Exactly.
“It costs $7000 dollars.”
“We’ll give you $50.”
Pretty much.
I’ve never seen Pawn Stars but I do watch Hardcore Pawn for some reason. There was a recent episode in which the family went to a gun shop to get armed. Les, the owner of the pawn shop, tried to negotiate on the price of holsters, at which point the gun shop owner got pissed, took off the lapel microphone and ordered them out of the store. Les pointed out that the gun shop owner canceled a $3,000 sale. I was wondering how much of the hostility was due to antisemitism.
And I doubt that I could run a pawn shop, given how desperate many of the customers appear (although some of them are faking it).
Selling things on eBay isn’t immediate money and also requires you to be on a fancy computer thing like a nerd. Trust me, there are a ton of people out there who “aren’t good with computers” and don’t care to be. They like to do things the “old fashioned” way.
Well I spose a gun shop is not a pawn shop and not everything in this world is price negotiable. The owner may have been cutting them a break in the first place on the price of the guns.
You could perhaps combine the shows into a megahit. HARDCORE ANTIQUE ROAD PAWN. Rick and Chumlee and an army of experts go around the country appraising things for angry black women who they then offer next to nothing for it in exchange for which the angry black women attack them. Slogan could be “Realistic? No. Racist? Maybe. But it’s better than another Ancient Astronauts program.”
I saw that episode also. I got the feeling that the clan had been jerking the guy around all day, and that the snippet of Les “negotiating” was only a small part of what actually happened.
The whole sequence is utterly absurd, by the way. Anyone who’s ever spent fifteen minutes in a pawn shop knows that they are NEVER hurting for guns and gun accessories. I can’t imagine this is much different in Detroit. Why wouldn’t the *Hardcore *crew have just picked from their own inventory? (Note: if there are some special laws in Michigan prohibiting pawnbrokers from dealing in legal firearms, please correct me. As the NRA would raise holy hell if this were the case, I’m thinking this is improbable.)
Based on your description, I’m wondering why you think antisemitism was a factor.
They had already purchased $3,000 in guns and were then Les brought up the idea of getting a discount on the $80 holster. It seemed not enough of a problem to get pissed over and throw the customers out of the store, but who knows?
My favorite part of Pawn Stars is the “Forensic Document Appraiser” who verifies famous signatures and stuff. He always walks in with a giant satchel which you assume is going to be full of forensic-type stuff - bottles of this or that, not really sure…then he opens up the giant satchel and takes out an enormous magnifying glass.
And as I recall, knew the intracacies of Houdini’s (I don’t really remember who it was, but not someone whose signature is that common) signature off the top of his head.
I have about 6 eps of Pawn Stars on my DVR, but I’m pretty much over them. I still like Mike and Frank, though.
StG
Other shows give the value in ‘what you should insure this for’ and ‘what it could get if sold to a collector at auction’ which are very, very different and much higher numbers than ‘what you can get by selling it to someone who intends to make a profit by selling it to someone else’ - also very different and higher than ‘what you could be expected to spend if you bought something like this from a guy who bought it with the intent of reselling for a profit’.
I always thought that when Rick called the expert, he’d describe the item that the expert was coming to see: “Yeah, I’ve got this guy here who wants to sell me a Houdini autograph. Can you come check it out?” And then the expert would spend a little time studying references and resources on what to look for in authenticating Houdini’s autograph. Then the expert would show up some time later (hours? a day or two?) to meet Rick and the seller, and be able to comment knowledgeably on the alleged Houdini autograph.
I don’t think that the expert walks in “cold” and within a few minutes of Rick’s call. And after the expert arrives to see the Houdini autograph; if the seller was to suddenly pull out, say, an autograph allegedly from Amelia Earhart (another famous but uncommon autograph) and ask for an on-the-spot authentication; I’m sure the expert would be stuck having to say something like, “Bring it by my place Thursday at ten in the morning.” Then the expert would study Earhart signatures prior to the appointment.
More to the OP, let’s not forget the most common conversation on Pawn Stars:
Seller: “This is my [item], and I want [unreasonable amount] for it.”
Rick: “Ummm … that’s not gonna happen.”
They don’t. A couple of their experts are based in San Diego, for example. They just act “surprised” when they see what they are authenticating.
Followed by:
[Cutaway to Rick on confessional camera]: I really want this item, if I can get it for the right price.
I liked Frasier’s take on Antiques Roadshow - drink every time they say “veneer.”
The whole “bringing priceless treasures to a pawnshop in Vegas” bit does tend to strain credulity.
But as above, it is a chance to appear on TV and essentially free advertising for when you DO turn down their $3.50 and put your Bag of Hair from Christ’s Last Haircut up for sale at auction or on eBay.
As seen on Pawnstars!
I don’t think Rick’s business was your average run-of-the-mill pawn shop even before it started appearing on television. Hardcore Pawn seems a lot closer to your average pawn shop, but, again, I think it’s probably much bigger than most pawn shops.
That’s sensible and realistic (well, being in another city, not the acting surprised part). I would imagine that some of the experts required are so specialized that there may be only a few of their type in the US, and not necessarily all would be located in Las Vegas, as the show might lead one to believe.
But I’m imagining Rick and the production company mentioning this (off-camera) to the hopeful seller:
Rick: “Okay, I’ve called and spoken with Joe Expert, and he’s agreed to come and inspect your antique widget.”
Seller: “Great. How long till he gets here? Ten minutes? Twenty?”
Rick: “Friday of next week. He’s flying in from San Diego. When you come back ten days from now, wear the same shirt, for continuity’s sake.”
Seller: “Oh. But I need the cash now. I’m on a hot streak at the crap table…”
Actually, I’m guessing that for the sake of efficiency and cost, the autograph expert (say) comes into town for a few days only after enough autograph sellers have shown up or otherwise enquired about selling their autographs, to make it worth the production company paying the expert’s travel expenses. Rick (or somebody) then calls the autograph sellers back in; and Rick and the expert then deal with all of them over the course of a day or two while the cameras roll, and all the different sellers and their stories that are filmed over those days are edited into various different episodes. A few days after all that, the (say) art expert comes into town, and they film all the people looking to sell art; and so on, and so on…
They brought in an expert to evaluate a one man submarine the other night. He seemed legit as he told them it would cost a hundred grand to refurbish the thing.
I’m sure at this point you need to call the shop to schedule an evaluation date if they even think the item is interesting. Otherwise they probably don’t let joes off the street wander in and go through the whole shebang with the TV guys. I’m sure it’s a case of " hey I’ve got this dildo from 1435 I want to pawn" and thy are like " cool. Bring it in on this date when the filmers are here". Or " hey I have this playstation 3 I want to pawn" and they are like “BORING. Take it to Honchos place. Click”.
Haven’t seen it, but to me the previews seem to scream - “We’ll let you guess the price of something, because you obviously know the value of nothing!”
Bit of a hijack but not worth it’s own thread:
There was a recent episode of Pawn Stars in which a man asked to be paid in gold. I don’t remember the item or the amount but let’s say Rick had offered/the guy accepted $2,000.
Rick told him he couldn’t legally pay him in gold, BUT what he would do is count out $2,000 worth of gold from the pawn store’s stock, give the guy $2,000 in cash, and then immediately- 5 seconds later- the guy could give him back the $2,000 cash and buy/take the gold.
Out of curiosity, does anybody know why they couldn’t do a flat “$2,000 in gold for this item” trade?