Pawn Stars

I've been watching Pawn Stars on the History Channel.  It's a documentary/reality show in the vein of American Choppers.  It follows a family that runs a Vegas pawn shop and focuses on the interesting items that come through the doors, with a little family drama thrown in.  These shows have become a dime a dozen, but this one is the closest in quality to Choppers in its prime.  I like that there is no narration.  Choppers doesn't have it either, and the cheese factor seems to go up when it's present (see: Street Customs; Doing Da Vinci).

I have been watching this.  The funniest was the grandfather complaining about the swearing..So he creates a swear jar.  And as he is counting it...He curses. Also, the owner has got a friend for every situation. 

ps-Plus Chumlee is pretty funny.

That was funny, but as an old man at 36, I do agree with grandpa.  Cussing in front of the public is increasingly a problem.  Big Hoss groused that his grandfather was in the Navy and thus a hypocrit, but I bet that's not true.  Back in the day, sailors would cuss like sailors when around each other, but they would knock it off when "there were ladies present."  Nowadays, it not only doesn't matter who is present, but it's likely going to be the "ladies" who are using the most outrageous language.

Chumlee.  Man.  Every workplace must have a guy like that.  Haul him in to criticize his work, and he responds by looking for a day off.  "If I get this test right, do I get a day off?"  "How about if you get it wrong, you get every day off?"  Haha.

I loved the guy with the ejection seat.  I'm hardly an expert, but I knew instantly that it was Vietnam era or later.  But, the idea that it was in a frat house and these guys sat in it *and it was primed and ready to "eject"*?  Priceless.  "You mean if we had pulled this. . . ."  "You would have been launched into the ceiling at a speed in excess of 100mph."  

I have seen an episode or two and still don't know why people would bring big, expensive things to try and pawn.  Why would someone try and pawn a boat or a Cadiillac?  There is no way in hell a pawn shop would give them anything near what they could get by just selling it, or do they really want to get it back in a short time?

Most of the people I've seen have been selling.  They still get well under market value.  A guy was told he could sell a blunderbuss he had at auction for something like $5500, but the pawn shop offered him $2000 cash or $2500 in trade.  He could have left and tried his luck somewhere else, but he took the trade offer.  I guess he figured it was easier than messing with it.

 I agree. If I had something that was historically special.  I would try ebay or an auction house.   Why go where you get the least amount for your item?  Especially, after being told how much more you could get. 

Selling to a pawn shop is like selling wholesale.  Of course you're not going to get the full market value - because the guy you're selling it to has to turn around and resell it himself, and make a profit on it.  You're not selling to the ultimate consumer, you're selling to a middle man.

The same is true when you have a used car to unload.  You can almost make more money selling it yourself than by trading it in.  But you also have to do all the work involved in selling it.  Most people find the trade-off worth it. 

As for selling through an auction house - that blunderbuss might have sold at auction for $5500, but the seller wouldn't have pocketed that much.  Auction houses charge commissions  (40% is not unheard of) and other fees.  So a little less net cash NOW might seem like a good idea compared with some of the alternatives.  

Regards,

Joe

Since I live in Vegas, I drove by ans stopped by to see the Pawn Shop where they film this TV show at.
They said they get about 200-400 people a day just to stop by.

Was that portable sundial still there?  Since it was shown yesterday, you wouldn't have known to look for it.  Since he paid $4500 for it, it would cost a fortune and I would never buy it even if they had it.  But, it was awesome.  Had I been the guy, I would have just been happy knowing it was worth something and taken the pawn.

That sundial was AWESOME.  The Antiques Roadshow people must be jealous.  :)  What I find kinda amazing about this show is the way they handle valuable antiques so cavalierly.  Don't drop it!

They mentioned in this week's episode that they can sometimes take in 300 items a day.

History Channel's new show, "American Pickers," is interesting in a similar way, but not as much.  It's about guys who travel around looking for rare stuff in junk heaps and barns, then negotiating to buy it.  They sometimes find cool items, but a lot of the show is just them cruising around, so it's not as cool as Pawn Stars.

I like American Pickers too.  Did you see the most recent ep. where they went into that guys underground bunker?

That looked like a great set for a horror movie.

I only saw part of it -- was that the bit where one guy said "if you grab that, this entire place is gonna come crashing down?" :)

I may check it out.  Is it narrated?  That seems to be my standard for these types of shows.  Shows like Monster Garage are cheesy with the narrator.  American Chopper, Pawn Stars and Cake Boss get by just fine without it.  I do like Mythbusters to a point, but the narrator does run it down.

I'm repeating myself from the first post, I see.

No.  Not narrated.  At times, incredibly hilarious.

Yeah that place was nuts, I can't imagine why they haven't condemned the place.

How far out in the boonies was it?  :)

Looks like it wasn't too far out, you can never tell with the editing though.

The show is very funny.  But, what makes it truly worth watching....

Chumlee


On a side note.  To anyone who has gone to the shop.  Are a lot of people going into the shop just to meet the Rick and the others?  Also, it was interesting to read here that the people coming in are all set up weeks in advance and with the final outcome of their deals already decided.

Todd, I went there and none of the guys on TV were there. There was an armed security guard regulating the number of people going in, and one guy who seemed to work there was quietly and politely telling people who were lingering to move on. There was actually no one behind any counters, no one buying and no one selling. Lots of tourists were outside, many taking pictures standing beside a sign in the window that says "As Seen on TV'. Others were waiting on line to get in.

A lot of people asked about Rick and the guys, who were said to be filming somewhere. There were quite a few unhappy people on line who told the security guard that they had gone to the shop two or three times before, only to find that it was closed (it's open 24 hours according to the signs) but the guard never said a word in response to that.

My impression after seeing the store, and I'm not in any way saying I'm correct about this, is that they probably use a set for filming or at least set up the store a certain way for filming....It looks significantly smaller than it appears on TV, is filled with a lot of junk or what one might typically expect at a pawn shop, and very few of the more notable items you see on TV in the store were anywhere to be seen inside. For example, in one episode they show a whole bunch of guitars hung on a wall, but there were no guitars on any wall, and the Warhol that is shown in nearly every episode wasn't there.

There's also a prominent ark of the covenant in one of the cases.