The five most eye-poppingly valuable items on Pawn Stars
Quite a few chancers have walked through the doors of the World Famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop over the years. Like that guy who tried to flog an old gun-shaped cigarette lighter for $5,000 but ended up taking 50 bucks (nice try, though).
But Rick Harrison and the boys have also dealt with some real high rollers, brandishing items valuable enough to make the soundtrack do that record scratch thing. And you know things are serious when you hear that record scratch thing.
5 Jimi Hendrix’s guitar
5 Jimi Hendrix’s guitar
Price tag: $750,000
Rick Harrison was as excited as a kid on Christmas morning when a guy strolled into the pawnshop with Jimi Hendrix’s 1963 Fender Stratocaster guitar. Rick caressed it and practically started calling it his preciousss, while a guitar expert declared the item to be 'stupid cool' (a technical antique dealing term), so the seller must have felt confident he’d get his $750,000 asking price. But Rick’s $550,000 offer was anything but music to his ears, and he walked.
4 The Beatles contract
4 The Beatles contract
Price tag: $1 million
It’s fair to say The Beatles were not entirely inconsequential to the history of rock music. So it was pretty exciting when someone brought in the original 1962 contract between the band members and manager Brian Epstein, and asked if Rick might, you know, be interested in buying it at all? Some CGI-style analysis of the signatures proved they were the real deal, but Rick balked at the million-buck tag. The seller missed a trick by not singing “You Never Give Me Your Money” as he walked out of there.
3 Robosaurus
3 Robosaurus
Price tag: $1 million
A million is a lot of money, but what if it means owning your very own giant killer robot? Suddenly it seems an entirely reasonable price, if you ask us. But the boys still passed on the Robosaurus, which could literally crush cars in its giant metal gnashers. Fun fact: it appeared in a 1989 TV pilot about a cop with the superpower of being able to blow his dead son’s toy robot up into a gigantic tool of righteous vengeance. Here’s hoping Netflix gives it the gritty reboot it deserves.
2 The OJ Simpson car chase car
2 The OJ Simpson car chase car
Price tag: $1.25 million
Yes, this was the actual white Ford Bronco which OJ Simpson tried to flee the cops in after being charged with two murders. The car chase was filmed live and watched by an estimated 95 million people worldwide, so Rick looked understandably ready to pinch himself as he got behind the wheel and took it for a spin. Despite this, the grisly context of its fame meant he had to pass (plus, just check out that price tag).
1 George Washington’s suit
1 George Washington’s suit
Price tag: $2.5 million
Rick looked ready to shed a tear when he was presented with a silk suit once worn by the first president of the United States of America. The initial asking price was $3 million, but Rick couldn’t bring himself to cough up even when it dropped to $2.5 million. Still, he at least got to bask in its almost holy presence, and besides – as Rick himself put it – 'it didn’t fit me anyway.'
Cash Month
