I’m an antique dealer. This show is pure television unreality. Nobody in their right mind would “call in an expert” IN FRONT of the seller! You could never make any money that way. If someone comes in my shop and wants to sell something - they name the price and we work from there. It’s up to the seller to know what they have and how much they want for it.
The experts make this show educational and interesting to watch - but it is totally removed from reality.
Oh, I agree totally; not how a real pawn shop works. But as you say it’s very entertaining.
But now that they have this huge hit tv series they don’t really have to worry about making a profit on the items anymore, so it’s all in good fun.
Well what if someone walks into your shop with something so rare you can’t be sure of it’s value or it’s authenticity?
There is nothing on TV that is less real than "reality" shows. They have one guy that comes in 2-3 times a season with completely off the wall stuff that conveniently tees up a history lesson from Rick. He's got to be on the production team. Also, Chumlee isn't that stupid. Nobody is that stupid.
Unless the "expert" is working with the buyer.
You make excellent points, but wouldn’t you say that an antique dealer to a pawn shop is like the difference between a full-service bank to a payday loan business? If I nad an antique that I’d like to sell and could afford to spend time doing my research and negotiating with an antique dealer, I would. But if I had just lost my shirt at the casino and needed cash FAST, I’d go to a pawn shop.
I used to do exactly that, all of the time. If the parties understand that one is dealing on a "warehouse" level, and that there has to be a substantial profit between the "warehouse" purchase and the "retail" shelf, it is aa useful thing to have a disinterested third party set the price.
Those guys generally work on a 50% of retail (the price the third party set) price, which is a quite common practice. I was surprised to see it so closely match my own dealings.