Pawn Stars Review: May 2, 2011

It's been a couple interesting days nationally, hasn't it? Bin Laden and the severe weather. At least we haven't had any severe weather in the past week, but the flooding around the country is unbelievable. If you are in danger of being flooded or in the path of severe weather lately, our prayers go out to you. As usual, we have uninteresting but nice weather.
Pawn Stars has another 2 new episodes tonight and next week will be another two. Rumor has it, if you go visit the shop, there continues to be lines at times to get into the store. If you go, please plan on the wait- bring some water because you wait outside in the heat. Rick, Corey, the old Man and Chumlee are making fewer and fewer appearances at the shop because they probably don' have to be there, but the Old Man seems to be there daily but only comes out of his new office a few times a day. Better than Ground Hog Day, though.
In the first episode, the first guy brought in an Apollo 13 heat shield. This is the Apollo mission that ran into trouble and eventually made into a movie. Time for an expert, Mark. Mark runs the museum at McCarren airport, which is nice but has nothing from any Apollo space missions in it, so it makes me wonder how Mark is an expert in equipment from the Space program. Apparently, Mark also picked up a new museum to be a currator at, the Searchlight Museum, which is Harry Reid's hometown. Anyways, the heat shield off the space capsule looked burnt and was kind of small- not like the heat shields they have on the Space Shuttles. Mark said it was a real heat shield but did not know if if came from Apollo 13. The guy wanted $50,000. Rick offered $2000. The guy came down to $35,000 but there was no deal.
The next guy brought in a 1973 Husqvarna dirt bike which was in very rough shape. The guy got $125 for it but they are going to restore it. They took it Danny's place to restore it. (watch out for the next restoration show?) They decided to make into a custom street bike as the engine is street legal. Danny brought it out and it looked pretty good with a new body with a lot of new parts. It cost $8500 to fix up and Corey was going to try and sell it for $20,000 but my guess is that it will be a money loser. Those kind of small motorcycles won't sell around Las Vegas, especially for $20,000 or even $8500. Corey rode it and it ran out of gas, kind of Like Kyle Busch on Thursday at Richmond. Corey's butt kind of ate up the back part of the bike and it didn't look pretty.
The next guy brought in a Japanese Sword from WWII. It wasn't a Samurai sword because it had an aluminum handle. The guy wanted $800 and Rick offered $400 and then $450 and that was the sale price.
The next guy brought in a Spiderman Comic Page, the orginal art work. It was signed by the cartoonist of Spiderman. The guy had no paper work. The guy wanted $20,000. Corey offered $1000. No sale.
The next lady brought in a Curta Calculator. It looks like a pencil sharpener you find in schools but in does adding, subtraction, dividing and multiplication. It's an advancement over the abacuss- high tech from the late 1940's.. The lady wanted $900 and Rick offered $600. The lady was a good bargainer and it was sold for $704. To see how the Curta works, see the video at the bottom of the post.
In the second episode, the first guy brought in a the battle plans for D-Day and the Normandy invasion. It showed maps and names of the soldiers, sailors and Marines involved in the raid. Rick also has the maps from the Iwo Jima invasion, which are hanging in the shop that everyone could see. It's towards the back and hard to see if you are not looking for it. Wondering if the maps from Iwo Jima were real if they are displayed in the back of the store and not for sale.
The expert, Mark, came in and said some of the plans were made after the battle. Other papers were made before the battle, so worth a whole more money. The operation's name was called "Neptune". Mark said these were mimeographed paper, which they cannot frame. Rick said they can't sell them because of that, so there was no sale.
The next guy brought in a Stretch Serpent head, related to Stretch Armstrong, whoever that was. He only had the head and not the body. The guy wanted $6000. Corey offered $300 and then $500 and that was the sale price. Man, how many toys I could have sold now if I had kept them, especially football cards. The Old Man was not happy with the purchase. He thought the head was worth 2 cents. Time for the expert, Johnny. They made a bet and the loser had to clean the shop. Johnny, owner of Toy Shak, said it was worth $4-5000 just for the head. The Old Man was wrong and he apologized and ended up cleaning some of the store.
The next guy brought in a very old football helmet- the old leather kind, way before the ones with face masks. This helmet was in pretty good shape and Rick offered $100 and then $130 and that was the selling price.
The next lady brought in a pair of Saber Bayonets from the Franco-Prussian War. They were a combination of a bayonet and a sword from 1873 and 1871. The lady wanted $500 for the pair. Rick came back with a $125 offer for both and then $130 and that was the sale price.
Thanks for stopping by for another week of Pawn Stars. Because of your support, I have the 2nd biggest individual blog in Nevada, as far as I know of and still no advertisers. Thanks for coming by and see you next week for 2 more new episodes.