There’s plenty of good offroading country near Vegas. You can travel outside the city in any direction for 15 minutes and find somewhere good. Lots of people with ATVs.
I wonder about this. People walk in with stuff that may be common or it may be rare and valuable and they have no idea what it’s worth. And they just trust the staff there to give them a price. I guess maybe that’s how it actually works, but I can’t imagine going in to try to sell some historical relic not knowing if it’s worth $100 or $5000. So it doesn’t strike me as totally implausible that the actual negotiation occurs off camera (or in the past) and a quick and dirty haggling was recreated on camera.
But then again, there are so many people where the expert will say “this might be worth up to $4000 at auction” when then say “well then I would like $4000!”. It suggests to me that it’s not scripted, since people wouldn’t want to do a re-enactment of the sale that made them look like dumbasses.
Why do you believe they are ripping anybody off? I don’t see it.
I’ve read how staged the home buyers shows are on HGTV. Have no reason to assume the pawn transactions are any different. Makes for better TV.
Has any Doper actually been to the shop? I’m wondering if they announce they will be filming on specific days, which brings out more “interesting” items and people who want to be on TV.
I’ve been to the shop many times, mostly before they were on TV.
Now, they have tour buses pulling up and there’s usually a line about halfway down the block to get in during daylight hours.
No idea if they announce when they’ll be filming, but I doubt they do.
IMO, this place isn’t even useful as a pawn store anymore. Too many people, too little merchandise. Most pawn shops are filled with tools, instruments, bicycles and lawnmowers, not $100k trucks and historical artifacts. I know when I go pawn shopping, I’m looking for guitars and amps, maybe a new air tool for a project; I’m not looking for exotic valuables.
Also, with the internet, everyone knows what everything is worth, that is, you are very unlikely to find that 1965 Mosrite guitar in a pawn shop hanging on the wall with a $300 price tag anymore. A couple of mouse clicks and any idiot pawn shop owner knows exactly what the guitar is worth.
That’s funny, the episodes I’ve seen clearly show a door at the front of the pawn shop. If a customer doesn’t like the price he’s being offered, he’s free to walk out of it.
There are other pawn shops and other methods for selling these items. Most of the information on an item’s value is readily available on the internet or in a library. A pawn shop isn’t a public service – it’s a business. They are there to buy low and sell high. Nothing forces the customer to make a deal, except perhaps their own desire to make a buck.
I can’t figure out how a working Pawn Shop can be on a reality tv show. The fans that want to stop by and meet “the guys” and see the store in person must flood the store with people. The real paying customers aren’t going to stand in line. I shudder to think of the tourist buses flooding that area with people.
I recall fans at the Miami Ink forum said they tracked down that shop in Florida. It was a working tattoo place, but the guys from the show weren’t actually there. They left after filming stopped.
They’ve shown some of the security guys at the Pawn Sop. Big, scary looking dudes. Standing right beside the front door.
Exactly. Most of the people the American Pickers guys buy from are junk dealers. These aren’t some sweet little innocent grannies who don’t know what they’ve got. They’re “collectors” who shrewdly negotiate for the price they want or tell the pickers to hit the road.
I read an interview and Rick said people who pawn items in general do not want to be on TV. That’s why you don’t see many of them on the show. In fact I just saw my first guy with an item for pawn just last week.
This. Though I have to say, the whole experience of the “pickers” seems pretty. . . useless. I mean, sure, you might find some awesome crazy deal, but all the stuff they post shows a $25-$50 profit. It never seems worth all that time of driving, spending hours picking, etc. Then split between two guys and that chick who works for them.
I don’t recall where I read it, but they were calling “fraud” on that show, saying that no way do two guys drive around in a $70,000 truck picking up junk worth $3-5 a pop.
That’s exactly it. The whole premise of the show just doesn’t make sense. Don’t get me wrong, it’s neat to see the old stuff, but I rarely think it’s COOL old stuff (yeah, I get it- you guys like signs and oil cans. Thanks). Pawn Stars is definitely neater.
They dropped that “hot chick” character right? I swear I only ever see the episode where Rick threatens her with graveyard shift if she shows up late again. It felt like they wanted to put a girl on the show and then realized she wasn’t needed.
