Pawn Stars

Tropicrot said:
If you enjoy fake pawn shop reality tv advertised as "tru" tv with fabricated scenes and cheesy actors posing as customers, with staged fights and arguments, "excitement" then Hardcore pawn is for you. Pawn stars on the other hand is in a whole other class. That show is awesome.
Click to expand...

I hadn't heard that it was being faked. Could you point me to some sources or links where I could read more about this?

Thanks.
 
My kids and I love to watch that show. I actually stopped by the place when I was in Vegas last. The store is WAY smaller than it looks on TV. I thought their antique firearms were very overpriced. I think the show is entertaining and enjoy learning about the items, but I would never buy anything there (except the T-shirts for the kids). There are bigger and better pawnshops in Vegas.

Alann45 said:
I think they push the level of crediblity a tad with some of the things that are brought in. I realize this is Vegas, and anything is possible, but there is no way some of those items would be carried into a pawn shop for sale.

One of my favorites was the lady who brought in what turned out to be a Faberge egg, which she asked a few hundred dollars for. Rick tells her what it is and that he will give her $15,000 for it. She thinks a second and says "How about 15,500". Gotta luv folks.
Click to expand...

Vegas is pretty big city of almost 2 million now, so the fact that the items are there doesn't surprise me. I am surprised sometimes that people bring stuff like a faberge egg into a pawn shop. I guess if she thought is was a fake, okay maybe, but if she knew it was real? Who would do that? Sometimes I think maybe people just want to get a free appraisal and bring their high dollar stuff in to see if it's worth getting a professional one. Or, maybe they know what it is and just want to be on TV.

I'm surprised he offered her more than she originally wanted for the egg. I don't think I've ever seen a show where he didn't lowball everyone, often to the point of being ridiculous. I bet it was still less than half of what it was really worth.
 
I didn't mean anything by it. I thought anybody with a clue could tell that that whole network deals exclusively in fake television. Their tagline should be the first clue, Not reality actuality. Heck, they don't even spell True correctly. Try googling: Trutv fake
sorry in advance.
 
Last edited:
UffDa said:
I have watched it from day 1. I can't believe that Chumlee is really that stupid.

I guess Rick is as honest as he is portrayed, but that has not been my experience with pawn shop owners. Typically, they are rather shady characters. I have never had to pawn anything, but on occasion I would window shop in some of the shops in Santa Barbara. The pawn shops around here are mostly full of high priced junk. They are defiantly not in the same class as Gold and Silver.

One of these days I will have to make the trip to LV just to check it out.
Click to expand...










Hes not really that stupid, its just for show.
I used to like watching it, but its to fake for me.
 
Oh wait, you were just joking with me right? Haha, sorry I thought you were being serious. Nevermind that last post.
 
Tropicrot said:
I didn't mean anything by it. I thought anybody with a clue could tell that that whole network deals exclusively in fake television. There tagline should be the first clue, Not reality actuality. Heck, they don't even spell True correctly. Try googling: Trutv fake
sorry in advance.
Click to expand...

So no credible sources or proof then that Hardcore Pawn is fake and consists of "fabricated scenes and cheesy actors posing as customers, with staged fights and arguments"?

I'm not familiar with anything else on the TRUTV network, but I am familiar enough with film/TV production in general to know that almost all so-called "reality" TV is far from actual reality. (even elements of Pawn Stars are staged... as are aspects of American Pickers, American Choppers, etc.).
 
Last edited:
I was watching an older episode the other day. They pick up a dented, rusted-out old Coke machine and take it to be "restored". When they go pick it up, I noticed something a little fishy...there is no way in hell it was the same machine. The radius of the top corners were completely different.
 
UffDa said:
One of these days I will have to make the trip to LV just to check it out.
Click to expand...

Apparently a few other folks had that idea, it seems most days there's a line around the block to get in...
 
Okay, presuming you're being honest with me, what do you consider to be a credible source? The horses mouth? I'm guessing wikipedia won't do it for you.
 
DNK said:
Vegas is pretty big city of almost 2 million now, so the fact that the items are there doesn't surprise me. I am surprised sometimes that people bring stuff like a faberge egg into a pawn shop. I guess if she thought is was a fake, okay maybe, but if she knew it was real?
I'm surprised he offered her more than she originally wanted for the egg. I don't think I've ever seen a show where he didn't lowball everyone, often to the point of being ridiculous. I bet it was still less than half of what it was really worth.
Click to expand...

I'm sure there is a ton of interesting stuff in Vegas, and probably some really nice stuff gets sold.
On the egg, she apparently had no clue what it was, just that it looked nice (actually it was kind of an ugly one to me).
Half or maybe a little more sounds about right, the man has to make a profit yanno.
I just love that when she gets offered $14,000+ more than she asks, she wants to bid it up.

Now a logical person might have gone to a couple of antigue shops or maybe a jeweler to at least get an idea what it was....or maybe read the Faberge name on the bottom and google it.

The things that seem odd to me are the highly collectible items that have an established market. Like some of the guns they get and historical items....I know a pawn shop would not usually be my first and only place to try and sell them.
If you had a nice looking gold coin would you take it to a pawn shop first? You'd probably google it and maybe visit a coin dealer.
 
Tropicrot said:
Okay, presuming you're being honest with me, what do you consider to be a credible source? The horses mouth? I'm guessing wikipedia won't do it for you.
Click to expand...

I've read the Wikipedia reference. It isn't very helpful as it states; "Absurd scenes featured in Hardcore Pawn are also speculated to have been "clearly set up."" and only offers a footnote to an unconfirmed NY Post Op ed. piece. (Bold mine)

I have a nephew-in-law who was raised in Dearborn and he's been to that pawn shop many times. He and friends used to go down there purely for the entertainment value. :D

After watching a few episodes of the show, I suspected as you do, that it couldn't be THAT crazy in the place so I asked him about it. He said that what they show on TV now is pretty much like he remembers it. I found that kind of shocking, but not surprising.
 
I know it's a real store, there's no debating that. I'm just saying that the show is beefed up with "drama" like the other shows on the network, such as operation repo. Perhaps some of the stuff has happened at that store over it's entire history and has just been added to the filming along with the "natural encounters". So I'll give you that. Although perhaps not entirely scripted, the show is still some sort of quasi-reality documentary. :)
 
I really love this show! I am also a big fan of American Pickers! Probably my two favorite shows on television
 
It wasn't an egg, it was a black widow broach that was made by Carl Fabergé. It was extremely gaudy, made from platinum and gold and a bunch of different gems. People associate Fabergé with his eggs, but he made tons of other stuff as well. Wikipedia says his company produced an estimated 150k-200k items in a 35 year span. IIRC, the broach was her dead aunt's, and being so gaudy, she had no use for it, so she brought it to the shop to sell.

As said above, Las Vegas is a large city. The Strip, with all the hotels, casinos, etc is only a very small part of the town. The pawn shop is nowhere near the Strip. I would also bet that many of the residents there are older retirees that moved there from all over the country, and took their old stuff with them, which would explain how the shop has such an eclectic collection of antiques, art, memorabilia, etc.
 
Planterz said:
It wasn't an egg, it was a black widow broach that was made by Carl Fabergé. It was extremely gaudy, made from platinum and gold and a bunch of different gems. People associate Fabergé with his eggs
Click to expand...

Thank you, you are absolutely correct.
I just remember is was really ugly, which should have given my weakened memory a hint it wasnt and egg, which are normally lovely.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top