and blew the deal.
I’d easily say there’s 10k worth of tools in that chest, probably a heck of a lot more. I’ve read stories of chests like this going on auction and selling for huge amounts. The chance to literally acquire a master carpenter’s entire set of tools is a treasure trove for historical reenactors. Guys like Roy Underhill would have gone nuts over this find.
It’s not a real show. The guy with the item was very likely contacted by producers to appear with his item for a fee – even if he had no intention of selling it.
Did that chest have almost 60 of those planes in it? Cause it takes a lot to make it worth 10 grand. They don’t want to pay more than half the value of most things because it takes time and more money for them to get their money back. So offering $3000 indicated Rick thought it might be worth $6000. Sounds like a generous offer since they only showed you the best looking stuff from the box on the show.
I am very suspicious because Rick didn’t bother bringing in an expert to inventory & price the tools. It’s probably worth more as a complete set, but at least an inventory would give some idea of worth.
This may have been a case where it was just brought in for the cameras.
They do a lot of legit deals on the show too. But once in awhile items come up that I know Rick will never pay enough to get.
Every single instance like the above. How about the guy with the silver from the Arthur C. Clarke wreck? He was not just passing through Vegas. And his asking price was so prohibitively high, that it clearly wasn’t for sale. If he did not get an appearance fee, he drummed up free publicity for the next time he tries to put it up for auction as it had previously not met its reserve. Or when Chumsford and camera crew just happened to bump into Bob Dylan - like it wasn’t prearranged.
If you guys take Pawn Stars at face value, I have some shocking news about pro wrestling. But on the plus side, I’ll gladly sell you a stake in my bridge.
I did some researching on the internet a while back when I didn’t want to believe pawn stars is largely rigged. I saw a few instances of people claiming that producers contacted them to come on the show, with no intent to sell. I also heard that sometimes people are given explicit instructions on how much to ask for and how to hold out, etc.
I came away pretty convinced that the show is probably somewhat staged, but not necessarily every item.
But something like that is probably going to sit in the shop for awhile. And Rick has to pay his employees and for the general upkeep of the store and turn a profit.
Well you can’t demonstrate your claim that the show is not real, so I’ll pass. I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes, but I see no reason not to take the show at face value. They say the show is what happens at a pawn shop, and sometimes to it’s stars when they other places. Are you saying they’re using a green screen and there’s no real pawn shop? You say some of the people selling goods are there by pre-arrangement. They’ve said that’s the case on the show numerous times. Are you arguing that it’s fake when Rick says “I called…” and the producer actually made the phone call? Are you claiming the guy with the silver wouldn’t have sold it to Rick for his asking price? And you did claim specifically that some guests were paid fees. Any evidence of that at all?
I’m pretty sure the show can be taken for face value, I just don’t know what face you are seeing. There’s a real pawn shop, and people bring stuff in to sell or pawn (have they ever done a pawn? everyone wants to sell). They don’t ever say that every person was just walking down the street holding the item they’ve over-valued and just noticed the pawn shop sign. And no one cares if they arrange to bring someone in to sell something anyway.
There was the guy with the Native American ‘good luck’ thingy (I forget what they called it) and there was another one recently where Rick really wanted to buy the item, but the guy just wanted to pawn it because it was a family heirloom or something like that.
Here is how the show works if you have ever been to Las Vegas and seen the store. The store is huge. You only see a part of it. I’m sure things were done differently in the first season when no one knew about the place. Now there are lines of people hoping to sell their crap. None of them walk right up to Rick or even see him (although the entire store has signs saying just entering you give consent to be shown on TV). All that stuff is screened ahead of time. If there is anything interesting that might make for good TV they are asked to come back. I’m sure the producers set up the experts and everything else ahead of time. They are not going to waste time having everyone come back. If you are on TV (speaking not background) you are going to get paid an appearence fee. But I saw no evidence that any of the buying or selling is fake. Lots of the items you see on the TV are still in the store. So its all set up ahead of time. Not the same as fake. For scripted and fake see Hardcore Pawn.
As for the OP, they don’t want to go into the antique tool selling business. To sell piece by piece to would probably take a long time to make a profit. In order to sell the entire set whole they would have to hope to find that one buyer willing to spend that much or put it up for auction. So they may be sitting on it for a long time or have to pay a percentage to auction. It makes sense to not buy it for too high a price.
Some guy pawned his big rig once. In Rick’s book he said he does fewer pawns nowadays because the sort of people who are in the position to need to pawn stuff don’t want to be on TV
