The History Channel has a reality-TV series by the name of Pawn Stars. It’s about a family that owns/operates a pawn shop in Las Vegas. I have seen many episodes of this series, and it’s pretty good. It’s definitely worth checking out.
However, the more I watch of this “reality” show, the more I find myself calling bullshit on it.
Some of the items that end up coming into this pawn shop are not items one would normally take to a pawn shop. For instance, I happen to have an episode that I purchased from the Zune Store in which an 1890s cannon was brought in. As there are only about 50 of them in existence, and it is a rare collectors item, I seriously doubt that the collector who owned it thought “Hmm, a pawn shop is where I should go to sell this!” And I seriously doubt that after being told that it was worth $40,000 he was more than willing to take just $30,000 like he was offered because the pawn shop “had to make some money off it.”
In fact, so many “rare and valuable” items seem to come into this shop that it makes one wonder if these people were specifically sought out by the producers and a “sale” recorder for the cameras only, or if there are really just that many dumb-ass, lazy people in Las Vegas who don’t want to bother actually looking for a better buyer.
If you collect rare and unusual items, there are about 9 million other places where you can sell it other than a pawn shop, whether it be in Las Vegas or Kallamazoo! The fact that so many of these pieces end up in his shop just screams “scripted” to me.
So, Pawn Stars is completely watchable, and “the old man” is a lot of fun – he’ll make you laugh your ass off – but just like any other reality show, don’t for a second believe that what you are watching is real.
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