Now that’s a blowhard. And who’s “we”? You and Rick Harrison? Or turd in pocket syndrome? I’ve run my own successful business for over 40 years, and I don’t run it by cheating people out of their belongings. You haven’t got a clue about me or what I do, but that won’t stop you. If you think a TV pawn shop show is real, you’re even dumber than I originally guessed. I’ve noticed that people in the crookedest professions are the most sensitive about criticism, such as lawyers, used car dealers, and apparently you.
Boy, you are a piece of work. You are the one who seems to have his panties in a wad about Pawn Stars. You don't think there is a pawn shop with those things for sale in Las Vegas? I've been in the store just three months ago. My girlfriend and I visited there and bought some stuff. We met Mark Hall-Patton who happened to be there that day. He is indeed the administrator of the Clark County Museum system. We had a nice talk with him.
The shop is not as large as it seems on TV, nor are the people who you see on TV there every day now, but it is a "REAL" pawn shop with real products and items. I saw some of the items purchased on TV for sale in the shop for the prices they showed on TV. I saw people buying and I saw ordinary people pawning and selling things for fair prices.
Are some things on TV dramatized for TV? Of course. Do they take multiple takes to get it right? Probably. Is the show scripted? You bet.
But are the offers they make and the reasons they make those offers fake? No, they are not.
I've been in that position. I've bought used guns, antique and otherwise from a few dollars to thousands of dollars, from individuals up to the State of California. I've had to appraise the value (I was a certified expert for the Courts in California on the identification and value of firearms and a certified insurance appraiser) and determine what my shop could reasonable realize on any purchase and how long it would take to turn it over. The longer we keep it, the more it costs us to keep and the less we can afford to pay for it as it ties up capital or money we should have invested in something we could have turned over faster.
That's the SAME THING you claim Rick Harrison was lying about when he was truthfully telling the sellers WHY he could not offer them more — spending HIS MONEY — for their items. . . which YOU ignorantly call "cheating people out of their belongings." Please, tell me, what is about these people that entitles them to more than someone is willing to pay them for their items??? Are you going to be first in line to work for less than you work is worth? it's the same thing.
How in hell could Rick cheating them happen? How is he "cheating" them, Ozzie? All they have to do, and many of them do, is walk away with their item. This is the ultimate Capitalistic transaction of a WILLING SELLER negotiating with a WILLING BUYER who has the money to buy right now. You claim he is CHEATING them when he tells them the reasons for his offer. . . and he makes a final offer. They are FREE to accept it or not. He is not holding a gun to their heads.
I recall one episode where a woman wanted him to buy some piece of diamond and ruby jewelry for $1500 and he refused, saying, if he bought it for that, he would be cheating her. Instead he told her item was really worth $15,000 retail! He offered her $9,000 on the spot. He could have taken her for the $1500 she thought it was worth and wanted to sell it for, and made a cool $13,500 profit. She would have been happy and never known the difference. . . but he said HE would have known the difference. Instead of cheating her, he made her a fair wholesale offer for her piece. . . yet YOU claim he cheats people. BAH!
You have still not demonstrated that you know the difference between buying wholesale and selling at retail. Instead you seem to think that people in the business of buying and selling should buy high and sell low. It doesn't work that way.
As for who's "we" it is everyone on this thread you've insulted who tried to set you straight who also has run a business. Frankly, you can claim 40 years of anything you want, but you don't demonstrate that to me when you don't show even the basic grasp of how to make a profit by buying something at a reasonable margin to make money on it WHILE covering your costs of doing business. No, you just sling insults and call people names.