Customer: “I want $5000 for this junk from my grandmas attic but I absolutely won’t take less than $3000 under any circumstances. I’ll walk man! Just take it home with me”
During on screen negotiation:
Pawn shop guy: “Look, I know this stuff and this junk here is from the war of 1812 and was worn by Matsuwambatti in the battle of Turnley” (Obviously fed information from someone with the History Channel). What are you asking?"
Customer:
“$5000”
Pawn shop guy:
“I’ll give you $250 for it”
Customer:
“Can you do $1000?”
PSG:
“I guess I can go up to $275”
Customer (scratching chin pretending as if he is seriously considering not selling and sticking to his guns):
“OKAY! Pay me! YEE HAW i got’s me some money! Time to go buy some cigarettes and play some slots!”
My husband and I were discussing this while he watched his DVRed Pawn Stars episodes. My suggestion is that they just haul out some “interesting” item they have around the shop, have one of their friends stand in as the customer, and go through their little act.
Really, you have a unique Tiffany window that was made for the Duke of York’s summer castle that you need to sell and you take it to the pawn shop?
On Pawn Stars, after Rick has called his buddy who’s an expert on 18th century Russian automatons and been told "at auction it would go from between $5,000 and $7,000, there’s always the
“How much do you want for it now?”
“Well, the guy said it was worth between $5,000 and $7,000, so let’s do $6,000.”
Cue Rick’s “That’s retail/auction/best case scenario/I gotta make profit” spiel while Big Hoss walks up with a big bag of
SUBWAY
(sorry for the emphasis, but I was afraid the mention of SUBWAY wouldn’t be prominent enough)
and then of course the guy ends up taking $1,700. Then switch to the
The annoying part to me is when it goes the other way. I stopped in a few pawn shops this week because I’m thinking about switching to Blu-Ray. Some of them have Blu-Ray players but they’re asking eighty bucks for them.
I can go to WalMart and buy a new Blu-Ray player for ninety dollars. Why should I buy a used one from a pawn shop for eighty?
It’s not a “pawn shop”, it’s Pawn Stars. It’s like the people who think these people are broke from Vegas and – sob! – forced to sell off great-great-grandpa’s Civil War uniform. When was the last time you took family artifacts with you on vacation?
These people are going to the shop as a destination and in hopes of getting on the show. Yes, they could probably do better through private sales, etc but they just want to unload something they think will be valuable. The idea that it won’t be coming home with them was already ingrained in their mind before they wrapped it in a t-shirt and threw it in the suitcase.
Personally, I think shows like this (and their progenitor, Antiques Road Show) just feed the mass delusion that the crap people have been storing up is worth money.
I don’t know. On just about any other show antique items are worth a lot. Hell, does anybody ever watch the new game show, “It’s worth what?”. They had a fiberglass bike from the 1960’s worth, I think it was $15,000.
Yet, on Pawn Stars people bring in something 100 or 200 years old and it’s,
“You see this scratch that’s kind of hidden here? That drops the value considerably. I can offer you $200 for it.”
“Yeah, but I’ve seen similar going for $5,000.”
“True, but they don’t have that tiny little scratch.”
That’s the most annoying catch-phrase on a game show I’ve ever heard. I accidentally tuned to one show, heard it spoken a few times, and will never ever watch that show again.
They’re in the haggling business. They’re only asking 80. They expect you to offer 40, and sell it to you at 60.
I always love the “I have a buddy who knows all about these things, and he’s right outside the door” part. That, and the staged stuff like the owner of Robosaurus bringing it to a pawn shop on the Strip and asking a cool million.
I used to watch “Hardcore Pawn” too, but even though it’s realistic, it’s all about customers acting out, and just trading keepsake jewelry on casino money. They downplay that part on “Pawn Stars”, even though that has to be most of their business.
I know one person who keeps thinking he’ll go to an estate sale or auction and make it big. From what I’ve heard he may very well be on Hoarders next as he just moved to a bigger house to store his stuff in.
I guess people only see the few people they show on TV and think everyone has something nice. They seem to forget about the 1000s in the background who have crap.
The jokes about someone bringing in their Ming Dynasty vase collection and authentic Shard of the True Cross to Antiques Roadshow and being told they’re worth $5 and $13 respectively far predates Pawn Stars.
Of course, Pawn Stars are in it to make money so of course they’re going to low-ball it as much as possible. If you want the best possible price, get it professionally appraised (as opposed to having a ‘friend’ of the pawn shop owner tell you what it’s worth… where else would that fly?) and sell it privately or at auction. But then you don’t get to be on TV for seven minutes.
Antiques Roadshow used to feature people who had fakes or otherwise common items more often. The appraisers woudl show how you can tell this item is not the 17th century original, but was made in the 1930s or suchlike.
I liked those appraisals more than the “found treasures” ones.
Of course, there’s also the double reverse, where the appraiser starts off talking about how valuable this particular article is and then slides into a diversion about how they were heavily copied in the mid-40s and you think he’s about to tell the guy it’s worth $10, but there’s a “but” and it turns out it’s the genuine article and worth $5000.
I always felt a sense of national inadequacy, though, comparing Antiques Roadshow America with Antiques Roadshow UK…those people find freaking ROMAN CENTURION ARMOR in their back garden! All we get is something great-grandma put in the attic in the Buchanan administration.
I concur. *Hardcore Pawn *is a disgrace. Over a third of the show consists of black women screaming “GIVE ME MY MONEY!” and being thrown out of the store. Don’t think the owning family’s Jewish ancestry is lost on trash TV watchers, either. *Hardcore Pawn * could be a training video for the KKK.
I see where you’re coming from on Antiques Road Show, but I think Pawn Stars is more like a dose of reality. A lady comes in with a vintage toy that most hoarders think will fetch serious bank; she might walk out with $40. A guy comes in with Willie Nelson’s old keychain; the Old Man tells him to take a walk. The prices on Antiques Road Show are best-case scenarios; Pawn Stars shows that even the good stuff isn’t worth much straight-up; it takes money and time to make collectables pay.
Rick mentioned the customer usually isn’t present when the appraiser looked at the item. For tv, the store allows the customer to hear what the appraiser says. I got the impression that before the show started, Rick showed the item to someone to get a value. Then told the customer what he’d offer. The customer never knew the appraised value unless they did it independently.
I can’t imagine why people don’t sell their stuff on Ebay. They’d get a lot better price than any pawn shop pays.
