I have to admit, when I see one of the experts value an item at, say $5000, and then the seller is offered $400 for it, I almost throw something at the TV. Not because the Pawn Star guys are lowballing them (I’d *expect* them to do that), but because nine times out of ten, the idiot takes the offer after only a minimal amount of haggling.
I don’t care how much I needed money right now, I’d invest an afternoon in searching the internet to find a dealer or collector to deal with directly - you know that’s what the Pawn Star guys are going to.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a situation where the expert valued the item in the $5000 range and the Pawn Stars guy offered them $400. They usually a little less than half—and in some cases a little more than half.
Of course, in real life, if a guy walked into a pawn shop and only asked $400 for his $5K widget, the broker would never bring in an expert and most likely bargain him down to $200 or so.