This show is my newest guilty pleasure and is found on the History channel. A show about a Las Vegas based pawn shop and the father-son-grand father team that run the place. So far there have been some very interesting items that have come through the doors. An original Carol Shelby AC Cobra body and suspension a guy got for FREE. Civil War era artillery, old swords, Coke machines, jewelry, watches, etc. Occasionally someone brings in something they've made which is worth absolutely nothing, and sometimes they bring in something they believe to be authentic that they paid good money for that turns out to be a fake. Are you watching? What is your favorite featured item so far?
I like the show as well. I'm amazed at the kind of cash these guys seems to be bringing in. And some of the stuff they get to see is pretty amazing. The treasure chest (empty, unfortunately), was probably my favourite. Complete with .50 holes in it and a trick locking mechanism. Very cool.
Darn, I was just about to ask about that....Saw that entire episode except for the ending, as I was dragged out of the house to church screaming "I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHAT WAS IN THE CHEST!!!" I think I'll be adding it to the DVR list.
In line with my guilty pleasure of Antique Roadshow, I loved the episode where the flamboyantly gay/transvestite guy brought a helmet from a suit of armor that he spent $1,000 on in Germany that was supposedly 500 years old. Turned out it was a Victorian copy and worth virtually nothing. And then there was the Indian (tee-pee) who brought in his special prayer totem, which consisted of a deer head, a bunch of prairie straw, and a yellow feather that looked like it fell off of a Vegas show girl's bikini bottom. Once the pawn shop owner found an American Indian anthropologist and the thing was priced about $300, the owner was like "unsellable" much to the dismay of the seller. Most of the "let's check with my friend who is an expert" stuff has got to be staged, but if you were selling something to these guys, wouldn't you want your own expert.
Maybe I'm naive, but I really like the admiration Rick has for some of the cooler stuff to come into the store. Whenever people say they want to keep something or try selling it at auction to get more money, instead of getting pissed he seems to respect the people more. And as for the hot air balloon episode, it brought us the greatest line ever: 'I don't know who is going to fly this thing, hoss is too busy and chumlee's too stupid'
This show has really blown up, I know tons of people watching it. I don't think itll ever get old watching people hear the expert quote a high price and then get laughed to their the face when they ask for the same price. The dudes wheezing laugh kills me.
It is pretty amazing how much money they make on some of this stuff. The Road King Harley they bought for $8000? Pink flames or not I was like, damn they stole that. I think the stuff with the experts is slightly staged. My guess is they have certain days when those guys are around and ask people with interesting items to come back. We'll be filming on such-and-such a day, come back then when the expert is in and you'll get to be on TV. I also love guessing how much certain things are worth and so far I've been in the ballpark for most stuff. That treasure chest was awesome but my favorite was the Shelby Cobra.
My favorite item brought into the shop was the totem that some guy who looked like Tommy Chong wanted to sell. It looked like a deer skull with a rabbit ass and some feathers stapled to it and the guy wanted a couple hundred bucks for it, I think. Rick brought in an expert who verified that it was indeed a Native American totem, but he told the guy that there was no way he could hope to sell the piece of shit to anyone and make a profit.
Reality tv is staged? What??? Next you are going to tell me that women fake orgasms in porn. Don't fuck with my worldview here! I have started watching this show thanks to this thread (and the history channel having a marathon of it over the weekend). I don't understand why the experts consult for free with these guys though. If they are charging, they never include that price in the price of the item. Maybe the pawn shop hooks them up with certain items and they want to maintain a good relationship or just want to get the free advertisement from being on the show? I will probably stop by this pawn shop next time I am in Vegas.
I think it's funny that they seem to have an expert for everything, "We'll Im not sure about this I'll have to ask my friend that specializes in 17th century glass blown anal dildos, my 17th century glass blown vaginal dildo guy is out of town right now." I am actually really curious as to how much they actually make once the item is sold. Most of the time they just mention how much profit they think they'll make. The Christmas special show showed a few but over all I wonder what their margins are like. They should have a webpage that shows the items sold price once it sells. Shit some of that stuff must sit there forever.
I think my favorite item was when an old lady brought in a typewriter she had since she was a kid (it was from the 1930's I think). Rick and the Old Man told her that it was a nice example of a good typewriter. She then asks for $5000. The look that Rick gave her was priceless and he didn't even give a counteroffer.
One of my co-workers is hooked on this show to the point he is actually looking into opening a pawn shop, if only so he can give people incredulous looks as they try to sell their shit... Naw, but he is a history major and a know-it-all who thinks he could turn some serious coin, but I can't help laughing at him every time he brings it up.
That guy wasn't selling the bike, he was using it as collateral against a short term loan so he could meet his companies payroll. So if he only needed $8k to meet his payroll it was probably in his interests to take a lower amount that he could pay back easier.
If y'all haven't caught it already, the new season started about two weeks ago. I've seen less of the "Let's check with an expert" and one guy recently brought in some sunken treasure and asked for $700,000 (Rick offered $200,000 and the guy laughed). Pretty good thus far.
The Old Man is officially my hero: "My philosophy is, if it works don't fix it. If it don't work, it ain't worth fixin', be a MAN."
This show is becoming increasingly popular as I've had everyone from the woman who cuts my hair to random people at work start talking to me about the show. I love the restorations of pieces of Americana that the other Rick does. The Coke machine, barber's chair, gas pump etc are all awesome. It pisses me off a little because I had a line on two old 30's era barber chairs that I could have had for a couple hundred bucks, now the barber's daughter saw this show and had her father trying to get a few grand out of me for each. Damn I hate it when people become educated by reality television.
My favorites are the old guns. They buy them and then get Chumlee to test them. “Here Chumlee, its’ 200 years old, the barrel is split, it’s clogged with burnt power, but you’ll be fine. Now point it that way and pull the trigger, but way one second while we move waaaayyyyyyy over here.”