Pawn Stars: Difference between revisions

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** The Kount gets quite rightly pissed when anyone questions his knowledge of and passion for automobiles. It's more of a [[Tranquil Fury]] in his case, though.
* [[Betting Minigame]]:
** Sometimes, when Rick and a customer can't agree on a price, the customer will offer to settle the dispute by gambling with whatever it is they're trying to sell, with Rick paying the winner's price. Unfortunately, for all his skill as a pawnbroker, Rick has really shitty luck. Whether it's flipping a collectible coin, spinning an antique roulette wheel or playing a hand of blackjack on a gaming table, Rick always seems to lose. He even [[Lampshadeslampshade]]s this fact after he lost the blackjack game, although he immediately subverted it afterwards by pointing out that he was still going to win anyway when he sold the item and made a profit off it. He also explained after one such gamble that he only does this when he would have eventually come up to the customer's price anyway. The gambling just makes it seem fun and cuts time and stress off the haggling.
** Rick and Corey have a habit of betting on Chumlee missing when they go to test out an antique firearm they had just purchased. This has come back to bite them more than once, as Chumlee's actually not a bad shot.
* [[Big Fun]]: Corey, and Chumlee. Just imagine those two on a see-saw together.
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** Even Chumlee gets his moments. When a man brings in an animatronic restaurant display installed on the back of a novelty firetruck, Rick doesn't make an offer because he doesn't think he'll be able to sell it. The display is so weird that it looks like something out of a [[Terry Gilliam]] film, and Chumlee quips that he could probably travel through time with it.
*** And then there was the time Chumlee and the Old Man were dealing with a woman who wanted to sell a collection of glass Disney figurines:
{{quote|'''Chumlee''': Too bad you don't have [[DuckTales (1987)|Scrooge McDuck.]] He reminds me of the Old Man.
'''Old Man''': Thank you, Chumlee. Now shut up. }}
** Then there was the customer who brought in a collection of Atlanta sports championship rings. He admits that he's a fan of the Detroit Tigers and Lions, and Chumlee points out that he must be used to losing.
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* [[Early Installment Weirdness]]: Go look up the video pitch Rick made and submitted to History as the original show idea. It shows all three of the family members smoking like chimneys, footage of the guns kept under the counters with Corey announcing "Try to rob my shop and I ''will'' shoot you", and tried to play up the drama of people flipping out and actually having to be thrown out of the shop. History clearly decided to do a bit of a [[Retool]] to make it a little more low-key and (slightly) more family-friendly. Oddly enough, this is the angle ''[[Hardcore Pawn]]'' would eventually take.
** Another pitch focuses more on people affected by the economy who're coming in to pawn. This one lacks Chumlee, but features Rick's niece and a night shift pawnbroker named Charles Ingalls, who mans a drive-thru-style pawn window. Ingalls is later mentioned during the fifth season, when the decision is made to hire people for the night shift, and the pawn window is seen when Chumlee is training a new employee on the shift with him.
** The early episodes of the show itself also count. The very first episode features a guy pawning his table saw for $4,000, and we actually see Rick's moving crew come out to the guy's house and load the saw onto the truck. Another episode featured a couple who actually wanted to ''buy'' something, namely the "death clock" that Rick's shown polishing in the opening credits and that he keeps in one of the main display cases behind the front counter. Another bizarre inversion featured a ''customer'' in the role of [[Mr. Exposition]] when he gave Rick the lowdown on some of the jewelry he was selling. Rick even [[Lampshadeslampshade]]s how unusual this is, since he's usually the one giving customers the background on a given item.
** Not an early installment, but a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gvu6APT3JLY 2003 episode] of ''Insomniac with Dave Atell'' featured Rick and the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop before ''Pawn Stars'' aired in 2009.
* [[Epic Fail]]: Rarely, Rick and the others will lose money on a deal.
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*** Corey bought an antigue 1940s Belgian motorcycle for $4,000. The bike is so rare that he'll probably be able to sell it at a huge profit, right? Not so fast-as Rick points out, there are parts missing, and their car restoration guy says that replacement parts are so rare they'd probably cost as much as $25,000 to restore the bike. Naturally, Rick is pretty irritated. They end up taking the bike to sell at auction, which Rick hates doing because the entry fees and the auctioneer's cut will cut into his profit margin. The bike would have to sell for at least $5,200 for Corey to be able to profit on it, and in the end it's sold for over $7,000. Rick finally admits that it was a good buy and says he's proud of Corey, but once again it's clear that the Harrisons dodged a major bullet.
*** Another bullet was dodged when Rick bought a maritime navigational clock that didn't seem to be running. He decided to take a chance even though it seemed like it was broken, and called in a clock expert to see what it would cost to fix. The clock expert found that the clock was actually working fine, but its mechanisms were being held in place by special cork restraints so it wouldn't start ticking until the operator wanted it to. After removing the restraints, the clock starts up and is working fine. Rick expresses his relief that it wouldn't cost anything to fix the clock, [[Refuge in Audacity|and then the expert demands fifty bucks for getting it started.]]
** On the [https://web.archive.org/web/20130204003504/http://www.history.com/shows/pawn-stars/videos/playlists/how-to-be-a-pawn-star#biggest-bust Pawn Stars section of the History Television website], the boys describe their worst money losses. The Old Man took a $25,000-$30,000 bath when he spent a fortune on cubic zirconia, which he mistook for diamonds; Corey spent $4,000 on six fake Rolex watches in his first week of working the night shift at the store; and Rick laid out $40,000 for a pair of diamond earrings that were then confiscated by the police when it turned out they were stolen.
* [[Expository Theme Tune|Expository Opening Narration]]: ''I'm Rick Harrison, and this is my pawn shop. I work here with my Old Man and my son, Big Hoss. Everything in here has a price, and everything in here has a story. If there's one thing I've learned after twenty-one years, it's that you never know what's going to come through that door.''
* [[Even Evil Has Standards|Even Capitalists Have Standards]]: Rick always buys as low as he can, but also always makes sure that the customer makes an informed decision. One notable instance: A woman brings in a jeweled brooch in the shape of a spider, hoping to get $2,000 for it. Rick refuses that price... because "I have a conscience". The brooch is an ''authentic Faberge piece'' which he offers her $15,000 for. [[No Good Deed Goes Unpunished|She tries to haggle him up to $17,000.]]
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** Chumlee tried his luck with making his own wine in another episode. Everyone hated it—except the Old Man.
** Corey and Chumlee purchased a turn-of-the-century waffle iron. When Rick couldn't close a deal on a very rare cannon he wanted, Chumlee cooked up some waffles. The waffles ended up a little softer than usual, which Rick points out (Chumlee added too much water to the mix), but Old Man liked them.
* [[Let's Get Dangerous]]: In one episode, Big Hoss buys a classic Harley-Davidson motorcycle for $7,000. Chumlee falls in love with the bike, and asks to be put on the company payment plan so he can buy it himself. The Old Man refuses to do it unless Chumlee can come up with a $3,000 down payment. We then see a series of clips that shows Chumlee working hard and selling items left and right, including the previously mentioned ''[[Kill Bill]]'' katana, using the money he gets on commission for the down payment. The Old Man even [[Lampshadeslampshade]]s the fact that Chumlee can be a perfectly good salesman when he puts his mind to it, but that he rarely has much focus.
* [[Licensed Game]]: There's a ''Pawn Stars'' Facebook game.
* [[Like Father, Like Son]]: Present with all three generations of Harrisons. Rick has inherited the Old Man's occasional willingness to offer customers higher prices than what they were asking for, while Corey has begun using his father's [[Catch Phrase]] of only wanting something if he can get it "for the right price." All three of them are also master [[Deadpan Snarker]]s.
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** Another such item is a stamp crafted by Benjamin Franklin that he bought and stuck an enormous price to it to keep people from buying it.
** In one of the videos posted on the shop's [[YouTube]] page, the Old Man mentions that he's got a collection of several classic cars and trucks, some of which he no doubt acquired from customers.
* [[Unsatisfiable Customer]]: The boys make an effort to avoid this trope. On the [https://web.archive.org/web/20130204003504/http://www.history.com/shows/pawn-stars/videos/playlists/how-to-be-a-pawn-star Pawn Stars section of the History Television website], there are a number of videos filmed by the cast that explain many of the ins and outs of the pawn industry. In one of the videos, Rick and the Old Man point out that if you really want to get a good deal from a pawnbroker, you should be polite. Being a [[Jerkass]] won't get you anywhere.
* [[Waistcoat of Style]]: The Old Man is never seen at work without one.
* [[The Watson]]: Chumley often plays this role accompanying Rick when he makes deals.
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[[Category:Nonfiction Series]]
[[Category:The History Channel]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}Pawn Stars]]
[[Category:TV Series]]