Les Gold is totally cool. His kids are spoiled brats — but interesting. The Pawn Stars ensemble is terrific, too. Both good shows in different ways.
I like Pawn Stars the best. I’m originally from Flint, Michigan & I don’t need any reminders of how bad Flint & Detroit have become since I left.
PJ, is this a joke? I have never heard of Hardecore Pawn, but I do watch Pawn Stars, even though I question the reality of the show.
It seems a bit too made up to be true.
That guy on Hardcore pawn needs to go in and have the oil changed in his hair. No way I would expect any kind of a decent deal from someone who ran a pawn shop that looked like that.
I find Hard Core entertaing but some of it appears staged. If you are not interested in dealing with a customer you don’t have to encourage their bad behavior you simply say no thanks and move on.
My vote is Hardcore Pawn!
I liked Pawn Stars for a while - then burned out. Hardcore I never bothered with as, IMO, it was just another copycat version of a successful idea that spawned new variations until you’re sick of the whole genre.
Some folks on the net have claimed that most of the stuff on trutv is fake or staged. I don’t know personally if that’s true for hardcore pawn but Lizard Lick Towing is fake imo. I think people come in the pawn shop and “act a fool” so they can get on TV.
Of course, the shows are scripted. Neither show is reality, really.
Looks like (from the 3 minutes I was able to stomach before switching the channel permanently) to be the Jerry Springer show at a pawn shop.
Useless junk being pawned by useless scumbag degenerate lowlife customers to useless scumbag degenerate lowlife pawn shop owners.
Pawn Stars on the other hand is educational, with both customers and owners treating each other with respect.
The merchandise never fails to fascinate.
They Pawn Stars ought to take the flamethrower , charge it up along with the bowling ball cannon and Gatling gun, and head over to Hardcore Pawn and put the place out of its misery.
Hardcore Pawn gives me a headache. It’s like watching an Obama rally.
A whole sea of pathetic people behaving like they were raised by total gutter trash. But it is Detroit, so what should I expect?
It makes me ashamed to be from the same state, although I’m as far away as possible from them without being at the bottom of Lake Michigan.
Pawn Stars is just the same old canned corny reality show dialog and scripted situations masked as something that is supposed to be “educational”.
First thing to remember about “reality” tv is that everyone of these shows is contrived. There’s no way that Chumlee knows the history of some piece of armor or sword from the middle ages. They research the stuff before they go on camera. That said, Pawn Stars really is a history lesson. Extreme Pawn is more a drama show, between Les’s battling bratty kids and their battles with their ungrateful, resentful, low life clientele.
But if you believe in the reality of reality tv, read the recent expose of House Hunters. Seems that the house hunters really might look at more houses than three. They also might have already bought a house, so the hunt is a re-enactment. And some of the houses they look at aren’t really for sale.
The much more obvious scripting of Hardcore with the real trash element they have is off-putting. Also, I often wonder how long it will be before we see the Hardcore boss in a public dust up. It ain’t real bright to play tough guy on “reality” TV, someone’s gonna take you up on it. Some marginal personality somewhere is just dying to do it.
Pawn stars is a great show. Hardcore pawn is more realistic and quite frankly I am sick of even seeing ghetto thugs any more in any format.
I find Hardcore Pawn to be disgusting because it is about disgusting people. The customers AND the owners are disgusting people. The things they bring in for pawn are not interesting. Confrontation after confrontation that’s all they’ve got going on.
I am an antique collector and antique lover. Pawn Stars is about Rick and family AND about interesting antiques and artifacts. No contest.
The guy on Hardcore Pawn is a total asshat idiot. I watched a few episodes and decided it wasn’t worth my time. But I did like the episode where he totally expected to get a deal on some guns from a local gun dealer and the gun dealer told him to get screwed and tossed him and his wretched family out of his shop.
Pawn stars, there’s more cool historical stuff
Hard Core Pawn, after all the complaints about them making blacks look bad, it seems now they always make sure they put at least 1 or 2 crazy white on every show.
I much prefer Pawn Stars. I can stomach just so much of Les’ bitch daughter and his whining son or his obnoxious customers.
Cajun Pawn Stars. They even pawn livestock!