Pawn Stars

Oddball Items, such as a Glass Sword, a Toilet Chair, a Flare Pistol, etc. One guy tried selling Rick a portable electro-therapy kit!

My guess is he mis-stated it, and meant "design" instead of "series". The Lincoln Penny was two sets of 50-year runs 1909-1958 with wheat reverse, 1959-2008 with LMC reverse. The Washington quarter was the same design from 1932-1998, which would make him correct.

I think that that show is cool. I watch it all the time.

I've been to the "Pawn Stars" shop in Las Vegas this last summer. Those guys are pretty nice, the merchandise is a bit high (but not startlingly so, all things considered) and it's probably the cleanest pawn shop I've ever been in.
I bought a nice Morgan 1921 dollar for me and nice Garnet ring for my (now ex) girlfriend there. She also got pictures taken with the guys who were there and a T-shirt for a friend of hers.

If you want full value, you need to be patient. Try craigslist. Ask a reputable dealer. Only use a pawnshop if you have no other choice.

Pawn Stars is a fun show...try The Pickers(also on the history channel)

If you bring in a coin worth $100.00, and they offer you $30.00.....that would suck, and I'd say you're getting ripped off. But if they offered you $70.00, then you didn't get ripped off and they still have a nice profit. (30% profit.....which "is" up there) And there's always room for "negotiation" in there.


They only make the 30% if the then sell the item the same day. Everyday that they don't have the 70.00 they bought the item for drops the profit they make on the item (ie, what would that 70.00 be earning them in a faster turnover item).

Book value doesn't determine the profitability of an item, the demand (speed in which it sells) does.

so the 30 for a 100.00 item might not be off base. If they buy the item for 30, hold it for six months and sell it for 100, they make 70.

If they buy another 100 item at 70, sell it in a month, and do the same thing six times in that same period, they make 180.00

Well said...this point is often missed by those that have never run a business or fully understand ALL the factors that go into cost on an item. Every piece of merchandise they bring in has a carrying cost associated with it.

And I pointed before (might not have been this thread but maybe another related thread) that items may sit for days, weeks, months, and sometimes years. The longer it sits, the higher the likelihood that they may have to discount it to move the item. Also, the longer it sits, the higher the chance of it getting stolen by an employee (not likely but still a factor often ignored by the average person) or depending on the item it could get potentially damaged due to handling to where a discount must be applied.