Top 20 Times the Pawn Stars Were Screwed Over
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Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the purchases that weren’t as good a deal as the Pawn Stars initially thought they were. Which Pawn Star do you think made the worst deal? Let us know in the comments below.
When a customer brings in an impressively large collection of comics, Chumlee can’t hide his excitement. Although Antwaun tries to convince him to call an expert to appraise them, Chum decides to make the deal himself. As he points out, these Marvel properties were at the height of their popularity when this episode aired in 2017. Surely some of the comics in these boxes are worth good money, right? Surprisingly, no. After Rick insists on calling in comic book expert Paul, they get the bad news. There’s nothing particularly valuable in the collection. In total, the comics are worth about $200 less than Chum paid for them.
Talk about a fascinating and important piece of history. In “Underground Pawn,” a seller comes in with a collection of true stories about the Underground Railroad, that was made in the late 19th century. Not only is it authentic, but it’s even signed by the editor of the newspaper who commissioned the book to be written. This is all music to the ears of the seller and Rick alike. This is a documentary record of the Underground Railroad, printed in a relatively small batch and, all things considered, isn’t in bad shape! The two men settle on a price of $700 and both walk away happy - but the seller especially so. Turns out… he only spent $2 on the book! Nice payout.
This vintage machine used to be state-of-the-art technology … back in the 1970s. Although it still works, it’s now mostly obsolete. Still, Rick is sure he can find a buyer and he makes a deal with the customer. Corey and the Old Man make it clear that they think this was not a smart move. Rick calls in his friend Danny, who restores old cars for a living, assuming he’ll be eager to buy the machine. Unfortunately, Danny isn’t as enthusiastic as Rick had hoped. They agree to a deal, but Rick ends up losing $175 on the purchase. At least he’s getting free drinks out of it.
At first, this beautifully decorated beaded vest looks like an authentic piece of American history. Rick examines it closely and is pretty sure that it’s a real 19th century piece made for an infant. He makes a deal with the customer for $1300 and feels good about it. However, museum administrator and “Pawn Stars” regular Mark Hall-Patton has to burst Rick’s bubble. The vest isn’t as old as Rick thought, and it was made specifically to be sold, not for actual use. Because of the museum's ethics code, Mark doesn’t put a monetary value on the items he inspects, but it’s safe to say this vest is probably not worth what Rick paid for it.
Do we really need to say it? Chumlee and flamethrowers are a bad combination. This item was made by The Boring Company, a subsidiary of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and was apparently a hot ticket when it was first released. Chum makes a quick deal with the customer, mostly because he wants the flamethrower for himself. When an expert comes in to examine it, no one is surprised to hear that Chumlee overpaid. After a demonstration that involves barbecuing some hot dogs, Chum agrees to buy the flamethrower for the price that the expert quoted. But the shop is still out $200 on the deal. We have to assume that the only reason Rick doesn’t fire Chum is because he’s so entertaining.
Everyone knows baseball cards are super collectible, so how could this be a bad deal? Cy Young was one of the greatest pitchers of all time, and this rare card is over a century old. If it were in mint condition, it would easily be worth thousands. The problem is that this one is in terrible shape. Rick can’t get his expert in to appraise it, so he takes a risk and buys it from the customer for $300. This turns out to be the wrong move. When sports memorabilia expert Jeremy finally comes in to check out the card, he has to tell Rick that he struck out.
This one wasn’t the Pawn Stars’ fault. Rick did everything right, but sometimes, you just get unlucky. When a customer came in with a no doubt stunning pair of diamond earrings to sell, Rick’s eyes must have lit up. He paid the customer $40,000 for them, probably thinking they’d be easy to flip. As Rick has explained many times, the shop takes every possible precaution to avoid buying stolen items, since it never ends well for anyone. But occasionally, something is bound to slip through the cracks. We can imagine how painful it must have been when the cops showed up to confiscate those earrings just a short time later.
This was definitely one of the more unusual items to appear on the show. The customer claimed that someone gave her this one-person mini sub for free, which should have raised red flags for Rick. She was also quick to accept Rick’s lowball offer, even though it was much less than what she originally wanted for it. Unfortunately, like the diamond earrings, the sub later turned out to be stolen. A lawyer who worked for a wealthy California man happened to see the episode and recognized the sub, which had been stolen off his client’s yacht five years earlier. The sub was returned to its owner and Rick was out $3,000.
If a classic car has none of its original parts, is it still a classic car? This enthusiast has spent years rebuilding an iconic 1932 Ford, and he’s asking a hefty price for it. Danny quotes Rick a value of $70,000 to $75,000. Considering how stingy Rick usually is, we were shocked to hear him agree to a final price of $68,250. That doesn’t leave much room for profit. Even though this is a gorgeous custom-built car, all its replacement parts make it more like a replica than the real thing. 1932 Model B’s only go for around $50,000 with their original parts. It seems like Rick and Danny both let their emotions get in the way of this deal.
If you’ve watched enough “Pawn Stars,” you know that you should always talk to an expert before you make a deal. A customer brings in a letter supposedly signed by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte that appears to be the real thing. It has a certificate of authenticity and is stamped with a period-accurate seal. After a bit of haggling, the seller settles for $2,000 and Corey walks away happy. But Rick wants to be absolutely sure the letter is real before putting it up for sale, so he sends Corey to get an expert opinion. You know where this is going. Too bad, because this would have been an incredible buy if it were authentic.
Everyone calls him “The Old Man,” but Richard Harrison’s age and experience also make him a wealth of knowledge when it comes to buying and selling valuable goods. Unfortunately for him, acquiring that knowledge sometimes cost him big bucks along the way. You learn from your mistakes as they say, and as Richard explains, he got an expensive lesson when cubic zirconia first hit the market in the 1970s. People had hardly heard about these flashy, inexpensive synthetic rocks at the time, let alone learned how to distinguish them from actual diamonds. Harrison claims he lost nearly $30,000 in mistaken purchases, which was even more money at the time. Thankfully, the Pawn Stars now know how to spot a cubic zirconia.
The Old Man isn’t the only one who’s lost big money accidentally buying fakes. Everyone makes mistakes when they’re young and inexperienced, but usually those mistakes don’t cost their dad’s business thousands of dollars. In this segment, Corey talks about a series of bad purchases he made when he was still fairly new to the business. If only a camera crew had been there to capture Rick’s reaction when he found out about that sixth fake watch. Maybe Corey shouldn’t have acted so smug when he had to train his young cousin to spot fake Rolexes just a few years later. Especially since she catches on so quickly.
Looks can be deceiving! While this 1964 automobile undeniably has curb appeal, this episode serves as a reminder that you should never buy a car without test driving it first. In his defense, Rick does attempt to start the car. But when the engine fails to turn over, the owner dismisses it as a minor mechanical issue (a dead battery), and Rick takes him at his word. BIG mistake. We get that Rick saw it as an opportunity to get the Sprite at a better price; the right collector is likely willing to pay top dollar for it. Unfortunately, the gamble doesn’t pay off. In the end, Rick’s mechanic quotes him thousands in repairs to get the car roadworthy.
Just look at this thing. We can totally understand why Rick wanted it. Mirror image symmetrical portraits such as this might be as simple as clicking a button on your phone today, but the vintage style and manner of production of this print adds a certain novelty factor. More importantly, it was made by an artist with name recognition, Devo founder and singer Mark Mothersbaugh. After calling in an art expert, Rick goes ahead and drops $625 on the framed print. According to his consultant, that should leave him room to make anywhere between $175 to $375 in profit. Little does he know, the seller is the one walked away with the real victory. As she later reveals, the artwork only cost her 15 bucks!
In this season 8 episode, Rick is approached by studio musician Vic Flick. The English guitarist certainly has an impressive resume, having worked with everyone from Engelbert Humperdinck and Tom Jones to Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. He even played guitar on numerous soundtracks for various James Bond films. Rick ultimately drops $55,000 on the storied instrument on offer. Unfortunately, while the songs that this guitar appeared on are certainly impressive, this fact doesn’t necessarily add that much value to the guitar itself. When the guitar went to auction in 2014, it only sold for $25,000. Ouch! Vic Flick might be a legend amongst rock aficionados, but his name seemingly doesn’t carry the same weight as that of his rock star collaborators.
You’d think that Rick would have known better than to buy that Joe Jackson book without getting it authenticated. Just one season earlier, he had made a very similar mistake. In the season 5 episode “Corey’s Big Play,” a seller comes in with a Wells Fargo strongbox and some old prison chains. Rick starts off strong by identifying that both the Yuma ball and chain and Folsom prison handcuffs are fake. Apart from being guilty by association with its fake contents, however, the lockbox doesn’t raise any immediate red flags. So Rick goes ahead and pays the guy $450 for it. He should’ve trusted his first instinct. When Rick has an expert in to appraise it, he’s told that it’s a “complete fantasy piece.”
Joseph Jefferson Jackson is one of the most iconic baseball players to ever set foot on the field. Not only was his performance in the outfield the stuff of legend, but, due to his involvement with the Black Sox Scandal of 1919, his name also has an element of infamy to it as well. And as Rick tells the seller, because Shoeless Joe was illiterate, his signature is arguably the singlest rarest in not just baseball, but all of sports. Unfortunately, Rick doesn’t bother to bring in an expert to verify the signature, instead trusting the certificate of authenticity provided by the seller. He pays a whopping $13,000 for the signed book, only to later learn it’s almost certainly a fake.
Right off the bat, you can see Corey is hungry to make this purchase. Unfortunately, his enthusiasm for this San Francisco Giants uniform, supposedly worn by Willie Mays, blinds him to some fairly obvious red flags. The uniform has no signs of wear and tear, nor has it been authenticated. Thankfully, Corey has the sense to call in an expert who, surprisingly, deems it authentic - just not game-worn. They settle on $31,000 and the seller leaves happy, only for Corey to lose over a third of his investment at auction. But Corey should still consider himself lucky. It was later revealed that Mays never even owned the jersey - it was just a sample, lowering its real value to only a few thousand bucks.
There’s a reason they try not to leave Chumlee unsupervised. When a customer brings in a Gibson mandolin, Chum is eager to impress Rick by making a good deal on it. To Chum’s credit, he knows that authentic Gibsons are worth a lot of money. He blows through his spending limit of $1,000 and pays the customer $1,500 for the instrument. But when he takes the mandolin to get appraised by an expert, he gets some bad news. Chum has made some bad deals in the past, but this might have been one of the worst, and Rick isn’t prepared to let it slide.
When the Pawn Stars can’t flip an item in a reasonable amount of time, it gets sent to auction. This is what happened with Vic Flick’s aforementioned guitar, but it wasn’t the only item that failed to turn a profit. As seen in the special two-part episode “Rick’s Roulette,” Rick loses a small fortune when he takes an assortment of big ticket items to the auction house, including a first edition of "A Christmas Carol" and a 1960s Spacelander bicycle. There’s even a loss of approximately $29,000 on a single motorcycle! Even after subtracting the guitar and motorcycle, other assorted items collectively lost him LOTS of money. Well, can’t win ‘em all.
#20: Comic Books
"Chum's Risky Business"When a customer brings in an impressively large collection of comics, Chumlee can’t hide his excitement. Although Antwaun tries to convince him to call an expert to appraise them, Chum decides to make the deal himself. As he points out, these Marvel properties were at the height of their popularity when this episode aired in 2017. Surely some of the comics in these boxes are worth good money, right? Surprisingly, no. After Rick insists on calling in comic book expert Paul, they get the bad news. There’s nothing particularly valuable in the collection. In total, the comics are worth about $200 less than Chum paid for them.
#19: Underground Railroad Sketches
“Underground Pawn”Talk about a fascinating and important piece of history. In “Underground Pawn,” a seller comes in with a collection of true stories about the Underground Railroad, that was made in the late 19th century. Not only is it authentic, but it’s even signed by the editor of the newspaper who commissioned the book to be written. This is all music to the ears of the seller and Rick alike. This is a documentary record of the Underground Railroad, printed in a relatively small batch and, all things considered, isn’t in bad shape! The two men settle on a price of $700 and both walk away happy - but the seller especially so. Turns out… he only spent $2 on the book! Nice payout.
#18: Sun Tune-Up Tester
"Cash is King"This vintage machine used to be state-of-the-art technology … back in the 1970s. Although it still works, it’s now mostly obsolete. Still, Rick is sure he can find a buyer and he makes a deal with the customer. Corey and the Old Man make it clear that they think this was not a smart move. Rick calls in his friend Danny, who restores old cars for a living, assuming he’ll be eager to buy the machine. Unfortunately, Danny isn’t as enthusiastic as Rick had hoped. They agree to a deal, but Rick ends up losing $175 on the purchase. At least he’s getting free drinks out of it.
#17: Native American Vest
"Going Postal"At first, this beautifully decorated beaded vest looks like an authentic piece of American history. Rick examines it closely and is pretty sure that it’s a real 19th century piece made for an infant. He makes a deal with the customer for $1300 and feels good about it. However, museum administrator and “Pawn Stars” regular Mark Hall-Patton has to burst Rick’s bubble. The vest isn’t as old as Rick thought, and it was made specifically to be sold, not for actual use. Because of the museum's ethics code, Mark doesn’t put a monetary value on the items he inspects, but it’s safe to say this vest is probably not worth what Rick paid for it.
#16: Flamethrower
"Pink Trains and Open Flames"Do we really need to say it? Chumlee and flamethrowers are a bad combination. This item was made by The Boring Company, a subsidiary of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and was apparently a hot ticket when it was first released. Chum makes a quick deal with the customer, mostly because he wants the flamethrower for himself. When an expert comes in to examine it, no one is surprised to hear that Chumlee overpaid. After a demonstration that involves barbecuing some hot dogs, Chum agrees to buy the flamethrower for the price that the expert quoted. But the shop is still out $200 on the deal. We have to assume that the only reason Rick doesn’t fire Chum is because he’s so entertaining.
#15: 1909 Cy Young Baseball Card
"Pawnocchio"Everyone knows baseball cards are super collectible, so how could this be a bad deal? Cy Young was one of the greatest pitchers of all time, and this rare card is over a century old. If it were in mint condition, it would easily be worth thousands. The problem is that this one is in terrible shape. Rick can’t get his expert in to appraise it, so he takes a risk and buys it from the customer for $300. This turns out to be the wrong move. When sports memorabilia expert Jeremy finally comes in to check out the card, he has to tell Rick that he struck out.
#14: Diamond Earrings
“Pawn Stars: Biggest Bust”This one wasn’t the Pawn Stars’ fault. Rick did everything right, but sometimes, you just get unlucky. When a customer came in with a no doubt stunning pair of diamond earrings to sell, Rick’s eyes must have lit up. He paid the customer $40,000 for them, probably thinking they’d be easy to flip. As Rick has explained many times, the shop takes every possible precaution to avoid buying stolen items, since it never ends well for anyone. But occasionally, something is bound to slip through the cracks. We can imagine how painful it must have been when the cops showed up to confiscate those earrings just a short time later.
#13: Stolen Submarine
"Sub for Sale"This was definitely one of the more unusual items to appear on the show. The customer claimed that someone gave her this one-person mini sub for free, which should have raised red flags for Rick. She was also quick to accept Rick’s lowball offer, even though it was much less than what she originally wanted for it. Unfortunately, like the diamond earrings, the sub later turned out to be stolen. A lawyer who worked for a wealthy California man happened to see the episode and recognized the sub, which had been stolen off his client’s yacht five years earlier. The sub was returned to its owner and Rick was out $3,000.
#12: 1932 Ford Model B Roadster
"Grand Theft Corey"If a classic car has none of its original parts, is it still a classic car? This enthusiast has spent years rebuilding an iconic 1932 Ford, and he’s asking a hefty price for it. Danny quotes Rick a value of $70,000 to $75,000. Considering how stingy Rick usually is, we were shocked to hear him agree to a final price of $68,250. That doesn’t leave much room for profit. Even though this is a gorgeous custom-built car, all its replacement parts make it more like a replica than the real thing. 1932 Model B’s only go for around $50,000 with their original parts. It seems like Rick and Danny both let their emotions get in the way of this deal.
#11: Fake Napoleon Letter
"Sticks and Stones"If you’ve watched enough “Pawn Stars,” you know that you should always talk to an expert before you make a deal. A customer brings in a letter supposedly signed by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte that appears to be the real thing. It has a certificate of authenticity and is stamped with a period-accurate seal. After a bit of haggling, the seller settles for $2,000 and Corey walks away happy. But Rick wants to be absolutely sure the letter is real before putting it up for sale, so he sends Corey to get an expert opinion. You know where this is going. Too bad, because this would have been an incredible buy if it were authentic.
#10: Cubic Zirconia
“Pawn Stars: Biggest Bust”Everyone calls him “The Old Man,” but Richard Harrison’s age and experience also make him a wealth of knowledge when it comes to buying and selling valuable goods. Unfortunately for him, acquiring that knowledge sometimes cost him big bucks along the way. You learn from your mistakes as they say, and as Richard explains, he got an expensive lesson when cubic zirconia first hit the market in the 1970s. People had hardly heard about these flashy, inexpensive synthetic rocks at the time, let alone learned how to distinguish them from actual diamonds. Harrison claims he lost nearly $30,000 in mistaken purchases, which was even more money at the time. Thankfully, the Pawn Stars now know how to spot a cubic zirconia.
#9: Fake Rolexes
“Pawn Stars: Biggest Bust”The Old Man isn’t the only one who’s lost big money accidentally buying fakes. Everyone makes mistakes when they’re young and inexperienced, but usually those mistakes don’t cost their dad’s business thousands of dollars. In this segment, Corey talks about a series of bad purchases he made when he was still fairly new to the business. If only a camera crew had been there to capture Rick’s reaction when he found out about that sixth fake watch. Maybe Corey shouldn’t have acted so smug when he had to train his young cousin to spot fake Rolexes just a few years later. Especially since she catches on so quickly.
#8: 1964 Austin-Healey Sprite BRG
“Helmet Head”Looks can be deceiving! While this 1964 automobile undeniably has curb appeal, this episode serves as a reminder that you should never buy a car without test driving it first. In his defense, Rick does attempt to start the car. But when the engine fails to turn over, the owner dismisses it as a minor mechanical issue (a dead battery), and Rick takes him at his word. BIG mistake. We get that Rick saw it as an opportunity to get the Sprite at a better price; the right collector is likely willing to pay top dollar for it. Unfortunately, the gamble doesn’t pay off. In the end, Rick’s mechanic quotes him thousands in repairs to get the car roadworthy.
#7: Grandpa Cyclops Art Print
“Pawn or Bust”Just look at this thing. We can totally understand why Rick wanted it. Mirror image symmetrical portraits such as this might be as simple as clicking a button on your phone today, but the vintage style and manner of production of this print adds a certain novelty factor. More importantly, it was made by an artist with name recognition, Devo founder and singer Mark Mothersbaugh. After calling in an art expert, Rick goes ahead and drops $625 on the framed print. According to his consultant, that should leave him room to make anywhere between $175 to $375 in profit. Little does he know, the seller is the one walked away with the real victory. As she later reveals, the artwork only cost her 15 bucks!
#6: Vic Flick's Guitar
“No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service”In this season 8 episode, Rick is approached by studio musician Vic Flick. The English guitarist certainly has an impressive resume, having worked with everyone from Engelbert Humperdinck and Tom Jones to Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page. He even played guitar on numerous soundtracks for various James Bond films. Rick ultimately drops $55,000 on the storied instrument on offer. Unfortunately, while the songs that this guitar appeared on are certainly impressive, this fact doesn’t necessarily add that much value to the guitar itself. When the guitar went to auction in 2014, it only sold for $25,000. Ouch! Vic Flick might be a legend amongst rock aficionados, but his name seemingly doesn’t carry the same weight as that of his rock star collaborators.
#5: Wells Fargo Strongbox
“Corey's Big Play”You’d think that Rick would have known better than to buy that Joe Jackson book without getting it authenticated. Just one season earlier, he had made a very similar mistake. In the season 5 episode “Corey’s Big Play,” a seller comes in with a Wells Fargo strongbox and some old prison chains. Rick starts off strong by identifying that both the Yuma ball and chain and Folsom prison handcuffs are fake. Apart from being guilty by association with its fake contents, however, the lockbox doesn’t raise any immediate red flags. So Rick goes ahead and pays the guy $450 for it. He should’ve trusted his first instinct. When Rick has an expert in to appraise it, he’s told that it’s a “complete fantasy piece.”
#4: Shoeless Joe Jackson Fake
“Say It Ain't So”Joseph Jefferson Jackson is one of the most iconic baseball players to ever set foot on the field. Not only was his performance in the outfield the stuff of legend, but, due to his involvement with the Black Sox Scandal of 1919, his name also has an element of infamy to it as well. And as Rick tells the seller, because Shoeless Joe was illiterate, his signature is arguably the singlest rarest in not just baseball, but all of sports. Unfortunately, Rick doesn’t bother to bring in an expert to verify the signature, instead trusting the certificate of authenticity provided by the seller. He pays a whopping $13,000 for the signed book, only to later learn it’s almost certainly a fake.
#3: Willie Mays Uniform
“Free Willie”Right off the bat, you can see Corey is hungry to make this purchase. Unfortunately, his enthusiasm for this San Francisco Giants uniform, supposedly worn by Willie Mays, blinds him to some fairly obvious red flags. The uniform has no signs of wear and tear, nor has it been authenticated. Thankfully, Corey has the sense to call in an expert who, surprisingly, deems it authentic - just not game-worn. They settle on $31,000 and the seller leaves happy, only for Corey to lose over a third of his investment at auction. But Corey should still consider himself lucky. It was later revealed that Mays never even owned the jersey - it was just a sample, lowering its real value to only a few thousand bucks.
#2: Fake Gibson Mandolin
"Face the Music"There’s a reason they try not to leave Chumlee unsupervised. When a customer brings in a Gibson mandolin, Chum is eager to impress Rick by making a good deal on it. To Chum’s credit, he knows that authentic Gibsons are worth a lot of money. He blows through his spending limit of $1,000 and pays the customer $1,500 for the instrument. But when he takes the mandolin to get appraised by an expert, he gets some bad news. Chum has made some bad deals in the past, but this might have been one of the worst, and Rick isn’t prepared to let it slide.
#1: Various Auction Losses
“Rick’s Roulette”When the Pawn Stars can’t flip an item in a reasonable amount of time, it gets sent to auction. This is what happened with Vic Flick’s aforementioned guitar, but it wasn’t the only item that failed to turn a profit. As seen in the special two-part episode “Rick’s Roulette,” Rick loses a small fortune when he takes an assortment of big ticket items to the auction house, including a first edition of "A Christmas Carol" and a 1960s Spacelander bicycle. There’s even a loss of approximately $29,000 on a single motorcycle! Even after subtracting the guitar and motorcycle, other assorted items collectively lost him LOTS of money. Well, can’t win ‘em all.
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