I've seen a few pawns on pawnstars and Cajun pawnstars has pawns all the time.

I would image some good artwork does find its way to a pawn shop. I know art houses and auctions charge a decent amount of the sale price for the item to go thru their auctions. If someone really needed to get rid of the artwork in a short period of time a pawn shop would be one of their only options.

Yeah...seems like that artwork comes in from people who found in their grandparents house or whatever, or a garage sale and just want to take it in for easy, quick cash. I admit, if I had something I thought valuable I wold probably go to a pawn shop before trying to find some auctionhouse

thavoice;1347796 wrote:Yeah...seems like that artwork comes in from people who found in their grandparents house or whatever, or a garage sale and just want to take it in for easy, quick cash. I admit, if I had something I thought valuable I wold probably go to a pawn shop before trying to find some auctionhouse

I suppose I could see the occasional good piece comes in, like maybe 1-2 a year. Vegas is just not the sort of town where I expect a lot of well-to-do people with good art collections. Nobody is going lug their painting all the way to Vegas to pawn it.

What about lugging their artwork there to try and get on TV?

thavoice;1347814 wrote:What about lugging their artwork there to try and get on TV?

So Rick suddenly became an art expert in the past few years? I think he knows his stuff (certainly in comparison to those of us who know basically nothing), but think it might be legitimately from a hobby/interest he has and not from seeing a bunch at his shop.

Otherwise, now, maybe I'll buy that. But what I've been saying is I don't think they got hardly any of this special/unique shit before the show started. And a lot on the show is clearly staged/planted.

On a related note, if you look at the street shots of their store on Google maps, you'll see a line of people waiting outside :laugh:

I went in the shop last summer. If you go in the evening, there usually isn't a line. The old man was in there, but he was in a back office that you can't see in the show. We only saw him through a window. The place has turned into almost completely a tourist attraction. If you aren't there to be on the show, you just file in one side of the shop and out the other. I didn't see a single person buying anything. Everyone was just gawking, which is what I guess I was doing too. I did talk to one guy and asked if they had any OSU gold pants, and they did. They had three pair. I figure out that one of them belonged to Doug Worthington. They had the year and his initials on them. I think I figured out one other pair, but I'm not sure? Simon Frazier maybe? They were asking around $1200 for them if I remember correctly.

They must shut the shop down to tourists while they film the show. The place is very narrow, not nearly as large as it looks on the show. The neighborhood isn't that bad. It's about halfway between the strip and downtown. It's just a few blocks north of the Stratosphere.

gut;1347816 wrote:So Rick suddenly became an art expert in the past few years? I think he knows his stuff (certainly in comparison to those of us who know basically nothing), but think it might be legitimately from a hobby/interest he has and not from seeing a bunch at his shop.

Otherwise, now, maybe I'll buy that. But what I've been saying is I don't think they got hardly any of this special/unique **** before the show started. And a lot on the show is clearly staged/planted.

Nah, just like anything else in business.....be around long enough and you see alot of things!!!!



When I was out in California for a month we were less than two hours away from Vegas. A few guys slipped out one night and went to Vegas and stopped by the Pawn shop and said it wasnt busy at all when they were there and it didnt seem like it was in that bad of an area. I imagine it is like most places when people say "bad area of town" meaning it is never as bad as some people will claim it is.

Imagine they make alot of money with souviniers and such and as discussed earlier a vast majority of their business is the pawning of stuff so ya dont really need to see alot of people "buying" stuff. PLus..no matter what business you go to if you are there for just an hour ya may not see alot of stuff getting purchased.

thavoice;1347845 wrote: When I was out in California for a month we were less than two hours away from Vegas. A few guys slipped out one night and went to Vegas and stopped by the Pawn shop and said it wasnt busy at all when they were there and it didnt seem like it was in that bad of an area. I imagine it is like most places when people say "bad area of town" meaning it is never as bad as some people will claim it is.

I have a friend that lived there for a few years recently, and every local will tell you not to linger behind the Strat at night. That's where you go if you want to buy drugs, let's put it that way. Maybe they cleaned it up recently, but then LVS has been cutting their police force like pretty much everyone else in the recession.

If you stay on LVS Blvd you are probably ok, but I wouldn't want to walk it at night. A little less than 2 miles NW from there you get into the alphabet streets which is Las Vegas' ghetto. 2 miles is actually pretty far though, but like I said don't wander off LVS Blvd around there (not that you'd have reason to).

Definitely a lot worse 15 years ago, but then they opened Fremont St Experience and really stepped up the police presence there.

Re: Storage Wars, I read an article that the real mogul on the show is Barry Weiss. He and his brother own a produce company that has garnered them tens of millions of dollars. Barry happened to be friends with the producer of the show and he was added on for comic relief. Barry's wealth explains why he shows up in a different ride every episode and he is willing to throw money away on stupid stuff.

In regards to Pawn Stars, I read Rick Harrison was a sickly child and spent much of his youth in bed reading about history, art, etc. The Old Man opened the Pawn Shop when he got out of the Navy when Rick was a kid. Rick worked in the store and by the time he was in his early 20s he was made partner. Today the Old Man and Rick own 50/50 but the Old Man still sees it is as "his place". That's why there are bits showing the old man bossing everyone around, including Rick. Since Rick apparently has worked at the shop basically his whole life, I am sure he has picked up on some details regarding art, books, weapons, what have you that he has learned along the way.