Discovery Channel: Pawn Stars

I get a big kick out of it too, however all reality shows aren't all reality. Something's may slide by those guys from time to time, but not a lot. Most of those successful Pawn people forgot more then most people will ever know.

I like the show...its always fun to listen to the pawn shops low ball offers lol. Worth 8k....i'll give you $800 for it lol....

I like that show too. But remember that the producers strongly encourage playing things up for the camera's sake. As far as the Morgan comment goes (I saw that episode), I think what he was trying to do was give a basic rule of thumb to let the employees get a ballpark idea of the value. If your store sold everything from coins, to art, to military memorabilia, to boats and airplanes, there are only so many details you can expect someone to keep in their head. This is especially true when you aren't the owner or manager (sure it was the son/grandson of the owners, but he has a ways to go before he's ready to take over). So I took what he said to really mean that if you see a CC mint mark chances are it is much more valuable than the typical Morgan.

The danger here is the same as the danger of watching the antique roadshow. People get the WRONG idea of value. You can get most CC Morgans for WELL UNDER $500.00 and that is paying full retail! If I only had a dollar for everytime someone came into my store wanting to sell me their $10.00 item that they saw on the antique roadshow for thousands...... It is increadably annoying and I will be the first to tell you I HATE THE ANTIQUE ROADSHOW. I am in the antique business and have been since I was 4 years old (yes you read that right, I said four). The numbers these morons quote on the shows are generally WAY WRONG on the high side.

If I was the producer of one of the episodes of the Antique Roadshow and I wanted it to be an honest appraisal here is what I would do. Let us say Mrs. Smith brings in Grandma's silver. Before an appraiser can open their mouth and quote a price they MUST AGREE to BUY THE ITEM AT 33% OF PRICE QUOTED should the person holding that item say they want to sell it. Why do I say this? Think about it. If you have a $10,000 item then paying the owner $3,333.00 for it leaves you plenty of room for profit. Here is the problem though. If you quoted a rediculous price and it was not REAL then you get BURNED because when it sells at auction for $100.00 instead of $10,000 you really overpaid for it! Quoted prices on the show would drop like rocks (to the REAL WORLD prices). Of course people would stop watching about that time.....

Everyone likes hearing they have something valuable, especially if they got it as an inheritance or at a yard sale or auction on the cheap. The problem is there are not many fools out there prepared to overpay for stuff except maybe a few banking executives with big bonuses (yes there was a dig there). I am in the REAL WORLD of retailing antiques and collectibles and coins. My world and the fictitious "auction world" of the appraisers on the antique roadshow are two very different things. I attend auctions all the time and almost never see rediculous prices paid for stuff. Usually I see items selling for 35% to 60% of retail. It is true that occassionally items sell for full retail or even a little higher but this is the exception, not the rule. I have never seen a case where someone has paid significantly more for an item than it was worth unless it was at an auction where family members were bidding against each other for grandma's stuff and price was no object because emotions were the factor in the bidding and not the items intrinsic value.

In short remember these shows are for ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES. They do sometimes give valuable background information BUT THEY DO NOT GIVE ACCURATE PRICING. A fool and his money may soon be parted but I have yet to have a fool come into my antique mall wanting to throw money at me like these people claim will happen at these fictitious auction houses. Sorry for my rant but I take big issue with false appraisals by "professionals" who may or may not actually know the REAL value of anything. Sincerely, John Leckrone

Not a pawn-shop customer. There's nothing nearby that I would feel comfortable visiting. There are shops in East St Louis, but ...

In the original post, Paratrooper mentioned an Atari 2600 ... are those things worth anything? My kids had both the 2600 and then the 5200 with most of the popular games (Asteroids, Frogger, Mario Bros, etc). I still have them stored away in boxes. Sorry for going off-topic, but this intrigued me.

"The danger here is the same as the danger of watching the antique roadshow"

The Antique Road Show is a lot closer too reality then Pawn Stars. I know the person who picked up a Roman Helmet in a garage sales and was on the show. I think he sold it at auction pretty close too what the Road Show quoted, $200,000. The real irony of this story , I lived right down street from the garage sales at the time and would of recognized the helmet for it real value if I was there.

I haven't seen the US version of Antiques Roadshow, but 925dealer may be happier to know that on the UK programme, the prices are usually firmly rooted in reality.

No, but that's indicative of how they handle the coins they expect you to buy, I'm thinking.

Think about it.