I watched the new episode of Pawn Stars again tonight. For me, it is a great show and it tells a little bit about Las Vegas.
The houses the lady who was selling the piano and the guy selling the pinball machine are typical of Las Vegas. Small backyards, close to the neighbors. White interiors and 2 story homes. Cookie cutter houses, we call them.
Most of these "meetings" with the employees are staged. With TV and everything, these meetings are staged and we saw them prepare for a "meeting" a couple weeks ago.
Pawn shops provide a great service in Las Vegas. They provide cash for those who need it. You can hardly swing a dead cat in Vegas and not hit a Pawn Shop, many which are open 24 hours a day. Some people need money to pay bills while others use the money to go gambling, buy booze or drugs. Some of the items in the shops are stolen and many people have tried to pawn stolen items. The Gold and Silver Shop is right in front of some of the worst areas of Vegas. The area east of the Strip is a high crime area. So, if you ever visit Vegas, do not walk east of the Strip, especially by the Stratosphere and north of there or you may have some problems, The cops in town are usually pretty good at monitoring pawn shops. To bad they are not as vigilant at policing recycling places, but they are getting better.
I've bought a TV at a pawn store 2 years ago and it still works and I got it at a good price. You can buy almost anything in Vegas at a Pawn Shop- tools, vacuum cleaners, radios/steros, TVs, cars, computers and just about anything else.
On the 2nd episode tonight, they had a guy selling war bond advertisements is the same guy selling daggers in a previous episode and he was wearing the same clothes. Nice to have the repeat customers.
When they talk about working the night shift, that seems to be pretty easy. Boring but easy. They don't have the store open and they just have a door window open in which they do business.
The Las Vegas Badger is about politics, humor, sports, reality shows in Las Vegas, especially Pawn Stars and anything else interesting. While I live in Las Vegas, my heart is still in Wisconsin. Thanks for visiting the blog and feel free to browse the web site.
If he's wearing the same clothes, there's a good chance the two segments were filmed on the same day.
ReplyDeleteNy name is Mike Rowe, and i do Dirty Jobs
ReplyDeleteThese guys are thieves. They offer people shit money for stuff they know is worth big bucks. I collect, I know. It's understandable they have to make money, but they are thieves.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone really believe these guys know as much as they pretend to. Makes good TV I guess.
ReplyDeleteThe guys know about the product before it comes in, so they can read up on the product beforehand.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite show on TV is Pawn Stars, but I don’t always get the chance to watch it on TV. I love the fact that I can use my DISH Network DVR to record Pawn Stars and watch it on my Droid using Sling Technology. Being that I am a customer and employee of DISH I can’t recommend the TV Everywhere feature enough to anyone who likes TV on the go. You can find more info online a www.dish.com/tveverywhere. This is something you can’t do with U-Verse.
ReplyDeletewould like to sell pawnstartsauctions.com
ReplyDeleteclick to make offer.
can be its own Ebay
mistake.. its www.pawnstarsauction.com
ReplyDeletethe next ebay
Terry, a lot of the people on the show are not local people. They look for people from all over the country to be on the show.
ReplyDeleteI look at the show, not so much as entertainment, but I have learned a lot about history of the U.S. and about different products.
Yes, some of the people selling are greedy but most,I think are not.
Dan, You missed my point, The sellers are not greedy, The people who run the pawn shop are the greedy ones. When I watch (my wife enjoys watching) I almost yell at the T.V., telling these people not to give away their items for such ridiculously low prices. Iam the biggest history nut of all time, most of the time the little history lesson given by the idiots at the pawn shop have nothing to do with actual history. The little stories they tell are mostly made up and have nothing to do woth actual,history. It just really pisses me off that these idiots week after week get away ripping people off. I really think the whole thing is made up and what we see on T.V. is nothing more than a script, as I said there cannot be that many stupid people.
ReplyDeleteI was hoping this blog would provide spirited discussions regarding the new scurge of the 21st century, those Slimeballs known as "PAWN STARS" Come on has everyone simply given up! Well i refuse to give up, My goal is to get these baboons back to the zoo where they belong! (MY sincere appologies to baboons for the comparision).
ReplyDeleteTerry,i don't think he people at the Gold and Silver are that greedy on screen. Off screen, that may be different. If the people at Gold and Pawn, then you ought to see pawn the other pawn shops downtown, they are the real rip offs.
DeleteBut the sellers are to the point where they have no other place to go for money. They are not going to get any kind of loan, including pay day loans, they do not qualify for any kind of credit or loans, so they have to go to these places.
They are no different than banks where the banks charge more for the worse credit ratings and they charge very little for perfect credit. That doesn't make sense either.
So, what do you suggest people who horrible credit go to get emergency money?
Dan, I have a masters degree in economics, it is standarized in the U.S. that any legitimate business, in order to make a profit, will increse purchase price by 33 1/3%, for resale to public. In watching this show it's obvious that these people will show any increase of at least 60 and sometimes 70%. I'm sure that some of that is only for show and they actually surpass that increase after the cameras are turned off. Now to address your other concerns, I've been to Las Vegas many times, it is a large city with many good quality shops that sell everything from collectable historical documents to estate or antique jewelry. You cannot tell me that by making a few phone calls
ReplyDeleteand internet searching that one could not do much better than being ripped off by these goons. As for pawning items, they show very little of that on the show and from what I've seen, there's not a problem there, what pisses me off is when they purchase items and take advantage of people by offering them less than 50% of the value of an item. On that note, Most of their "experts" must either get somekind of kickback or really just not know what they're talking about because 80% of what the "experts" tell them is pure B.S.
Well, you cannot judge the pawn business on the show. I am sure the vast majority of the people on the show are only on to get their 15 minutes of fame. The visitors may even get a stipend for being on the show.
DeleteI honestly don't know what they do with the other customers, but I will say this. The jewelry they get is either melted down or put on display and if it is on display,most items do stay on the sale floor for the longest time. That goes for other items they have bought, like coins, guns and swords nd other things they purchase.
Mind you, I am not defending their practice but then, most of the people are down and out and they are not able to get credit anywhere else, so the pawn store is their latest refuge. And most of their business are loans, not pawns.
What's the difference between a loan and a pawn.because if they are a loan company why do they call themselves a pawn shop? One more question, Do you work for these guys ?
ReplyDeleteThey don't even use the word "pawn"in their real name, which is the Gold and Silver shop.
DeleteAs far as the word pawn, they have to put down collateral to get the loan.
And no, I am not associated with them in any way. I have been to their shop may be two times a year as a buying customer.
It's just that you seem like a normal guy, I can't figure out why you defend these idiots. They are such arrogant assholes. It just seems a shame when there are so many decent hardworking people in this country who are just trying to get by making a living and then you practically have people worshipping these creatures who are making a living by ripping people off, and YES they are ripping people off. There is so much injustice in the world this may seem like a small thing to bitch about, But it's one place where I can say what I really feel. I would like it very much if those guys would read this and maybe take a real look at themselves. But I doubt most of them can read. If it were not for his family, Corey would probably be driving a beer truck and that Chumlee fool would be living in a dumpster
ReplyDeleteFirst,Terry, thanks for writing and I do appreciate it.
DeleteI do not worship them, I just do a blog about them. I do not know them and only have seen them a couple of them at the store. But they are different than the pawns shops around town. You have the chain pawn stores and some little pawn shops in the downtown area. They are unique compared to the other shops in what they sell to the public. Most pawn shops sell power tools, electronics and jewelry. The Gold and Silver sells the jewelry but then they also sell the unique items you see on the show.
What I am saying is that pawn shops provide a service to the poor that the banks will not. They provide a service the loan companies do not.
I believe their loan rates are also lower than credit card companies.
So, if you need a quick loan for a couple of days, where would you turn? Especially if you only need $50 or so and then pay it off in a few days. That loan will only cost a few dollars and it may solve an emergency for someone who has bad credit or is poor.
I have been watching this show for several years now and it has become my favorite show. I watch Monday nights to see the latest episode. However, I noticed that Chumlee has become so popular that Corey gets very little "face time."
ReplyDeleteLast night, it seemed to me that the family, and the producers, tried to fix that. They tried to portray Corey as being "impish" now. They have him steal his father's lunches for a week. Corey makes fun of his own father because his father brings his lunch to work in a brown bag. When the father (Rick) catches him and makes Corey buy his lunches for a week, Corey brings in five lunches all in the same day.
(Also in this episode Corey take a car that Rick paid a lot of money for, and goes on a joy ride. He's still on his joy ride when a customer heard about the car and wanted to see it. He never sees it. Corey took it to lunch! THIS is what the future owner/manager of the shop does because he's a spoiled rich kid.)
I guess we are supposed to think that Corey is "cute" for doing this to his father and then not taking responsibility for his actions. Corey is constantly trying to "best" his father or to just make fun of him. This stupidity adds nothing to the show and really takes away from the show.
To this loyal viewer Corey is already a spoiled brat who can't hold a candle to his father's expertise and salesmanship. If I were to bring something in to that shop and Corey referred to me as "My man" as he so often does refer to customers, I would probably hit him over the head with the item and go to a pawn shop where they at least show me some respect!
Corey's "expertise" can be summarized by his asking how much the customer is asking for an item (My man) and then offering one quarter of that amount. That takes a lot of talent. My granddaughter could do that. Or, you could program a robot or a computer to do that!
This new "impish" badgering Corey is spoiling an otherwise great show. If it were to continue, I for one, would be less inclined to watch Pawn Stars and switch over to something else. I find it totally unacceptable to have to watch a son who disrespects his father (and grandfather) as much as this no-talent kid does. I feel that Corey adds nothing to the show and now he is taking away from a great #1 show. When he threatened to leave and work for another shop, I was hoping that he would go. With his poor speaking voice and his, apparently to me, scripted conversions with customers and now his new persona, it would not take long before enough of us viewers begin to go elsewhere.
I like the history aspect of the show- learning about the items that people bring into the shop. I really like the history and advice that the many experts bring to the show.
If I wanted to watch a show about a dysfunctional family, I would watch MTV!!
corky was said to have been in a las Vegas bar and urinated in public on a bar stool and then tossed the stool across the bar how reckless can he be a face of the show known only by the show what a punch t o the show come on Cory get your shit together rick talk to your son this will affect viewers thought of your shop and that standards you hold them to think about it ...
ReplyDeleteI saw Chumlee on season 14 episode 24 when he was very fat. Anyway, his beard was red and his teeth were yellow. What's up with that Chumlee ??
ReplyDeletePawnshops have for decades been a place where people go to save some money (or get some money). In a time where a penny saved is a penny earned, discounted used items are flying off the shelves at places like the World Famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, whose day-to-day operations are dramatized on the History channel show Pawn Stars. pawn my watch
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the wonderful blog with us. Could anyone suggest me a good Pawn Jewelry Doral store for Jewelry. From where i can sell my jewelry> Thanks
ReplyDelete