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"I'm Rick Harrison, and this is my pawn shop. I work here with my old man, and my son, Big Hoss. Everything in here has a story and a price. One thing I've learned after 21 years—you never know what is gonna come through that door."
Rick, at the beginning of every episode.

Pawn Stars is a reality show on The History Channel about a three generation pawn store called the "Gold & Silver Pawn Shop" operating in Las Vegas (713 Las Vegas Boulevard South, if you're ever in town). It features historical and rare objects being bought and sold by a family of characters.

The owner of the shop is Rick Harrison, a shrewd businessman who often finds the most obscure and sometimes bizarre things being brought to his shop to be sold. As he has been in the business for a long time and has other hobbies of his own, Rick is generally knowledgeable in music and American History (especially firearms). When presented with something that is outside of his expertise and/or needs a more detailed appraisal, he calls upon an assortment of experts who are Proud to Be a Geek, who are usually the ones giving the history lecture.

A big part of the show, which anyone familiar with basic business sense would know about, is that Rick is generally not willing to purchase an item unless he can get it for about 60% of its market value, and that's not considering any additional costs such as restoration or cataloging, because otherwise he won't make a profit for himself. And not all items are brought into the store itself, as they are often asked to look over exceptionally large items or collections.

Also on the show is Rick's father and co-owner Richard, known as "The Old Man". His purpose is to reprimand workers for being lazy, be the butt of old jokes, and tell When I Was Your Age... stories. Rick's son Corey, known as Big Hoss, also works at the store and is learning the business in order to someday inherit the store (as of season 6 he's given a 5% partnership) - which leads to some father/son conflict. The fourth main character is Austin "Chumlee" Russell, a longtime friend of Corey and the shop Butt-Monkey, who is hinted to be smarter than he looks. Tragically, Richard "The Old Man" Harrison died at the age of 77 on June 25, 2018, causing production to halt for some time. Thankfully, however, the other three soon picked up where he left off, and the series resumed airing new episodes shortly thereafter.

The 2022-2023 season, for the first time, saw some sweeping changes to the familiar format. Instead of following potential sellers who have come to Las Vegas to visit the pawn shop, the Pawn Stars themselves have hit the road, traveling to cities across the country in a Retool known as Pawn Stars Do America.

The popularity of Pawn Stars has led to it becoming something of a franchise for History, and has launched the following spinoffs:

  • American Restoration - Rick has taken quite a lot of old stuff to another guy named Rick, Rick Dale, who runs a Las Vegas antique restoration company in order to have it fixed up. This series follows him and his crew as they restore old things like toys, gas pumps and vending machines. The series premiered on October 25, 2010.

  • Cajun Pawn Stars - which is basically Pawn Stars IN THE SOUTH! Rick and Co. are reportedly not pleased. It premiered on January 8, 2012.

  • Counting Cars - Yet another spinoff which features the often-seen mechanic Danny "The Count" Koker as he and his team restore, customize and sell cars, premiering on August 13th, 2012.

  • Pawnography - A Game Show which premiered on July 10, 2014, giving players a chance to win cash and items from the Harrisons' shop and eventually go against Rick and the other cast as they barter. It was hosted by Christopher Titus.

  • Pawn Stars UK - The official British version (which Rick seems to like as he appeared in the first episode,) launched on that country's History Channel on August 26, 2013. This one focuses on Regal Pawn in Chester, not too far from Liverpool. Another international spin-off is Pawn Stars SA (South Africa).

I'll give you 50 bucks for these tropes, that's the best I can do:

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  • A-Team Firing:
    • One episode, the guys have an argument on who was the best shot, so they decided to have a shooting contest. Rick used a lever action rifle and says they would only be firing five rounds, while everyone else brought a modern semiautomatic. The Old Man only brought eight rounds, but Chumlee had a thirty-round magazine and Corey a fifty-round magazine. When the shooting finished, Rick got all five on the target, the Old Man got all eight near the centre of the torso, Chumlee's target wasn't shown, and Corey only managed to hit his target eight times, but hit everyone else's target once.
    You had fifty shots and only hit the target eight times!
    • Done again when Corey and Chumlee are stranded in the desert during a "Burger Run" for the Old Man. After "borrowing" The Old Man's truck to do the run, it dies, and the duo wander around till they find themselves at a gun range. After calling Danny to help them recover and fix the truck, both of them partake of the range's machine guns to kill time. The first round with Corey & Chumlee shows them missing every single watermelon. After Roli and Horny Mike arrive, they along with Chumlee manage to finish off the watermelons.
  • Acquired Situational Narcissism: Whenever Chumlee gets to fire a gun at the shooting range, he quickly adapts to whatever character and/or situation was described to him pertaining to the gun. It's often hilarious.
  • Actually Pretty Funny:
    • At the end of the episode where Rick speaks to a college class, Corey asks if he wore the turtleneck that made his head look like a zit, and Chumlee asks if anybody called him 'Professor Dick'. Rick breaks out laughing and admits this trope.
    • Corey's reaction to Chumlee calling in the shop experts for the trivia contest. This compared to Theo's Oh, Crap!, Rick's You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!, and the Old Man's combo between this trope and So Proud of You.
  • Affectionate Nickname: Mark Hall-Patton, one of the experts Rick often calls in to help authenticate historic items, is called "The Beard of Knowledge" around the shop.
  • Alleged Car: A lot of the cars that come through the shop are not in great condition. Sometimes they are very old cars, for which this kind of thing is expected, and they will send it to a car expert to be restored if they buy it. Others are the result of the owner's attempt to fix the car, in which case the guys will generally not even give an offer.
    • On a few occasions, they've been offered cars that were crap as soon as they got off the production line, such as a three wheeled taxi from the film Freejack. It was designed as a movie prop, so it didn't go very fast, and the back seat was both extremely dangerous and extremely uncomfortable going over bumps.
  • All Animation Is Disney:invoked A lady came in to sell a set of frosted glass Disney figurines. After remarking how much he loves Disney, Chumlee asked if she had any of Bugs Bunny.
  • All There in the Manual:
    • A number of interviews Rick has given, both before and after the show began, give some insight into why the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop runs and functions the way it does. For example, the reason it has so many insanely antique and valuable items instead of just the usual collection of TVs and cameras and whatnot? Every other pawn shop in the area was bought by a single company that used a database for its offers... if something wasn't in the database, they referred the seller to a non-company pawn shop, and Rick's was the only one of those around.
    • Rick's autobiography License to Pawn: Deals, Steals, and My Life at the Gold & Silver contains a lot of interesting background information, too. The book contains stories of high rollers who come in to pawn their valuables for gambling money, the Obstructive Bureaucrats the Harrisons had to deal with in order to set up their shop, the problems all three Harrisons have had with the law, and some of Rick's favorite items in the shop.
  • Artistic License – Cars: Borders on Insistent Terminology. In one episode, Rick buys a replica 1932 Ford roadster hot rod. The buyer states he built it from the ground up as a replica, and Rick even mentions that "There's nothing 1932 about it." Despite this, everyone calls it "1932 Ford" or "1932 roadster".
  • Artistic License – Economics:
    • The team has to spell out why exactly they make offers significantly lower than market price way too often.
      • There can be numerous additional costs to buying an item, including overhead, storage, restoration, authentication, cataloging, and so forth.
      • More importantly, they have to buy items to sell them for profit. In many cases, the market price is a best-case scenario that they likely will not be getting. In other cases, an item may be difficult to sell; until they find a buyer, that's money tied up into the item.
    • Rick sometimes deliberately invokes this trope with stuff he really wants to keep for himself, such as a stamp designed by Benjamin Franklin, a Super Bowl ring, and a boxing championship belt. He's said he likes having them in his shop so much that the only way he'd part with them is for far beyond their appraised worth. But he's not being completely irrational here — he considers the customer interest they generate valuable in itself.
    • Sometimes, customers with very reasonable asking prices are accepted by the Harrisons without even needing to haggle. Corey immediately agreed to pay one woman the $350 she wanted for a collection of 19th century railway bonds, since he'd be able to sell them all for a $750 profit. One time, when Rick agreed with the first price the customer put out, Chumlee was confused, as the policy was usually "Never take the first offer."
    • Occasionally the guys appear to practice this trope when the seller offers a price much lower than the item is worth, and the shop offers a higher, fairer price. They're actually demonstrating a sound grasp of economics. Having a reputation for honesty and fair dealing is far more valuable in the long run than making a few extra bucks from a poorly-informed seller. That's true even when your business practices are not being shown worldwide to millions of people every week.
    • Some customers do the sensible thing and try to determine what their items might sell for. Many of them have done so by looking at what other people are trying to sell similar items for online. Unfortunately, the Harrisons have to point out what sellers want to get and what buyers are willing to pay are often two separate things.
    • One common user of this trope are customers trying to sell vehicles that they had poured money into customizing, with varying amounts of success. Often they will try to ask for the amount of money they dumped into the vehicle or more, despite the fact that even people who don't intend to resell the vehicle would balk at that price. Even worse, sometimes all that customization will actually decrease the value of the vehicle - See Doom It Yourself below.
    • When the Harrisons buy things that require money to function, sometimes they'll set them up in the shop to make some extra money off them before selling them:
      • When Corey bought a coin-operated crane game, he filled it with chocolate bars that customers could pay to grab. He also steals Chumlee's car keys and puts them in the machine to screw with him.
      • When Corey bought an Evel Knievel pinball game and would only be able to break even on it, Rick forced him to set it up so customers could play it. When they made $300 from people playing the game, Corey would be able to sell it to break even. See Cool and Unusual Punishment, below.
      • When Chumlee bought a coin-operated kiddie ride, he set it up outside the store so they could make some extra money from customers to ride it while waiting in line.
    • Some of the things customers try to sell, like art, can fetch high prices in shops that specialize in selling them. Unfortunately, since the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop buys and sells a wide variety of merchandise, it can't sell these things for prices as high as the specialty shops. Rick's had to tell more than one customer selling paintings or photographs that he doesn't get gallery prices for the art he sells, which is why he can't offer them as much money as a gallery would.
    • Sometimes the Harrisons would be happy to pay a customer's asking prices... if the collector's market in whatever they were selling hadn't gone soft.
    • In some cases, Rick can take something to an auction and try to sell it there. He usually doesn't like doing this, since the entry fees and the auctioneer's cut of the selling price will both eat into his profit margin, and auctions have a chance of not making money. Rick usually only does this for truly one-of-a-kind items like the gatling gun he was offered (when haggling with the seller, he mentioned he'd have to take it to auction) or as a last resort (when Corey bought an antique motorcycle with missing parts that would cost a fortune to restore, and would be very hard to sell).
    • A customer brings in over 3,300 ounces of silver in bars and coins, which he sells to Rick for a whopping $110,000. Two things are worth noting:
      • The Old Man loves precious metals, especially silver. He hoards them as a precaution against hyperinflation, since precious metals will always have some sort of value.
      • The customer bought his silver collection back in 2001, when the price of silver was rock bottom. Now that it's gone back up again, he wants to cash in on his investment.
  • Artistic License – Gun Safety: Usually averted, but there are exceptions:
    • Corey had to reprimand one customer for pointing a gun he was selling at him. Granted it was actually a lighter, but it was made to look so much like a real gun, his concern is justifiable (they were actually illegal in several states, including the seller's home state, New York). And as Rick's original pilot indicates, there are numerous guns under the counters ready to be used on anyone trying to rob the place.
    • Played a little more straight with the customers. Whenever they are handed a gun, no matter how old, the Pawn Shop employees always check to see if it is loaded. Granted, the ones still loaded are often 150+ year old muskets which most likely WON'T shoot, but they don't take that chance.
    • In one video, the Old Man recounts how he accidentally got shot in the foot by an employee who was showing a gun to a customer. Since the employee was pretty good at his job, the Old Man wasn't angry enough to fire him. He was just angry enough to want to throttle the guy for a few hours.
  • Artistic License – Law:
    • A customer brings in a Japanese-made pachislo note  slot machine themed in The Terminator. Corey mentions that these machines exist in a legal grey area, as they are legal to own, but converting them to quarters would make them illegal. While true for some states, Nevada isn't one of them. In Nevada, all slot machines are legal to own, including pachislo machines converted to quarters. While it could just be Corey being an idiot, it's possible he was lying to the seller to lower the price.
    • In his book, License to Pawn, Rick claims the reason the shop does not have a Federal Firearms License is their application was denied because the Old Man stole a car when he was 17, and was given the option of going to jail or joining the Navy. There is actually no law that allowed judges to do this, and while judges may have had more leeway to do this unofficially, there is little to no evidence that this actually occured. However, even if this were true and the Old Man served in the Navy in lieu of going to jail, he would not have a criminal record. The real reason they don't have a license could be because, as Rick mentions elsewhere, the Old Man "decided" one year he didn't need to pay income tax and got in trouble with the IRS, or it could be Corey's antics while he was addicted to meth and ended up in and out of jail, or it could be the hassle of buying and selling modern guns as Rick claims when a customer brings in an antique German shotgun/rifle combination.
  • As You Know: It's often quite obvious the customer either already knows the history of the item or isn't interested in it, and the history is only being given for the audience's benefit.
  • Ascended Extra:
    • Aside from the Harrisons, several shop employees have made recurring appearances. Chumlee is the most famous one, but Rick's security guard Antoine, the shop intern Lilly, new hire Olivia, and the shop gemologist Jeff have all made multiple appearances.
    • A couple of customers arguably count as well, such as gallery owner Erik and gun collector Rob.
  • Aside Comment: When a customer brings in a autographed script of the series finale of Seinfeld, Rick comments that Seinfeld was the best TV show ever, then turns to camera and says, "Well, second best TV show ever".
  • Aside Glance: When one woman brings in a Rat Patrol lunch box, she says that she didn't really know anything about it. Rick says that it was a show about four guys in the middle of the desert, with a really low budget. He instantly looks directly at the camera.
  • Author Tract: Rick will occasionally give his opinions on people or things certain items are connected to, most notably presidential memorabilia. When he was offered something that used to belong to Andrew Johnson, Rick flat-out told the camera that Johnson was one of America's worst Presidents.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: Many items that come through the door, either because they're inherently impractical (but possibly still valuable), or because they can't be sold for a profit in a downtown Las Vegas pawn shop:
    • One of the items the shop gets is a gun shaped like a key. It worked great as a key, but not so great as a gun. Another item is a gun Desk. Also, for a very literal case of Bling-Bling-BANG!, a Gun Ring.
    • Rick sometimes won't even make an offer on items because he doesn't think any of his customers will want to buy them (e.g., Native American totems, TV scripts, animatronic restaurant displays).
    • A glass sword (which might appeal to Dovahkiin, but isn't too practical in our world.)
    • As awesome as dueling pistols are, Rick notes that their value takes a big drop if they're alone, because they came in pairs and collectors that would be interested in buying them want both of them.
    • On other occasions, he passes because he doesn't think he can sell them at a profit (e.g., Doom It Yourself classic car restoration projects and anything else that will cost more to repair/restore than he can sell it for).
    • Then there are the items that, while they might be profitable, are simply more trouble than they're worth. Rick once declined a Baldwin piano because it would take up too much space for too long a time in his shop, while he told the guy offering him an automatic corn-shucking machine that if some kid got his hand caught in the thing, the resulting lawsuit would put him out of business. Then there's the titanium ignition keys of a Russian space rocket and many other things shown in the show, which are very awesome but are also very expensive and there are so few people collecting them that it would not be profitable.
    • Yet another snag comes up when Rick is offered a collection of some sort, whether it's of Western memorabilia, wine decanters or Transformers toys. While the combined value of everything in these collections might be really high, no one would want to buy the whole thing. That means Rick has to invest a considerable amount of employee time in cataloguing and pricing every single item in the collection. Then he has to sell each item individually, which means that at least some of his money is going to be tied up for a while until he finally unloads the last piece of it. It's not hard to see why he turned down the Transformers collection, and why he soon got buyer's remorse after he purchased the decanters.
    • There are some ridiculously cool, one of a kind items that sometimes find their way to Rick's shop. However, the fact that they're one of a kind actually hurts the chances of Rick buying them, because he has no idea how to measure their worth and would rather pass than risk taking a huge loss.
    • There has been a handful of items shown that would be profitable, but not bought because they could be illegal. Any stolen items cannot be bought (such as a Russian officer hat the owner admitted he stole from a Russian car), since every item is checked by the police to make sure it wasn't stolen and the shop would lose any payment made on the item. Two items (a championship ring from which the name had been partially removed and a spy camera that had its serial number scratched out) couldn't be bought because the law says they cannot buy any item with an identifying mark removed. Guns made after 1898 are also right out, since the shop doesn't have a federal firearm license. Due to regulations, they can't buy wine or anything else alcoholic because they don't have a liquor license.
    • On a couple of occasions, other pawn shop owners have come into the store to sell Rick their merchandise. Rick explains that all the pawnbrokers in Las Vegas know each other, and they'll frequently resell some of their merchandise to each other if a particular pawnbroker's clientele is more likely to buy a particular item.
    • Robosaurus once was offered to the shop, ripping apart a car, breathing fire, and everyone agreed it was cool as hell. However, the asking price was a MILLION DOLLARS. Corey noted it could easily bankrupt their business, so had to decline.
    • There was one notable occasion where a lady tried to sell three books written and signed by President Truman. The signatures were verified and the books were appraised at $11,000 (the seller had originally asked $3,000). The seller proceeded to ask for $10,000, leaving room for a profit margin of less than 10%, where as the shop usually tries for 30-40% (Chum has been reprimanded for having an average profit margin of 18%). What makes it notable is that the woman in question was a retired economics teacher who fully understood that the shop had expenses and needed to make a profit, and left them with so little meat on the bone anyway. In the end, they couldn't make a deal.
    • Items belonging to or used by famous people like celebrities, sports stars or politicians can dramatically affect the value of an item. This also applies to things owned by infamous people, albeit with a twist. If the infamous person is easy to romanticize, like a Wild West outlaw or an old-time Las Vegas mobster, then it's well worth picking up, as can the items of "bad boy" sports stars like Dennis Rodman. However, if the person is deemed to have crossed the worst of lines, then their association with an item will dramatically decrease its value:
      • Corey refused the 2004 Red Sox championship ring of a player who was in jail for sexual assault. Similarly, Rick appraised O.J. Simpson's trophies at a very low value and said he wouldn't want them in his shop at all.
      • Rick pointed out that Bernie Madoff's ownership of a Rolex watch did not help its value.
      • For blatantly obvious reasons, Rick flat-out refused several things that could have belonged to Adolf Hitler.
    • Rick has a general "no boats" policy because boats are often money pits that don't usually make a profit. Rick was not pleased at Corey buying a $16,500 boat and then spending another $4,000 fixing it up. Corey eventually sold the boat for $22,000, but the Old Man said he got lucky.
  • Badass in a Nice Suit: The Old Man frequently dresses like this, particularly in promos, and looks pretty good in them considering he's an elderly overweight guy.
    • This promo pic. The Old Man is in a white suit because a black suit is his usual attire, Corey is in a disheveled tux, Chum's dressed like a U-Boat captain, and Rick's in a suit and tie (and looks like a complete futz in it).
  • Bad "Bad Acting": A customer brings in an accordion, and Rick tries playing it to see if it still works. The customer, the Old Man, and several of the shop staff are all seen cringing.
    • On two occasions when original scripts for Goldfinger & an episode of the "In The Heat of the Night" TV soap came in, Corey & Chum/Rick acted out excerpts of them in the shop. For the latter, Rick found Corey's attempt at a Southern accent ridiculous.
  • Bazaar of the Bizarre: While the fame of the show helps draw in interesting options, this was already in place before the show started. All of the other pawn shops in Las Vegas are owned by a single corporation which uses a pricing catalog. If it isn't in the catalog, the only choice people have to sell their goods is this pawn shop.
  • Being Good Sucks: They may be stingy sometimes, but they will not flat rip people off.
    • If someone gets in with a valuable piece and asks for pennies, they will call in experts to find out how much it's worth. The problem then is that the owner gets carried away and will ask for the price the expert said, ignoring that said price is a best case scenario and Rick has to buy the item to make a profit. When a woman brought in a spider-shaped brooch and asked for $2,000, Rick told her it was a Fabergé piece made with real diamonds, rubies, and set in onyx and platinum. He offered her $15,000; she countered by asking for $17,000, but eventually accepted his price. Rick stated in the segment, "This is why I hate having a conscience."
    • The time when Rick is on his way to Sturgis and stops in an antique shop. He spots a samurai helmet being sold on consignment for $300. Rick tells the shop owner the helmet's true value, then haggles with the owner over what he'll pay for it, settling on something like $1,200 more than the listed price. Part of the problem here is that since the helmet is being sold on consignment, Rick has no idea of knowing if the shop owner would share the good fortune with the owner of the helmet.
  • Berserk Button: Both Rick and the Old Man go off like a cannon when somebody (usually Corey or Chumlee) loses them money. They'll even do it to each other, such as when the Old Man gave Rick grief for losing money on the Austin Healey car (see Epic Fail, below) or when Rick chewed out the Old Man for buying those two Western-themed dummies.
    • You can tell any time Rick has been hit. He apparently flushes easily because his entire head will turn red.
    • The Count gets quite rightly pissed when anyone questions his knowledge of and passion for automobiles. It's more of a Tranquil Fury in his case, though.
    • For that matter, watch Rick any time a seller insults one of the experts in front of him. You can often see him restraining himself from slugging the seller. Many of the experts aren't just business associates, they're Rick's personal friends, and Rick does not take kindly to people calling them wrong or liars.
    • Sellers' berserk buttons range from being told their item is fake, to hearing the expert opinion that doesn't jive with their reason of thinking. A commercial bump actually asked the audience which of three reasons causes people to react negatively.
    • Outside the TV show, there's the Battletoads prank calls they get bombarded with. Here's some YouTube proof.
  • Betting Mini-Game:
    • Sometimes, when Rick and a customer can't agree on a price, the customer will offer to settle the dispute by gambling with whatever it is they're trying to sell, with Rick paying the winner's price. Unfortunately, for all his skill as a pawnbroker, Rick has really shitty luck. Whether it's flipping a collectible coin, spinning an antique roulette wheel or playing a hand of blackjack on a gaming table, Rick always seems to lose. He even Lampshades this fact after he lost the blackjack game, although he immediately subverted it afterwards by pointing out that he was still going to win anyway when he sold the item and made a profit off it. He also explained after one such gamble that he only does this when he would have eventually come up to the customer's price anyway. The gambling just makes it seem fun and cuts time and stress off the haggling.
    • Rick and Corey have a habit of betting on Chumlee missing the target when they go to test out an antique firearm they had just purchased. This has come back to bite them more than once, as Chumlee's actually not a bad shot.
    • Corey's had a few of these games himself, and he tends to do a little better at them than Rick. One customer who was selling a machine that measured the strength of the user's punches managed challenged Corey to a contest to see which of them could punch harder, with Corey paying the winner's price. While that customer won, Corey did come out on top against a customer who was selling a collection of billiard balls. The customer offered to gamble with the little numbered tokens that pool players use to decide who shoots first, with Corey paying the winner's price. This time, however, Corey was lucky.
  • Big Fun:
    • Corey and Chumlee. Just imagine those two on a see-saw together.
    • Rick's security guard Antoine also counts. He's very tall, but he's also a case of Stout Strength.
    • The Old Man is quite overweight. Rick's the smallest of the main cast, and he's still a very big man.
    • As of 2023, the trope applies less for Corey and Chumlee, since both have noticeably lost weight. Antoine has also lost a considerable amount of weight.
  • Blatant Lies: Some of the stuff customers say trying to convince the staff of the item's value, either a blatant lie of their own or a blatant lie their parent or grandparent told (or someone else told them).
    "It's been in my family for five generations!"
    "It was only made ten years ago."
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: Pick any episode — any episode. At least one of the Harrisons will be giving the others grief.
  • Big "SHUT UP!": Rick gives one to Corey and Chumlee when they tease him for buying a worthless "Shoeless" Joe Jackson book.
  • Boring, but Practical: During a clay pigeon shooting contest between the four of them, Corey and Chumlee bring awesome tactical shotguns instead of plain trap-shooting guns. They proceed to score only one hit each. Rick actually uses a trap-shooting gun and proceeds to destroy all his targets, and then several more just to show off.
  • Breakout Character: The Count didn't show up until Season 3. The guys had a few other car and bike guys before him, including Rick Dale. These days, he's the only one they'll call either to appraise cars and bikes or fix them up once they're bought, to the point where he has his own show.
  • Break the Haughty: Whenever one of the guys get too cocky, something is bound to happen. Whether they lose a bet, or an item they buy turns out to be fake.
  • Brick Joke:
    • After arguing with Rick over the value of a trainer's Super Bowl ring (see Jerkass, below), a customer leaves in frustration. In the last scene of the episode, playing over the closing credits, the guy comes back in and agrees to sell the ring for the $9,000 Rick had offered him.
    • Another episode has an old man wanting to sell an old word processor unit. He eventually turns down the $20 Rick offers him. During the credits, that same old man comes back in, willing to take Rick up on his order. Rick is floored, and recalls that he did make that offer.
    • One of Rick's recurring customers is a gun collector named Rob. He's a very stubborn bargainer, to the point that he once turned down a $10,000 offer from Rick. One episode ends with him coming back into the store to accept the offer, since he couldn't get a better one at the gun show he went to.
    • Rick and his dad got into an argument about a man trying to pawn a Vietnam-era US Navy uniform; Rick swore up and down that it was a World War II-era uniform, but The Old Man (who is a Vietnam vet) correctly identified it. Rick ended up betting his dad a dollar that he was right. Several scenes later, an expert confirmed The Old Man's judgement, and he then immediately turned to Rick and said "Gimme my damn dollar."
  • Brutal Honesty: Rick and the Old Man are almost unfailingly polite in their business dealings, but they're also very blunt and won't hesitate to tell customers when they don't want the items that are being offered, or when the items are worthless. Some people don't always appreciate this.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer:
    • Sure, he may be the Butt-Monkey due to his low intelligence, but there are brief glimpses on the show where Chumlee is surprisingly knowledgeable about certain subjects (the current list seems to be video games, pinball machines, vintage basketball sneakers, boomboxes, and gold).
      • On the History Channel's official YouTube channel, he even does one of the How To segments regarding how to tell real gold jewelry from an imitation, so even if he is that goofy, he knows how to do his job.
      • In one episode, he brought a broken RC car to full functionality, including rewiring it.
    • More recent episodes feature Dr. Phineas Kastle, who usually appears dressed as a Steampunk adventurer complete with fancy mustache, but who is also a Professor of Asian Studies at UNLV and is very knowledgeable about Asian antiquities and culture.
  • Busman's Holiday: After finally being persuaded to take a vacation, Rick goes to England... and proceeds to buy antique maps (and is not allowed to haggle on them, alas) and visits a pawn shop, the owner of which he met at a pawnbroker's convention in Vegas, and who later got his own spinoff, Pawn Stars UK. There, he's allowed to touch a piece of the RMS Titanic (but doesn't buy it for a million Pounds), and purchases a pair of boots from one of Elton John's stage costumes.
  • Butt-Monkey: Chumlee. In the words of Rick, "If someone says catastrophic malfunction, Chumlee's gonna be the guinea pig."
  • By "No", I Mean "Yes": The guys have a strict Zero policy on Nazi artifacts (such as a Nazi Party handbook or silverware from the Eagle's Nest), but it's shown that this doesn't extend to general German WWII items (such as bayonets).
  • The Cameo:
    • George Stephanopolous (Good Morning America, This Week with George Stephanopolous) bought a first-edition of For Whom The Bell Tolls for $675 (though when they shook, Rick slipped in that offer; the original offer was $625).
    • Josh Towbin, a.k.a. "Chop" (of the canceled A&E show King of Cars and an owner of a local Dodge dealership in Las Vegas) buys a 1924 Dodge Brothers business sedan for $7,800 to display in his dealership from Rick.
  • Carry a Big Stick: Antoine, in addition to a pistol, has a board by his stool at the door. Rick doesn't know why.
  • Casanova Wannabe:
    • Rick and Chumlee visit a cute redheaded college student who wants to sell them her Baldwin piano. Rick decides against buying the piano because it'll take up too much space for too long a time in his shop, but the real entertainment is in watching Chumlee try (and fail) to ask the girl out.
    • He actually wasn't doing too badly; Rick just co-, er, reminded him he was on company time and interrupted his game.
    • When the store needed to hire on a new employee to work the night shift, they hired on a really cute girl who more than met the qualifications and a willingness to learn the trade. When Rick says that someone needs to work the night shift in order to show her the ropes, Chumlee volunteered. The others called him out on this, knowing full well why he volunteered.
  • Cassandra Truth:
    • When customers are told that the items they're selling are fake or otherwise not worth anything, the typical reaction is Oh, Crap!, as noted below. Some customers, though, simply refuse to believe whatever Rick or the other guys tell them. See Jerkass, below.
    • "I don't care what you say!"
    • A customer comes in with a Bugs Bunny poster to sell. Chumlee says he doesn't really know much about Bugs, but that he was in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The customer snaps back "No, that was another rabbit", and Corey sighs and says "You never cease to amaze me, man" to emphasize him being an idiot (he's just identified Louis Armstrong as the first man on the moon). But as anyone who remembers the movie knows, Bugs is in fact in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.note 
    • Rick unwittingly invoked this trope with a customer who brought in a bar of gold that his grandfather found in the Caribbean. Rick jokingly asked if the customer's grandfather had found it on a sunken ship... and when they got the gold appraised, they found that it was from a sunken ship because of the coral that had grown on it.
  • Catchphrase: The guys have a bunch:
    • Rick's is, "I'd love to have this/This would look great in my shop, but only if I can get it at the right price." Might double as Captain Obvious. Corey's begun using this phrase too.
    • Old Man: "Damnit, Chumlee!" "Oh my God...." "Whatcha wanna do son, pawn it, sell it, donate it?" "Back in the day..." Rick's also begun using the pawn/sell/donate phrase as well (usually cutting himself off after "Do you want to pawn it, sell it, or...?").
      • He occasionally drops "It's cuter than hell!" when he's fond of something, notably the R2-D2 cooler.
    • Rick saying that the current buy "could be worth a lot of money." He's also taken to saying "Why can't I find shit like this?" whenever he sees something particularly rare that was found in someplace like a yard sale.
    • Count on Rick to say "God, I hate you guys" at least every third episode or so.
    • Everyone has their own particular version of saying it's time to go fill out the sale forms, and generally sticks to it. Rick prefers "Let's go do some paperwork", while Hoss uses some variation on "You wanna go write him up?/Let's go write this up." The Old Man either lets Rick or Hoss use their phrase or "Chumlee! Go write (this person) up!" since he doesn't know how to use the computer forms.
    • Also:
      • "I/We know/got a guy..."
      • "... he knows everything about _____."
      • "... lemme get him down here, we'll see if we can work something out."
      • "Where in the world did you get this???"
      • The crew will sometimes use the phrase "cash money" when customers are trying to decide whether or not to accept their offers.
    • The Old Man also has "That'd be top of the mark", when overseeing negotiations performed by Rick or Corey and they offer a number that he'd be unwilling to go over.
    • He'll also say "I ain't going no damn higher" if he takes over from Corey or Rick
    • When they get on each other's nerves, they'd say, "Some people's children!"
    • History Channel has officially dubbed Rick's assorted sighs as his catchphrase.
  • Character Development: Chumlee's become less of a liability over the show's run. We've seen him learning the difference between real and fake Rolex watches and artwork, and he's begun negotiating for several low-level items and doing a pretty good job of it.
  • Character Tics: Rick's not Italian, but he really likes to talk with his hands, particularly when doing "camera talk" bits.
  • Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: Corey goes into this with a pin-fire gun that supposedly was used on the Confederate side of the Civil War. Rick & the seller think the gun might be French due to a marking, which leads Corey to make stabs at how the French can't make guns and if the makers name translated means "Surrender." It was actually Belgian and was made a decade or two after the end of the Civil War.
  • Clark Kenting: Used hilariously by a special guest.
    Rick: ...Aren't you Steve Carell?
    Steve Carell wearing glasses: ...No.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Corey bought a hot air balloon without consulting Rick because he interpreted him saying "I want to expand the shop" as being "do things other than pawn/sell things." Rick very angrily explained that didn't mean "give people balloon rides." There might have been a possibility of reselling the balloon for a profit note , but finding a buyer for something like that would be extremely difficult. And Rick pointed out that if he buys something that expensive, he has a buyer lined up BEFORE he buys the item so he doesn't risk his money being tied up for months.
  • The Conspiracy: When a guy brings in three letters signed by three different Kennedys, the expert determines the letters are examples of auto-pen signatures and not personally signed by the Kennedys themselves. Cue the guy going into full blown conspiracy theory mode over how insulting elected officials are in doing this sort of method, and how if you can't trust what the elected officials are signing, what else could be going on?
  • Continuity Nod: Each episode is designed to be extremely self-contained (and thus, for example, regular viewers have heard the experts' identify themselves dozens of times), but there are a few:
    • As a general rule, we don't see what happens to an item after the guys buy it. However, sharp-eyed viewers may notice items from previous episodes on display, either in the background or in establishing shots when the show is coming out of a commercial break.
    • There have been several recurring customers:
      • Tony was the guy who sold Rick the trainer's Super Bowl ring as noted under Brick Joke, above. He later appeared in another episode trying to sell Rick and the Old Man a pair of antique firearms, and they ask him if he's been in here before. Tony appeared again in a third episode trying to sell Corey and the Old Man an antique explosive detonator. Once again, the Old Man acknowledges dealing with him before. In the fourth season, Tony has appeared yet again, trying to sell Rick a Super Bowl trophy. Once again, Chumlee notes that he's been in here several times already.
      • Another recurring customer is a old guy who attempts to sell several games and other old devices to the pawn shop. Big Hoss mentions on the second trip that while they couldn't agree to buy one items of this guys, they'd go and see what else he has to sell. He also appears in the spinoff American Restoration, getting work done on an X-Ray shoe fitting machine. In that show, Rick Dale mentions that the old guy is an antiques dealer.
      • Another man who sold his collection of signed Star Trek actions figures shows up in another episode selling a Klingon Batleth.
      • "Uncle Phil" appears in two episodes of Pawn Stars (selling his 30's Roadster for gold and a jukebox to make room for more stuff) and then crosses over to buy a sign from Rick Dale in American Restoration that was sold to Rick Dale by the guys from American Pickers during the trifecta "The Pick, the Pawn, the Polish" episodes.
      • A gun collector named Rob has come into the store at least three times to sell some guns to Rick and raise more money for his collection. He's a very stubborn bargainer, to the point that he once turned down Rick's $10,000 offer. He only came back to accept it once he went to a gun show and couldn't get a better offer for it.
    • When a similar and/or related item appears to one from an earlier episode (mostly items tied to famous people, they will note what happened to the other item, mostly to show why the Pawn Stars want the given item so much.
    • There is one woman who has sold old medical devices to the Pawn Shop three times already.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: Anything that makes the shop lose money is a serious offense. Rick and the Old Man often have creative ways to punish this:
    • When Peaches shows up late for work one too many times, Rick forces her to work the graveyard shift with Chumlee, who has a major unrequited crush on her. Hilarity Ensues.
    • When Corey bought a tattoo kit for $350 and then snuck out of work to go trade it for a tattoo, the Old Man blows his top. He takes $500 out of Corey's salary to pay for the tattoo kit and have the shop make a profit on it, and orders him to work three hours of overtime to make up for the time he missed getting the tattoo. The Old Man also forces Chumlee to go clean the bathrooms for lying to him about where Corey had gone.
    • When the crew finally sees the restored helicopter (see Epic Fail, below), Rick points out to the Old Man that it was going to work out after all. The Old Man shot back by pointing out that if it hadn't, he would have sold one of Rick's kidneys to make up the loss. Knowing the Old Man, he probably wasn't joking...
    • Chumlee takes a bath on what turns out to be a bogus Mandolin made by Gibson. He loses $1500 on it, and Rick tells him he's gonna get him that money back. He turns to busking just outside the shop:
      Old Man: (tossing him some bills) You gotta make $1500, so you're gonna be out here for a while.
    • Even when the Old Man just angrily yells at someone, whether it's Rick for his occasional money-losing purchases or Corey for his occasional irresponsible actions, it's frankly a little scary.
    • This backfired spectacularly on the Old Man in one episode. After Corey bought the plastic head of a Stretch Serpent toy for $500, the Old Man popped a blood vessel and yelled at Corey for his apparently stupid purchase. They decided to settle the ensuing argument with a bet on whether or not Corey would be able to make a profit on the plastic head, with the loser cleaning all the display cases in the showroom. The toy expert they called in confirmed that the Stretch Serpent toy was so incredibly rare that one intact toy sold for a whopping $12,000 at an auction, and that the head alone was worth between $4,000-$5,000. The Old Man is completely stunned, and ends up eating crow when he loses the bet and had to clean the display cases.note 
    • Corey bought an Evel Knievel-themed pinball machine that they were either going to lose money on, or at best break even. Rick refuses to let Corey sell the machine, and makes him set it up for customers to play. He also orders Corey to collect the quarters from the machine at the end of every shift, and turn them over to Rick. Once the machine makes $300, then Corey can sell it to break even. Being the manager, Corey's pissed off at having to do grunt work:
      Rick: Consider it a life lesson.
      Corey: A life lesson in what?
      Old Man: In not losing money!!!
    • Chumlee broke a 200-year-old vase while goofing off in the warehouse with a Bat'leth. Rick emailed the security video to every employee of the shop to embarrass him. This one...didn't work out too well, the video got out, went viral, and Chum reveled in it because he'd become an internet celebrity. You can almost see Rick's eyebrow wanting to twitch.
    • After the Old Man lost a bet over what would be worth more between a Paul Newman signed firesuit and a Jimi Hendrix poster, Rick made him wear Chumlee's hat
  • Cool Car: Old sports cars and antique cars can sell very well, but the team usually has trouble getting them at a good price since most aren't in optimum condition and require large investments to restore. Often this is because the owners ended up damaging the cars through their own incompetence-see Doom It Yourself, below.
    • Then there's some of the handful of cars the Old Man owns, including a restored 1966 Imperial Crown Convertible, of which only 514 were made.
    • Both Rick and the Old Man sometimes admit that the other problem with buying a Cool Car isn't just the cost and risk... it's the temptation to keep it, as they both have fairly large collections already. Hoss suffers this same temptation towards motorcycles.
  • Cool Shades: The opening.
  • Cool Sword: The shop also has its share of weird and exotic swords.
  • Covert Pervert: A rather well-endowed young woman comes in to sell a replica antique pogo stick. Hoss asks if she's ever tried using it, and she answers in the negative. Completely naturally, he asks if she'd like to.
  • Crack is Cheaper: invoked A very rare inversion in that we see things from the perspective of the people who sell the things buyers are so obsessed with. The Harrisons often buy items because they know that people who collect guns, historical documents, toys, or whatever else will often pay a lot of money for these things.
  • Creator Thumbprint: Rick is obviously in the pawn business to make money, but he also has a genuine passion for American history, culture and heritage, which he indulges with his work.
  • Crisis Crossover: "The Pick, The Pawn and The Polish", an event wherein Rick asks the American Pickers to find an item which will then be fixed up by Rick on the Pawn Stars Spin-Off American Restoration.
    • The July 2011 arc starts with Harrison calling the pickers to find a 1957 Chevy to restore and give to the Old Man on his birthday. The Pickers episode ends with the sale and goes right into the Restoration episode which deals with Rick Dale's effort to restore the car. He also buys an old neon sign from Mike and Frank and partially restores it. The Restoration episode, in turn, leads into the Pawn Stars episode where Dale and his team finish the project and Harrison gives it to the old man. The kicker: It's estimated that it would take 6 to 8 months to restore the car. Rick needed it in three.
    • Another one features the guys from the pawn shop, Rick Dale, Frank and Mike, and this time the Count is in on it too, as they all head to Sturgis.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: When Chumlee's not asked to join Rick's team for a "Team Trivia" night, Chum gets three of the experts the Shop calls in for appraisals to join him against Rick's team. Chum's team creams Rick's for a prize of $200.
  • Daddy's Girl: Rick's daughter has appeared a couple of times on the show, once when Rick builds a doghouse for her dog and another time when he takes her car shopping. His spoiling her is lampshaded both times.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Pretty much the entire core staff, except for Chumlee.
    • Rick is looking at a Rat Patrol lunchbox. He tells the woman who's trying to sell it that "It was a low-budget TV show about four guys in the desert," then looks right into the camera.
    • Even Chumlee gets his moments. When a man brings in an animatronic restaurant display installed on the back of a novelty firetruck, Rick doesn't make an offer because he doesn't think he'll be able to sell it. The display is so weird that it looks like something out of a Terry Gilliam film, and Chumlee quips that he could probably travel through time with it.
      • And then there was the time Chumlee and the Old Man were dealing with a woman who wanted to sell a collection of glass Disney figurines:
        Chumlee: Too bad you don't have Scrooge McDuck. He reminds me of the Old Man.
        Old Man: Thank you, Chumlee. Now shut up.
    • Then there was the customer who brought in a collection of Atlanta sports championship rings. He admits that he's a fan of the Detroit Tigers and Lions, and Chumlee points out that he must be used to losing.
    • Some of the customers can cross into this territory, too. Take the man who was haggling with the Old Man over a book owned by Isaac Newton:
      Old Man: If I give you $7,000, I won't have any money for dinner.
      Customer: You give me $7,000, and I'll buy you dinner.
      Old Man: ...Sounds like a plan.
    • Rick and Corey had Fat Back, one of the shop's mechanics, evaluate a car that they were considering buying. Fat Back takes the car for a test drive, and comes back to them with his verdict:
    Fat Back: In my opinion, if you spend any kind of money this car, the Old Man is going to have all three of our butts in a sling.
  • Didn't Think This Through: When Chumlee asks Rick if he can borrow $20, Rick decides to loan him the money by teaching him how a promissory note works. Unfortunately, Rick doesn't state himself as the bearer on the note which Chumlee is more than happy to point out. Chumlee winds up cheating Rick out of $40.
  • Dirty Cop: When a customer brings in a 1930s-era Chicago security guard's badge, Rick recounts how Al Capone had the entire Chicago police force on his payroll. You could be beaten up by the cops, and there wouldn't be anything you could do about it.
  • Dirty Old Man: Subtle, but some fans have noted the Old Man using the kid gloves when haggling with attractive women. The most egregious case has Old Man talking Rick into paying $20 for an antique printing press that had rusted into scrap metal because "It's cool." The customer in question had some very interesting haggling techniques.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Rick likes this one. See also the "Rat Patrol" joke above,
    • When someone brings in medical records of Elvis Presley, he says this about him (and the circumstances behind his death)
    Rick: Yeah, it's easy to understand why he had a heart attack, because he just kept (stares at Chumlee) gaining weight gaining weight gaining weight...
    Chumlee: ...?
    Rick: ...until he died!
    Chumlee: This coming from a guy who eats fried food every day...
  • Don't Touch It, You Idiot!: One customer brought in a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15, which featured Spider-Man's first appearance and is generally considered one of the Holy Grail issues to comic collectors. Chumlee only sees a comic book and tries to grab it, only to have Corey immediately slap his hand away and tell him not to touch it. Corey knew the comic was very valuable.
  • Doom It Yourself: Several customers have ruined their items' value in one way or another:
    • Some of the classic cars and trucks Rick is offered have been worked on by their owners. A lot of the time, these owners had no idea what the hell they were doing and actually destroyed the potential value of the vehicle with shoddy workmanship and pointless modifications.
    • One guy in particular put an engine in his car that was way too big, replacing the original (and fairly desirable) SS 396 in the process. He took the air cleaner off because he couldn't close the hood with it on (made worse because they live in the desert) and had also replaced the original front end with a newer one. It was painful watching him drive it. He tried to show off the power of the engine by peeling out in the cul-de-sac they were in, and the camera cuts to Rick and the Old Man just standing there with looks of absolute horror on their faces. Rick mutters under his breath that this is not what you do to a car. It becomes even more funny/pathetic when, after Rick and the Old Man refuse to buy it, the owner tells the camera crew that they aren't true "car guys", who would buy the car and make a profit off it. What pushes this moron into true Small Name, Big Ego territory, though, were the shirt and baseball cap he was wearing proclaiming how classic cars were a part of American heritage.
      • What made it doubly tragic was that Rick and the Old Man REALLY wanted that car, as the Old Man had one when Rick was younger and Rick had fond childhood memories of that car before it wound up being sold; plus, the car is a valuable car. But then he opened up the hood...
    • One particularly sad and strange incident involved a VW Type 181 "Thing". Rick was enthused about the car because his first car had been a Thing. However, the car had custom blue and white paint, improved upholstery and fully carpeted floors, and Thing collectors usually want them stock.
    Rick: It's going to cost me a lot of money to make it yellow and ugly again.
    Seller: (horrified) I'm not going to sell it to you if you're going to make it yellow and ugly again!note 
    • Several customers learned the hard way that polishing collectible coins destroys their value (polishing wears them down, which essentially rubs out all the detail).
    • Several customers have come into the shop with knives and swords that had been unprofessionally sharpened, brushed with steel wool and/or coated with varnish, which amateurs don't realize greatly depreciates the value.
    • There's a reason rich people are usually the only ones who drink fine wine. It's because they can afford to build the wine cellars you need to store the wine properly and keep it from spoiling. One guy who came in trying to sell his decades-old bottle of wine ended up turning the contents into vinegar from the way he stored it in his cupboard standing up. When the bottle was moved, you could see chunks floating in it. The man trying to sell the bottle insisted that it was still collectible because it was Dom Perignon and it had never been opened. He also made the often quoted mistake of claiming that he had seen similar bottles go for thousands of dollars. Rick was quick to point out that the ones that went for thousands of dollars were still capable of being consumed by humans. What this man had was a very expensive bottle full of vinegar.
    • Another customer tried to sell his Porsche engine to Rick. Unfortunately, the Count pointed out that it had been left open, exposing it to the elements, which could've rendered the engine only valuable as scrap metal. And then the guy tries to challenge Count's expert opinion. See Jerkass, below.
    • One guy could have gotten over $1,000 for the paintings he brought into the shop. The catch was that he cut them out of their frames and then rolled them up before stuffing them into tubes. The paintings ended up being so tattered that he only gets about a hundred bucks for them from Corey, and it comes across like he's taking pity on the guy's stupidity more than anything else. To be fair to the guy, he claimed he bought them in that condition, so it was more a case of ignorance than actual stupidity.
    • A customer who brought in an unopened box of pre-embargo Cuban cigars that he inherited from his father could have gotten a good price for them...if his father had actually stored them properly in a humidor, rather than just putting the box in a larger trunk. The Old Man didn't even need to open the box to know that the cigars would have dried out and crumbled by now.
    • One was one interesting case where a sale was doomed because the seller put too much effort into his customized trike. Rick and Corey were floored when they found out the seller poured $100,000 into the trike. They pointed out that with that sort of money, the seller could have just gone and bought a top of the line Maserati. What was even worse was that when Count inspected the trike, he appraised its worth at only $15,000. Rick and Corey theorized that the seller didn't do his homework when buying the parts and got badly fleeced.
    • They have repeatably stated to never, ever, take a wire brush to a gun, noting that it destroys the value. When a gun looks too good, and might have been cleaned, they often ask if they cleaned it. One time Rick did buy a gun, only to take it to one of his gun experts and find out it was literally worth nothing, and the expert suggested Rick bury it for several months to get the patina back.
  • Downer Ending:
    • Sometimes there are items that the crew would love to have, but the customer simply decides to keep the item. One notable example was a complete gaming kit used by a wandering Wild West gambler that was worth somewhere between $7,000-$10,000. The customer didn't accept Rick's initial $4,000 offer, and refused to change his mind even after Rick raised his offer to $6,000. The customer walked out of the store with the kit, and Rick was almost despairing when he talked to the camera crew about it afterward.
    • In one episode, studio guitarist Vic Flick brought in his 1961 Fender Stratocaster and asked $70,000 for it. After bringing in an expert, Rick was able to settle at $55,000. Rick then tried to sell the guitar with a price tag of $90,000, and it sat around the shop until he decided to put it up for auction. Unfortunately for Rick, it sold for just $20,000.
    • Corey's purchase of the Stretch Serpent head turned into this. He bought it for $500 and then discovered that the toy was so rare that its head alone was in the $4,000 range at retail. The store lost money on it anyway—it went missing from inventory, likely because an employee threw it out by mistake.
    • One customer brought in a 2009 New York Yankees World Series ring that was given to George Steinbrenner's secretary. Rick was willing to make an offer despite telling him that the ring's value was hurt by it not belonging to a player. The customer asked $25,000, and an expert valued the ring at $22,000. Against Rick's better judgment, he went as high as $20,000. The customer refused to go below $21,000, and they couldn't strike a deal.
  • Do You Want to Haggle?: Basically almost everything the store buys purchased on the basis of lots of haggling, in some cases when the seller or the store's buyer (usually Rick) sticking to a close price (sometimes a difference of $50 or $100) the other party is shown agonizing whether to give in over the difference. After all, even 50 bucks could wind up eating up the buffer costs for framing, overhead, and other such logistical costs that goes into a purchase. It can get nitty gritty.
  • Does Not Like Spam: Despite liking just about every inedible thing Chum has ever made, the Old Man cannot stand the energy drink Big Hoss has him try.
  • Dramatic Pause: Cue the pause and the closeups of the seller and the Pawn Star guys when one of the experts is about to announce the value of an item, or whether it's fake or real.
    • This is Rick's (and to a lesser extent, Corey's) business tell. After a bit of haggling, both have a long pause to consider the seller's offer before agreeing to it. Sometimes the seller will pause to consider the bottom dollar offer the shop will pay. Whether they take it or pass is up to the seller.
  • Dumb Blonde:
    • Peaches is one of the few employees who gets some screen time besides Chumlee and the Harrisons. One episode centered around her constantly coming in late, with Rick and the Old Man giving her grief over it. This conversation sums it up well:
      Rick: Why haven't I fired you yet?
      Peaches: ...Because I'm pretty?
    • Some sellers come off across this in several ways. Many times, the seller either ignores the expert opinion, claims they could've gotten more money if they sold it somewhere else but instead opted to sell it to the Pawn Stars first, or does an equally idiotic action.
      • One lady brings in what she thinks is a rare key date quarter she has kept for nearly thirty years. The expert determines the coin is an altered counterfeit, and Rick tries to console her by saying she has a few bucks worth of silver in melt value. The woman muses that she'll just keep the coin and hopes it's worth $5 in the future, and in the parking lot, she grumbles over keeping a "worthless" coin for all that time. She ignores that fact that Rick has told her she still has some value to the coin (albeit minor, but still something more than a quarter she got it for) AND she won't be able to sell the coin cause it's a fake and it's only good to be melted down for its silver content.
      • A woman brings in a tricycle she claims was in her family for generations. Rick and the Old Man scrutinize the trike, and determine there are too many things wrong with the trike that make the two not comfortable purchasing it (one tip-off is the pedals spin quite freely and don't move the wheel). They think the trike is actually a decorator's piece of recent vintage that somehow got stuck with the story that it was some family heirloom passed down the generations. Cue standard jerkass post commentary by the woman who thinks Rick is an idiot and a jerk for not buying it despite the evidence presented to her.
      • Woman brings in two rare banknotes. She is confident that she'll get her asking price since she did all the research and got estimates beforehand. When Corey brings in the expert and he gives his opinion on value, it cuts to her dismissing the expert's opinion and offering her "expert" opinion on the matter.
      • When a woman brings in a cigar advertisement, she is adamant about getting $5,000 for it, stating that she did the research on the item. Corey's "lowball" offer and her jerkass attitude killed the negotiations, and one has to wonder: if she did the research, why did she bring it to a pawn shop instead of seeking out a collector or other venue to net more money?
      • A guy brings in some Green Bay Packers memorabilia. He is unable to sell it to the shop and in the post commentary, he remarks that he could sell it for more money in Green Bay. Given he was trying to sell it to a Pawn Shop that needs to make a profit, one has to wonder why he didn't take the direct route to Green Bay first.
      • Woman brings in a "1652" Pine Tree Shilling from Massachusetts. The coin was graded with the notation that the coin is damaged. Rick explains to the woman that when a coin is determined to be damaged, it drops the price significantly. The woman doesn't accept Rick's offer, and while acknowledging Rick's expertise, she considers the offer an insult.
      • One guy brought in an old book, so Rick brings in Rebecca, his rare book expert. The first thing she says is the perfectly reasonable "Well, the first thing, the book has been rebound (had a new cover put on) that's going to affect the value". She doesn't even finish her sentence before the idiot cuts in "Well, that's your opinion." Cue the music stopping dead, Rebecca looking at him with her best "Are you kidding me?" face, and Rick looking like he wants to smack the guy. Rebecca even scolds him: "I'm an appraiser, so yes, you're bringing me in for my opinion." Later, when Rick makes an offer that's lower than the guy wants, Rick asks "Would you just pull out $8400 for a book?" the guy responds "I would if it was a first edition Nintendo Power!" totally without irony.

    E-F 
  • Early-Installment Weirdness:
    • Go look up the video pitch Rick made and submitted to History as the original show idea. It shows all three of the family members smoking like chimneys, footage of the guns kept under the counters with Corey announcing "Try to rob my shop and I will shoot you", and tried to play up the drama of people flipping out and actually having to be thrown out of the shop. History clearly decided to do a bit of a Retool to make it a little more low-key and (slightly) more family-friendly. Oddly enough, this is the angle Hardcore Pawn would eventually take.
    • Another pitch focuses more on people affected by the economy who're coming in to pawn. This one lacks Chumlee, but features Rick's niece and a night shift pawnbroker named Charles Ingalls, who mans a drive-thru-style pawn window. Ingalls is later mentioned during the fifth season, when the decision is made to hire people for the night shift, and the pawn window is seen when Chumlee is training a new employee on the shift with him.
    • The early episodes of the show itself also count. The very first episode features a guy pawning his table saw for $4,000, and we actually see Rick's moving crew come out to the guy's house and load the saw onto the truck. Another episode featured a couple who actually wanted to buy something, namely the "death clock" that Rick's shown polishing in the opening credits and that he keeps in one of the main display cases behind the front counter. Another bizarre inversion featured a customer in the role of Mr. Exposition when he gave Rick the lowdown on some of the jewelry he was selling. Rick even Lampshades how unusual this is, since he's usually the one giving customers the background on a given item.
    • Not an early installment, but a 2003 episode of Insomniac with Dave Atell featured Rick and the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop before Pawn Stars aired in 2009.
    • Ron Dale shows up to sell a Coke machine in one episode... which is then taken back to Rick to be restored.
  • End of the World as We Know It: Once, two keys came in that the seller claimed was Russian nuclear launch keys, and had called them the keys to the end of the world. Subverted, they were the launch keys to space rockets. Still cool, not nearly as dangerous.
  • Epic Fail: Rarely, Rick and the others will lose money on a deal.
    • Rick bought a Austin Healey car for $5000. The car didn't start, and he figured it just needed a battery and/or a tune-up. It cost over $6000 to fix. Rick's expert said it would be worth about $8000 when fixed. To add insult to injury, Rick bought the car right after it broke down. The guy who sold it to him had actually used it to drive down to the pawn shop.
    • Chumlee once bought a fake Gibson mandolin for $1500 without getting it appraised first, and was told by an expert that it was worth no more than $100.
    • To say nothing about when Chumlee and Corey bought a $38,000 hot air balloon. You could almost see Rick's face red with rage throughout the rest of the episode; he even ordered them to do something he never asked before — call the customer up and get his money back. Naturally, that didn't happen, and they were stuck giving rides to new customers to try and recoup their losses.
    • Rick bought a copy of Bob Dylan's Self Portrait on vinyl with the intention of selling it for $75. But he realized Bob Dylan was in town doing a concert, and if he could get the record signed it would be far more valuable. Only he gave that particular duty to Chumlee. Big Hoss immediately objected, "You've got 40 other employees who won't screw this up; why are you giving this to Chumlee?" Incredibly, Chumlee actually finds Bob Dylan out on the Vegas Strip, and gets him to sign it. They allow you to think Chumlee's actually gonna do something right for once, but then: "How do you want it signed?" "Have it say, 'To Chumlee.'" Face Palm. Rick was so pissed at him he just told Chumlee to keep it. Chumlee never even realized Rick was angry at him. "Cool, I've got my own signed Bob Dylan album."
      • The cynical viewer may consider the odds of just finding Dylan in town the way Chumlee did and suspect that this episode was, if not fully scripted, at least pointed in a direction to become a particularly hilarious Epic Fail. Chumlee claims that he really did find Dylan walking around Las Vegas, and had no idea how hard he is to track down. However, Dylan doesn't do autograph signings and does not allow photographers into his shows, so it is likely the production team still had something to do with the appearance.
      • The above was basically confirmed when Chumlee was on the Tonight Show, he said Bob Dylan was a fan, and was willing to appear on camera for them.
    • Rick bought an antique ball and chain and made the mistake of having Chumlee put it in a case. Chumlee accidentally drops it on the glass counter top, smashing the counter AND possibly damaging the jewelry inside. This was in addition to an already bad day. Later Corey is set to deliver an antique chair. He forgets to put the tailgate off after the Old Man gives him the directions. The chair falls off and breaks beyond repair.
      • Like the Bob Dylan story above, the potty chair and the ball-and-chain stories appear to have been clearly scripted.
    • Rick bought a collection of 175 custom wine decanters for $600. He soon gets buyer's remorse when he realizes just how much time he's going to need to pack up, catalogue and sell each item. The Old Man, predictably, is not amused.
    • Rick bought a perpetual motion Atmos clock that wasn't running, before getting it appraised. Unfortunately, when he gets a clock expert to look at it, the expert points out that the mechanisms for these clocks are pretty fragile. Rick's clock was damaged and would never run again, meaning that it was just a very expensive paperweight. Chances are that the next thing Rick bought after that was a bottle of Pepto-Bismol.
    • A happier subversion came when Corey bought a top of the line 1984 Chris Craft boat for $16,500. Rick was pissed, because boats tend to be expensive money pits that are more trouble than they're worth. Rick and Corey have a shouting argument over it, and Corey takes the boat to get repaired and refinished. It costs an additional $4,000 to fix. In the show's first Christmas episode, Corey mentions that he sold the boat for $22,000 at a $1,500 profit, but the Old Man points out that he got really lucky on that one.
    • Rick himself dodged a major bullet when he bought a junked-up helicopter for $10,000. The Old Man has a coronary when he finds out, and then has another one right afterward when he learns it'll cost $100,000 to fully restore. Fortunately, the helicopter looks absolutely gorgeous when it's finally repaired, and they'll be able to sell it for about $160,000. The Old Man goes up in the helicopter's maiden flight, and finally admits that this was a good idea.
      • Double Subverted by Rick when he buys a beat up mini-submarine on a whim. The Old Man is rather unhappy, since not only are they in the middle of the desert state of Nevada, but the sub needs repairs. It seems like Rick's dodged a bullet, since he can sell the submarine for a very nice profit if he scraps it for parts. Unfortunately, the 2013 Christmas special reveals that the submarine was confiscated by the police because it was reported stolen.
    • Corey bought an antique 1940s Belgian motorcycle for $4,000. The bike is so rare that he'll probably be able to sell it at a huge profit, right? Not so fast - as Rick points out, there are parts missing, and their car restoration guy says that replacement parts are so rare they'd probably cost as much as $25,000 to restore the bike. Naturally, Rick is pretty irritated. They end up taking the bike to sell at auction, which Rick hates doing because the entry fees and the auctioneer's cut will eat into his profit margin. The bike would have to sell for at least $5,200 for Corey to be able to profit on it, and in the end it's sold for over $7,000. Rick finally admits that it was a good buy and says he's proud of Corey, but once again it's clear that the Harrisons dodged a major bullet.
    • Another bullet was dodged when Rick bought a maritime navigational clock that didn't seem to be running. He decided to take a chance even though it seemed like it was broken, and called in a clock expert to see what it would cost to fix. The clock expert found that the clock was actually working fine, but its mechanisms were being held in place by special cork restraints so it wouldn't start ticking until the operator wanted it to. After removing the restraints, the clock starts up and is working fine. Rick expresses his relief that it wouldn't cost anything to fix the clock, and then the expert demands fifty bucks for getting it started.
    • The episode that served as a lead in to the Counting Cars premiere had Rick determined to buy a ridiculously run down 1968 Ford Mustang GT (it was the same type of car used by Steve McQueen in Bullitt, and Rick is a huge McQueen fan). Corey and the Old Man repeatedly tell him what a bad idea it is, but Rick ultimately buys it for $12,500. Sure enough, the Counting Cars premiere revealed that the interior was a complete disaster, costing over 22 grand, meaning Rick just used up $32,500. Thankfully, the Count confirms that the restored car is worth over 50 grand.
    • On the Pawn Stars section of the History Television website, the boys describe their worst money losses. The Old Man took a $25,000-$30,000 bath when he spent a fortune on cubic zirconia, which he mistook for diamonds; Corey spent $4,000 on six fake Rolex watches in his first week of working the night shift at the store; and Rick laid out $40,000 for a pair of diamond earrings that were then confiscated by the police when it turned out they were stolen.
    • It happened off camera, but when negotiating with a customer who was trying to sell him a painting, Rick recounts how he bought a collection of Andy Warhol paintings that ended up selling for about half of what he paid for them.
    • Rick bought a book signed by baseball great "Shoeless" Joe Jackson for $13,000 without having the signature appraised. Jackson was illiterate, and so there are very few signatures that are genuinely his. Rick takes the book to an antique book expert, who told him that the book is worth about $50 by itself, and she doubted the signature. However, his signature was so variable that other experts might be able to confirm it. So, he sent it away to an expert in sports signatures... who confirmed that it was definitely fake.
    • One episode showed that the graveyard shift (which was being run by Chumlee) spent $600 on a "Salvador Dali" silver globe thing. Without paperwork or having it checked out. Chum takes it to an expert, only to be told it is an obvious fake, being completely worthless. Chum then tried to test if it was silver. Not only was it not silver, it was hollow.
    • In one episode, Rick spends a small fortune on what he believes is a genuine piece of Native American baby clothing, only to have his expert tell him it's worthless junk made for the tourist trade. The next episode, Chumlee loses a bit of money on a bad deal; Rick fails to get upset, perhaps because it wasn't near the mistake he'd just made.
    • In one prank battle between Corey and Chum, Corey attached a air horn to a seat he was trying to trick Chum to sit in. Not only did Chumlee spot the obvious prank, the Old Man showed that sitting in the seat didn't even set the air horn off.
    • In a rather meta example, one screen caption gave the dates for World War I as being from 1915-1919. And this is on the History Channel! Furthermore, it stated that WWI was the last war where horses were used in battle, when horse artillery and cavalry were used on the Eastern Front in World War II, and have even been used for patrols during the current war in Aghanistan.
    • One seller brought in a framed document signed by Napoleon Bonaparte to commemorate a battle the French army had won. Corey takes a quick inspection and determines that the signature is authentic, and promptly buys it for a few thousand dollars. He brags about his purchase, and the Old Man and Rick ask him if he had it appraised first by an expert. Despite Corey's insistence that it was real, he reluctantly takes it to a local French History professor at a nearby college. The professor tells him that it isn't real. It wasn't signed by Napoleon, but rather one of his aide-de-camps whose job was to expertly forge Napoleon's name in order to make the documents and hand them out to the various generals and high ranking officers of the army as thanks for their service. The actual value of the document was almost nothing more than the frame it was put in. Corey returned to the shop and threw it in the trash.
    • One that counts both for the seller, recurring Jerkass customer Rob, and Corey. Rob tries to sell his gun for $13,000 but it's appraised at $8,500. Corey offers him the full amount, leaving no chance of a profit. When Rob turns it down, Corey offers him $9,000, which is five hundred dollars more than it's worth. Even for Corey, it's a dumb move, but luckily Rob holds an even bigger Idiot Ball and turns it down.
  • Everyone Has Standards: Rick always buys as low as he can, but also always makes sure that the customer makes an informed decision.
    • One notable instance: A woman brings in a jeweled brooch in the shape of a spider, hoping to get $2,000 for it. Rick refuses that price... because "I have a conscience". Unbeknownst to the woman, the brooch is an authentic Faberge piece for which he offers her $15,000. She tries to haggle him up to $17,000. "This is why I hate having a conscience".
    • Invoked again when Rick is on his way to Sturgis during the "History Channel Goes to Sturgis" crossover episodes where Rick drops into an antique store and notices an old Samurai Helmet in the store's inventory. He informs the store owner that the helmet is grossly under priced and advised him of the fair market value of the helmet. Buying it is another matter entirely...
    • In another instance, a woman came into the shop with a classic Japanese musical monkey toy in mint condition. She did not know what it was worth, and was ready to sell it for $100. The Old Man insists on giving her $150 because he doesn't want her to be taken advantage of.
    • Rick also mentions at one point that he dislikes everything about ivory and tries to avoid buying it. It helps the "ivory" was fraudulent.
    • Rick really dislikes buying Nazi items, even when they could be profitable (although he mentions it when the item in question most likely wasn't).
    • In an interview, Rick was asked to appraise O.J. Simpson's sports trophies (the very trophies Simpson went to prison for trying to steal). He did so, at a low value, but also admitted he wouldn't want them in his shop for any reason.
      • Similarly, one seller wanted to sell a championship ring from the 2004 World Series, owned by a former player from the Boston Red Sox. He acquired the ring because his lawyer friend of his gave it to him, who was given the ring directly by the player himself. The catch is: not only was the player a 2nd string benchwarmer of whom nobody had heard, but he was in prison at the time of filming for burglary and sexual assault. Rick refused to buy it on those two combined factors alone.
  • Everyone Is Armed: Lampshaded heavily in the pitch reel for the show, but downplayed with the actual series. The only times you see staff armed is either the security guards and Rick pulling out his gun to see if a seller's fake books really could've held guns as he claimed.
    • The episode with the fake books violates so many of the Gun Safety rules that are very rigorously adhered to by Rick that one must wonder if the entire segment was staged (or for those who believe everything about the show is staged, if this segment was even more staged than normal). Rick produces his gun from behind his back and proceeds to insert it in the hollowed out space in the book without even bothering to unload it or otherwise safe the pistol. The hammer appears to be in a cocked position, his finger is way too close to the trigger, and he points the barrel directly in front of him while putting it in the book, with both the customer and a crowded store in the line of fire. You have to wonder if the gun was loaded or even real, as in all other instances regarding guns Rick is shown to be an absolute perfectionist when it comes to gun safety.
  • Evil Is Cool: invoked Items belonging to criminals and other infamous people can be worth a lot of money. If the person is easy to romanticize, like a Wild West outlaw or a Las Vegas mobster, then it can be worth picking up. Items belonging to people who are deemed to have gone too damn far, such as embezzlers, sports stars convicted of rape or armed robbery, and murderous dictators like Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler are things that the Harrisons typically do not want in their shop.
    • Several episodes have made it clear that while there is a thriving market for WWII memorabilia and they will buy these items if they believe that it will turn a profit, anything that has a swastika or an SS emblem is completely off the table. It doesn't matter how valuable it may be or what great price they can get it for, neither Rick nor the Old Man will even consider having it in the store. Although they did buy a matchstick packet with Nazis on it because it was American made Nazi mockery.
  • Evil Laugh: Chumlee, of all people, when the Old Man notices Chumlee's face on a stack of $100 bills in the background of his portrait.
  • Expository Theme Tune: I'm Rick Harrison, and this is my pawn shop. I work here with my Old Man and my son, Big Hoss. Everything in here has a price, and everything in here has a story. If there's one thing I've learned after twenty-one years, it's that you never know what's going to come through that door.
  • Extreme Omnivore: The Old Man comes across as one due to the fact he enjoys whatever Lethal Chef Chumlee comes up with.
  • Eyes Always Shut: The Old Man...mostly. Chumlee even brings this up when discussing a collection of prosthetic eyeballs someone tries to sell:
    Old Man: Chumlee, what color are my eyes?
    Chumlee: I can't tell, they're always closed.
    (Old Man opens his eyes unusually [for him] wide)
    Chumlee: Oh; they're blue.
    • A picture shown of him when he was young and in the Navy showed even then his eyes were always like that.
  • The Face: Some customers are so good at talking up their items, Rick jokingly offers them a job at the pawn shop.
  • Face Palm: The Old Man does these on a regular basis. Rick occasionally does them too, although usually more out of astonishment than frustration.
  • Failed a Spot Check: Some customers are convinced by extremely obvious fakes, such as a woman who brought in a tricycle that had a pedal disconnected from the wheel, or a guy who brought in a "French" statue that had "Made in the USA" stamped straight on the item. Some of these people still don't believe the pawn shop when they say it is fake, like the guy who was convinced he'd bought a hat that belonged to John Wayne because the hat had a tag that said "Duke" on it.
  • Family Business: Gold and Silver Pawnshop is a triple generation business. One day Corey is going inherit the whole thing, and this causes his dad ulcers because Rick doesn't think he can handle it.
  • Follow the Leader:
    • The Discovery Channel has a show titled Auction Kings, which focuses around an auction house that sells a number of odd and quirky items...
    • Science Channel (owned by Discovery, mind you) has Oddities, which focuses on a curio & antique shop (this one was actually created by a couple of the producers for Pawn Stars, no less).
    • Pawn Queens on TLC is, oddly, about an antique store.
    • See also, Hardcore Pawn on True TV.
    • Possibly Storage Wars.
    • See Dueling Shows above as well.
  • Flat Joy: The Old Man says the following completely deadpan: "I'm so damn happy, I might just crack a smile today."
  • Funny Background Event: When Corey and Chumlee buy the bat'leth (Klingon sword), the seller mentions they could give it to Antoine to use for security. Antoine, standing in the background, just shakes his head and frowns.
  • Fun with Acronyms: Due to the expense of repairing boats, Rick has claimed that "BOAT" actually stands for "Bust Out Another Thousand."

    G-K 
  • Gargle Blaster: One customer comes in looking to sell a bottle of "medicinal" prohibition-era alcohol. He says his friend found two such bottles in his attic, gave him one to pay back a debt and drank the other one.
  • Gatling Good: Rick tried to buy an original in one episode, but he and the seller couldn't meet on the price. In another, the same seller offers to sell him a 37mm Hotchkiss revolving cannon firing a one pound shell. They couldn't make a deal on this, either.
  • Genius Ditz: Rick buys a radio-controlled car for cheap because it's broken and won't run. He needs to get it fixed, and Chumlee immediately volunteers for the job. Believe it or not, Chumlee actually succeeds, and Rick pays him $50 for getting the car running. The episode ends with Rick playing with the car with a big shit-eating grin on his face.
  • Grail in the Garbage: Several customers have brought in items that turn out to be worth far more than they ever would have guessed:
    • One man who brought in a 17th-century multipurpose German sundial and compass made out of ivory was hoping to pawn it for $500, but the expert Rick called in said that it was worth $7,000. He eventually decides to sell it to Rick for $4,500, or about nine times what he initially hoped to get.
    • In two episodes, two items that both happen to be associated with Paul Revere were appraised well into the five-digit range. You could just about see their jaws literally drop. One of them, the owner of a Revolutionary War-era government bond, was so floored he actually considered changing his mind and saving it for an auction house even after Rick put up big bucks because "he had to have it." The kid was originally hoping to trade it for an electric guitar, but he was hesitant about accepting Rick's $12,000 offer until Rick offered to throw in the guitar the kid wanted as well. The way the kid's face lit up when Rick made that offer as well had to be seen to be believed.
    • A man once walked into the shop with a bar of gold he got from his grandfather, which Rick jokingly asked if the man's grandfather got from a sunken ship. The man mentioned his grandfather had been to the Caribbean, but he had no knowledge if he'd done any diving. When the expert appraised it, he confirmed it was very old and had been on a sunken ship due to the presence of coral on it, and was worth over $48,000.
    • One man brings in a medallion depicting the Resolution and Adventure, two ships used by Captain James Cook during his voyages in the 18th century, and hopes to get $50 for it. An expert confirms that the medallion is one of a batch made in 1772 that Cook handed out to inhabitants of the islands he visited, and he appraises it at between $7,500 and $8,500. Rick ends up buying it for $5,000.
    • A fair amount of sellers mention they bought various items at yard sales, (including fine art in one case) selling them for MUCH more than they paid for.
    • The seller who had a copy of the first edition of Rolling Stone that they found in a desk drawer. They sold it for $300 (Corey noted he would need to frame it).
  • Greedy Jew: The grandson of an Israeli Diplomat comes into the shop with a clock presented to his relative by President Richard Nixon. After being told the clock is ruined by corrosion in the battery compartment and rendering it a mere conversation piece, Rick tells him he's only willing to spend $500 due to the damage. When he adds that if the clock was in better condition it would be worth twice the offer he was making, the guy promptly asks for $1200.
  • Hidden Depths: Chumlee has his moments, especially considering he gets ragged on constantly by the rest of the staff.
    • At one point, Chumlee goes to attend a poetry reading, and even recites some lines to a disbelieving Hoss. It could be argued that he was doing this to pick up girls - he had two of them with him.
      • When someone comes in selling a 1st Edition of Walden, Chumlee correctly summarizes the plot, flooring Hoss with what he knows ("In between ditching class, you read a book?"). Chum even admits it's one of his favorite books.
      • An art dealer friend of Rick's brought in a painting of John Lennon by speed painter Denny Dent. As Rick and the art dealer are discussing Dent's accomplishments and how they once saw him paint, Chumlee jumps in by pointing out how Bill Clinton invited Dent to paint him at the White House. Rick is rather surprised, and admits that he didn't know that.
      • When Chum gets burned by the others about being on the team for a trivia night at a local bar, he gets even by being downright evil; he invites all of the experts that they use to appraise stuff and then proceeds to sweep the entire trivia.
    • Rick himself never even graduated the tenth grade, spent much of his teenage years running bootleg merchandise and doing drugs, and now owns a pawn shop, a profession many consider to be seedy. He's also a math genius and an avid student of history and physics.
  • Hide Your Pregnancy: They don't really try to hide it so much as not call attention to it or have anyone comment on it, but there are several episodes where it's clear that book expert Rebecca is pregnant.
  • Humiliating Wager: In an early episode, Corey makes a wager with the Old Man that he can sell a Rolex Watch for more than $4,800. If he succeeds, the Old Man will have to come to work wearing Ed Hardy pants, but if he fails, he'll have to come to work wearing a suit and tie. Corey wins the wager.
    • A later episode has Chumlee buy a barong knife from the Philippine-American War for $600. Corey thinks it was a bad purchase. They make a bet: If the knife appraises for less than $600, Chumlee has to cut off his ponytail with the knife. If it goes for more, Corey has to walk Chum's chihuahua in a tutu. Corey lost this time.
  • Hypocritical Humor:
    • The Old Man when counting the money from the swear jar: "Holy *bleep*, this is a lotta swearin'."
      • From the same episode, when the swear jar is first implemented:
    Old Man: Every time I turn around, somebody's cussin'. It's like a damn saloon.
    • Rick mocking Chumlee for his weight gain as recounted under Does This Remind You of Anything? above, even though Rick himself could easily pass for a real-life version of Homer Simpson.
    • Rick's given Corey and Chumlee grief for buying things without getting them appraised, but he ended up making the same mistake when he bought a Native American vest for $1,300. He got it appraised after he'd already bought it, and the expert pointed out that it was a replica made for the tourist trade. You could practically see the steam coming out of the Old Man's ears when he found out.
    • The Old Man can give Rick, Corey, and Chumlee grief about every dollar they may lose and forces them to pay back the money, but when he makes a mistake (such as overpaying for an old slot machine), he refuses to accept his mistake and pay back the money.
  • I Can't Believe I'm Saying This: "The Count," who appraises vehicles when Rick might want to buy them, tells him to "pass" on a limo owned by Jackie Gleason. (It turned out that there was some barely noticeable rust damage on the car that would have raised the total cost too high after repairs were factored in.)
  • I'm Going to Hell for This: Someone comes in trying to sell a relicnote  invoked from St. Elizabeth Ann Seton. The certificate of authenticity is in Latin, so in comes a specialist who can translate it. The long and the short of the translation: "Do not sell or market this." note 
    Rick: So, if I sell this, I'm going to hell...?
    Specialist: Pretty much.
    Old Man: You're going to hell anyway.
  • I Need a Freaking Drink: When Rick and Corey find an original Peter Lik panorama, "Beyond Paradise":
    Rick: (as he and Corey stare at the photograph) So, does it move you?
    Corey: No, but it makes me wanna have a beer. Under that umbrella.
  • I Need to Go Iron My Dog:
    • One episode features Chumlee trying to recruit Rick and Corey to help him run his "First Annual Garage Sale".
    Rick: I need to... change the oil... in... my lawn mower. (with a completely straight face)
    • Corey has an equally ridiculous task to accomplish. None of these three is interested in SR's plans of going to Ely to ride the Nevada Northern RR.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills:
    • Rick is a VERY good shot. He placed five shots within a target with an over one hundred year old gun while the other guys failed to place more than three with thirty through FIFTY shots with modern firearms, hit a silver dollar from 50 meters, and hit 7 clay pigeons in a row while everybody else only managed to hit once (though they were using tactical shotguns, and Rick was using an actual trap shooting gun).
    • Chumlee manages to hit a coffee cup at fifty feet using a novelty handheld cannon with no sights, a smoothbore barrel, and a burning fuse instead of a trigger. Everyone else is completely stunned.
  • Insane Troll Logic: Used frequently by customers, usually arguing that, for some reason, the store should buy their item for much, much more than its market value:
    • Any customer that tries to argue Rick into increasing the offer for an item purely because of the customer's emotional attachment to it. Newsflash, people: if it meant so much to you that the sentiment alone should be worth extra money, you wouldn't be in a pawn shop selling it to a stranger.
    • A guy brings in a bottle of old wine to sell. Turns out, the Obstructive Bureaucracy had recently forbidden Gold and Silver Pawn from buying alcoholic beverages, even for collectible reasons, by requiring a liquor license to buy and sell alcoholic items. The guy then tries to get Rick to break the law by buying his wine as a "private citizen in the back of the shop." Rick doesn't buy it, even after the Old Man tells the guy he's not willing to take the risk and jeopardize the shop over a bottle of wine. Note that the guy is trying to convince Rick to do an illegal under-the-table deal... on camera. While filming Rick's show. His nationally-televised show that's viewed by millions of people every week.
    • A guy wants to sell his Impala (a coupe; not the Jerkass below, who stuffed a big motor into a station wagon) to Rick and Corey. His asking price is too high, and Rick notes that for half his asking price, he could get a convertible version with a bigger engine. Corey's price doesn't jibe with the seller, and both before and after parting ways, the seller rambles on about how the duo tried to rip him off and that he managed to outwit them.
  • The Intern: The shop hires a college student named Lilly. Subverted when her internship eventually ends and the Harrisons give her a great performance review and a part-time job.
  • It Will Never Catch On: Rick had apparently been shopping the idea for Pawn Stars around for a few years before History Television decided to take a chance on it. It's now one of the highest-rated shows they have.
  • Jack of All Trades: The Harrisons know just enough about a variety of fields to be able to appraise most items themselves. When they're offered more unusual, specific things, they call in experts with more specialized knowledge in fields ranging from coin collecting to Western memorabilia to historical documents and pretty much everything in between. This is usually the standard of pawnshops in general, since most of them usually appraise items onsite rather than have an expert come in.
    • Sometimes they'll even ask each other for help. Corey asked Chumlee to verify a pair of Air Jordan basketball shoes, and also had Rick take a look at the Pete Rose baseball cards he was offered. Rick himself got one of his employees, a NASCAR fanatic, to assess the value of a driver's fire suit that one customer was trying to sell.
    • Basically, the breakdown goes something like this: the Old Man knows coins, militaria, Native American art, and old toys. Rick knows sports memorabilia, art, weaponry, and historical items. Hoss knows motorcycles, cars, and electronics. Chumlee knows pop culture iconic items from The '80s and The '90s. The specialists are then called in for the more rare or heavily-faked versions of these items.
    • The Gold and Silver Pawn Shop itself is a Jack Of All Trades. Several of the experts the Harrisons call in own their own shops and businesses that sell the type of merchandise that they specialize in, such as classic toys, historical documents, Native American artifacts or what have you. The Gold and Silver Pawn Shop deals in all these things and more.
  • Jerkass: Rick can sometimes come off as one during deals, though it may just run through the family. Rick is a hard-nosed businessman, but is still usually quite respectful. On the other hand the Old Man will often drop his original bid during a barter session just because he finds the customer's asking price (or the customer themselves) annoying.
    • Some of the sellers can come across this way too. Basically, any seller that acts like Rick is not only obligated to buy whatever they want to sell him, but to buy it for the price they'd like. Ditto for sellers who question the expert's (or even the shop's) opinion.
    • It seems that most of the Championship Rings brought into the shop has had a seller that is a jerkass. Or in one case, a jerkass-ette.
      • A guy insists on trying to sell a trainer's Super Bowl ring for $20,000 even after Rick pointed out to him that trainers' rings aren't worth nearly as much as the ones given to players or coaches.
      • With another Championship Ring, the guy is a bit hesitant in just getting the money and run. After being told by Corey that an expert verification could net him more money, the guy agrees to wait for the expert. Expert comes in, says the ring is a salesman sample and not worth as much as the real deal. The guy calls the expert a hack and slanders the store by saying not to bring rings to the shop.
      • A Cheerleader brings in a ring given out to the cheerleaders of the winning team, and comes in with grand plans to take a trip and fund several pet projects (including ironically enough, fund a rescue operation for a specific breed of dog). Corey's offer shoots down the grand plans due to the fact that the ring isn't as popular as an actual Championship Ring, yet the woman is headstrong and boastful enough to claim she will be able to get her asking price no matter the cost.
    • One guy in particular put an engine in his car that was way too big. His modifications turned off Rick and the Old Man from buying it due to the work it would take to make the car in proper working condition. The refusal sends the seller into a tirade about how Rick and the Old Man aren't "true car guys," and in a moment of sheer stupidity (or attempt to "show" what the duo are missing), he attempts (and fails) to do a burnout in front of a shocked and horrified Rick and Old Man.
    • A guy brought in a Perseus and Pegasus statue, and when Rick told him it was a reproduction (it said "made in the US" on it) and he didn't want to buy, the guy basically told him he was full of shit. The customer was such an ass, he almost got thrown out by the shop's resident bouncer.
    • Rick does buy guitars, as evidenced by the plethora of guitars that can be seen in the shop and in the warehouse. If it is a rare guitar with a good story, so much the better. However, one man brought in a rare guitar that was owned by a well-known gospel singer, but he wanted over $100,000 dollars for it. Rick naturally said he'd have to call his expert. The man immediately tried to stop him by saying that the guitar was so rare, so valuable, and so rarely seen that he was the expert, and the guitar was worth exactly what he said it was worth. Rick gives the guy a very plain you have got to be kidding me look, and calls the expert. The expert does confirm the guitar is authentic, but only worth about $25,000 retail. Rick doesn't even make the guy an offer, and the man leaves looking seriously pissed and offended.
    • A guy wanted to sell Rick a classic 1980 Datsun 280ZX 20th Anniversary Edition Coupe for $28,000. When he started the car, Rick claimed that something didn't sound right with the engine and asked Fat Back, the shop's house mechanic, to look at it. Fat Back confirmed Rick's suspicions, pointing out a number of problems that would need to be fixed, and recommended against buying the car. The customer was rather insulted, particularly when Rick offered him only $4,000 for the car, and sneered at Fat Back, asking him where he went to mechanic school. Needless to say, Rick didn't buy the car.
    • When having to yet again explain that he couldn't pay the highest-end retail price for what the customer wanted to sell or he wouldn't be able to make any money and keep his shop open, the guy smirked at Rick and said, "Well that's not my problem." Rick actually seemed flabbergasted by just how big of a dick thing that was to say, before responding, "Well, yeah, it is."
      • A seller manages to invoke the "It's not my problem" trope on the confession cam BEFORE he even got to the discussion of the item in question with Corey. Needless to say, the haggle over price doesn't quite go in favor of the seller.
    • One guy brought in what he claimed was a private poem written by Jimi Hendrix, which was just black marker on plain white paper, and claimed it was given to him by a family member who was a personal friend of Jimi. The expert explained that pretty much everything about the document screamed "fake" including the fact the handwriting looked nothing like Jimi's, but the owner sniffed he didn't need an expert to tell him it was fake, he knows it is real because his family lived it.
    • A guy brings in a salvage motor from a Porsche, and Rick brings in the Count to evaluate it. The owner scoffs at Count's evaluation of his observations that the engine shows obvious signs of being out in the elements unprotected, and could have possible unknown problems that means the engine could be ruined. The owner demands that Rick bring in a "real mechanic" to give a second opinion. Count is almost inches away from going ballistic on the guy but restrains himself, which impresses Rick.
    • One customer was unhappy when Rick and the expert he brought told him that his autographed bat was most likely fake. The expert pointed out that finding those particular autographs on the same bat was highly unlikely, they were in too good condition for their age, and the company that authenticated it had been shut down since it was caught manufacturing fake autographs. The customer basically told to the camera that he thought the expert was full of shit and questioned his professionalism.
    • A guy brings in a quilt full of celebrity signatures that have been embroidered on. After verification and the experts opinion, Rick is unable to come to a consensus on justifying in purchasing it. He passes on buying it, and in the closing narration, the seller faults Rick for not being able to sell and market the item as if he's at fault.
    • One guy wants to sell off his Pez collection. He goes in pretty much headstrong and immediately reacts to a good-natured crack from Chumlee in the negative. After some discussion, Corey makes an offer which angers the guy. He argues that they could sell the items on the internet easily and break even; Corey counters that not only he would be competing with other sellers, he doesn't want to just "break even." The guy furiously leaves the shop, and accuses the shop of being an insult to the Pez community and calling them something insulting.
    • Craig Gottlieb (the current weapons expert for the show) seems to run into a lot of jerkasses more than the other experts.
      • When Craig tells those gathered that two hunting rifles were built from multiple rifle sources, aged much more recently than what was thought to be, and were in valued much less that what was thought, the seller insults the expert by rudely remarking "Is that your snot nosed, crybaby opinion?" Needless to say, the seller doesn't sell his guns to Rick. The seller then says in the post-deal interview that he would like to hit Craig.
      • A guy brings in several big posters he claims are blueprints of the USS Maine. After Rick points out that they aren't blueprints due to them not having measurements and Craig thinking they were printed for another purpose that is completely different than what the guy was thinking, the guy violently disagrees with both Rick and Craig over the evaluation. In the post-deal interview, he vehemently thinks both Craig and Rick are idiots.
      • With another guy, Craig determines his medieval pikes are not only not from the time period he thinks they are, but were purely ornamental and were not used in combat. The seller went ballistic, going so far as to claim he's an expert himself and he knows his items well. Corey doesn't buy the items as a result.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
    • Generally speaking, the Old Man isn't really a bad guy; it's just that he frequently has good reason to be angry or annoyed. Like Rick, he is willing to make a larger offer than whatever a customer wants if the item is valuable enough, such as an animatronic cymbal-playing monkey; the woman selling it only asked $100, but the Old Man offered $150 for because it was worth a lot more than she realized. During the massive crossover episode with American Pickers and American Restoration, when Rick schemes to give him a restored 1957 Chevy, the Old Man does note for the camera that "Rick is a good son." He also may give Chumlee a lot of grief, but nevertheless admits in one episode that he loves him like a son.
    • On one episode of Pawnography, a player reaches the final round with $300 and a zombie apocalypse survival van at stake. He's a military veteran who's served multiple tours of duty overseas as a bomb disposal expert. He and Rick haggle back and forth over an offer to get him to quit the game, and Rick finally thanks him for his service and offers $300...and the van. It was the only time that Rick just threw up his hands and let the player have the big prize.
  • Katanas Are Just Better:
    • Averted for the most part. In one episode, Chumlee manages to sell a prop katana that was used in Kill Bill, and there are several in a case in the background.
    • When faced with the possibility of buying a World War II Japanese NCO's sword, Rick doesn't say it's better, but he does note that American soldiers in that war actually had to be taught to defend against katanas.
    • Corey gets in on the act by buying an old-looking katana from a repeat (problematic)note  customer without getting it checked out first. note  Corey buys it for $1,500 and later learns from an expert that it can be sold for $3,500 as-is, or for $15,000 once it's been restored. Katanas Are Just Better indeed. Corey also manages to talk the seller into lowering his asking price by pointing out that the shop already has five katanas on display.
    • One of the shop's YouTube videos has Rick showing off a katana, as well as explaining some of the finer details of valuing such an item.
    • In an advertisement for the show, Rick is showing off one of his antique katanas and notes that if he took it to Japan, it would be confiscated as a national treasure.
    • While looking over a customer's katana, the expert was able to identify exactly which blacksmith from the Edo period had forged the blade and when. In addition to the blacksmith's specific engraving inside the hilt, there was also an official Imperial symbol of the Edo government on the other side. The expert pointed that that if any commoner was found in possession of an item bearing that official symbol, they and their entire family would be executed. That sword was the real deal, and worth some serious cash.
  • Kayfabe: The show keeps up the illusion that the main cast continues to work the shop as usual. As Rick points out in his book, however, pawning is a matter of privacy and confidentiality, as much as if he were a lawyer. Since they can't guarantee customers' privacy when talking to one of them due to people constantly snapping pictures and crowding close to watch, Rick, the Old Man, Corey, and Chumlee have to stay in the back offices and only come out to film segments with people who have agreed to waive their confidentiality, or to shake hands and have pictures taken.
    • Chumlee also plays up his Fat Idiot characterization for the camera - in the behind-the-scenes videos, he's serious and competent.
  • Know When to Fold 'Em: Rick and his customers are sometimes confronted by this when they can't agree on a price. Either Rick draws a line in the sand and refuses to go any higher, or the customer has to decide whether to accept Rick's final offer or simply break off the discussion and just keep the item.

    L-P 
  • A Lady on Each Arm: In one episode, Corey is not pleased about having to work the night shift. Chumlee drops by on the way to a poetry reading, bringing his buddy a submarine sandwich to get him through the night, and has this trope in full force. Corey doesn't even seem surprised.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Though we don't see it happen, more than a few of the above-mentioned jerks who groused and snarled and finally accepted a fairly generous price for their items then announced something along the lines of "Now it's off to the blackjack tables!" Considering the odds of actually winning or even breaking even, a lot of that money isn't going home with them.
  • Lethal Chef:
    • When Rick buys a glass decanter than can be used to store and pour four separate drinks at once, Chumlee uses it to try and brew his own homemade alcoholic beverage. He gets the other guys to try it, and they all (except the Old Man, who could handle the stuff) think it's disgusting, although Chum himself still enjoys it.
    • Chumlee had more luck with a coffeemaker that Corey later bought. The Old Man actually really enjoyed the coffee Chumlee served him. Everyone else, though they enjoyed it at first, spits it out in disgust when they find out exactly what it was that they drank. note 
    • Chumlee tried his luck with making his own wine in another episode. Everyone hated it — except the Old Man.
    • Corey and Chumlee purchased a turn-of-the-century waffle iron. When Rick couldn't close a deal on a very rare cannon he wanted, Chumlee cooked up some waffles. The waffles ended up a little softer than usual, which Rick points out (Chumlee added too much water to the mix), but once again, the Old Man liked them.
    • Averted when Chumlee brews his own beer. Despite the appearance of Chum going way off the directions, the guys admit that it's a pretty good drink. Whether he succeeded in his intention of making it a no-carb beer is another matter, however.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: In one episode, Big Hoss buys a classic Harley-Davidson motorcycle for $7,000. Chumlee falls in love with the bike, and asks to be put on the company payment plan so he can buy it himself. The Old Man refuses to do it unless Chumlee can come up with a $3,000 down payment. We then see a series of clips that shows Chumlee working hard and selling items left and right, including the previously mentioned Kill Bill katana, using the money he gets on commission for the down payment. The Old Man even Lampshades the fact that Chumlee can be a perfectly good salesman when he puts his mind to it, but that he rarely has much focus.
  • Licensed Game:
    • There's a Pawn Stars Facebook game.
    • And a trivia game (general trivia mostly, with a few show-specific questions; no longer available).
  • Like Father, Like Son: Present with all three generations of Harrisons. Rick has inherited the Old Man's occasional willingness to offer customers higher prices than what they were asking for, while Corey has begun using his father's Catchphrase of only wanting something if he can get it "for the right price." All three of them are also master Deadpan Snarkers.
  • Loophole Abuse:
    • One of Rick's customers would take $95,000 for a car, but ONLY if it was in gold. The shop was prohibited by law from directly trading merchandise for gold. Rick made the deal and handed over $95,000 cash, which the customer immediately used to buy the gold.
    • Another abuse of loopholes comes from the government's restrictions on firearms sales. Only licensed dealers can sell guns made after 1898, but guns made before that are considered antiques and therefore legal for pawn shops to buy. This applies to any kind of gun made before that date, including fully restored and functioning gatling guns from the American Civil War or gatling cannons from the Spanish-American War. Rick even Lampshades the fact that the government doesn't consider them restrictable firearms. He failed to buy either of the gatling weapons, but that was only because he and the seller couldn't come to an agreement, not because of any regulations on hand-cranked Gatling guns.
  • Male Gaze: The brief montage of customers perusing the shop that is shown between scenes often shows pretty female customers. Ones that are particularly buxom and/or wearing clothes with low necklines usually have the camera aiming right at their assets.
  • Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: In one of the few instances of pawning that we actually see on the show, a Native American guy pawns an artifact that he claims brings peace and harmony to its surroundings. Although he tells the camera crew that he doesn't think the Harrisons are taking him seriously, they still accept the artifact and Rick hangs it in the back office near the Old Man's desk. Later in the episode, when Corey spends $200 on a fake Coke sign, Rick merely accepts it as a lesson learned and tells Corey to make sure it doesn't happen again. After the Native guy pays Rick back and takes back his artifact, Corey, Rick and the Old Man eventually get into an angry shouting match.
  • Meaningful Name: The Old Man named the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop from his love of precious metals. He also notes that there's a reason it's called the Gold and Silver, and not the Copper and Lead... but since copper was trading at over $3.00 per pound, he'd probably pay for copper, too.
  • Merchandise-Driven: Needless to say, our heroes have played up this trope for all it's worth. You can buy everything from T-shirts to bobblehead dolls to DVDs. One shirt in particular advocates Chumlee for President.
  • The Millstone: Chumlee, so very much. One Eyecatch reveals that he once broke a $15,000 Bass violin. He's gotten more competent as the show has gone on, though.
  • Mind Screw: A customer brings in a copy of Alice in Wonderland that was illustrated by Salvador Dalí. The illustrations are predictably bizarre, and make Wonderland look like a warped Dream Land. Alice herself is little more than a vaguely feminine-looking silhouette.
  • Mistaken for Gay: Possibly. When one guy brings in a fairly large assortment of Mickey Mouse phones, after lining them up on the counter he says he's selling them because his girlfriend is moving in with him. Chumlee gives him a mildly surprised look and says "You have a girlfriend?" It's unclear whether he was invoking this trope; it's also possible that he may have acted surprised because Nerds Are Virgins.
  • MockGuffin: What many supposed treasures that come through the front door turn out to be; junk pretending to be treasure.
  • More Dakka: As if antique muskets and revolvers weren't enough, one episode featured Rick buying (and subsequently firing) a freakin' cannon! Another time there was The Civil War era gatling gun and because that wasn't enough, the same guy invites Rick out to see if he wants to buy the bastard offspring of the two, a gatling cannon that uses one pound shells.
  • Mr. Exposition: There are many situations where it's clear that the discussion between the brokers and customers about how an item works and/or the history either behind it or the company is something that is being filmed to give information to the viewer more so than anyone on screen.
  • Mundane Utility: One day a customer brought in a Indian push dagger, a Sissors Katar, and Chumlee used it to open a milk carton. Old Man compared it to squashing a fly with a sledgehammer.
  • Musical Spoiler: Often you can tell if they're going to make a deal by listening to the music in the background; if it tapers off, it's no deal, if it reaches any form of strong climax, it's going to be a deal.
  • National Stereotypes:
  • Negated Moment of Awesome: Occurs whenever they aren't able to agree on a price for several cool items.
    • A chance to buy Jackie Gleason's limo, but because of the rust damage, fixing it up would cost more than what it was worth and they had no choice but to pass. The Count himself said he hated saying those words as it drove like a dream.
    • Houdini's Straitjacket; they couldn't agree on a price. Rick laments about it and states that he's tempted to go after the guy and haggle with him.
    • An opportunity arose to buy a World War II Trainer Fighter plane, but due to costs of hangar and maintenance being too much, the guys are heartbroken they weren't able to make a deal.
    • A guy with a bronze Perseus Statue goes berserk on Rick and the Old Man when Rick points out the bronze statue displays clues that the item is either a copy or a forgery. Antoine the security guard starts to walk up to the man, ready to intervene... until Rick waves him off. Both he and the Old Man give the seller the hard truth about the facts surrounding the item and allow him to leave peacefully.
  • Nerd Hoard: People show their collections of various items to sell, which usually comes with a hefty pawn price reduction because few customers want the collection as a whole, so it requires quite a bit of manpower to catalog and sell the items individually. And then there are the stranger collections like the guy with Sammy Davis Jr.'s personal VHS tape collection.
  • Never Trust a Trailer: Or in this case, never trust the commercial break clips. The editing is so bad, you can bet the exact opposite will happen and be right nearly every time. Somebody says "There's a problem"? The item will be confirmed rare and worth a ton. The expert says "You may have hit a home run"? Confirmed fake.
    • It also occurs on the "On this episode..." segments at the beginning. On at least a couple of occasions, it shows a customer selling a gun, Rick examines it, "This gun is loaded", cue cutaway accompanied by a gunshot sound effect and possibly the Old Man muttering "Oh my god...". Needless to say, no gun has gone off accidentally, nor has anyone been shot on the show. Another one involved a man selling an RV, with Corey exclaiming at the end, "My dad is gonna kill me!!", leading you to think it's building to Hoss making another foolish purchase like the ones in Epic Fail above. No such thing happens in that episode.
    • When Rick is about to buy a really beat up Mustang GT, Corey calls in Danny to apparently persuade Rick that it's a bad idea. Instead, Danny actually tells Rick to buy it, since the car's trim-work is all present and the car can definitely be restored.
    • On another such sequence, a man brought in a basketball championship ring, and the clip showed Rick asking him how much he wanted and he replied, "$100,000". In the actual episode he asks for $20,000; the mention of $100,000 is in response to Rick's mention that the ring is only a trainer ring and player rings would be worth a lot more.
    • In the episodes where Corey is asking to become a partner, the trailers show Corey going to the warehouse and throwing ninja stars at boxes BECAUSE he's angry at not being made a partner. In the actual episode, Corey and Chumlee throw stars at boxes because they've just bought some stars and think it would be cool to try them out. Rick's reaction, however, is played straight.
    • One episode has the opening show Rick looking at a old phone booth and being told it still works. He decides to call the pawn shop. Chumlee answers and calls himself the owner, which causes Rick to say "damn it". This scene isn't in the episode.
    • When someone brings in home footage of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the "After the Break" shows them watching it, and the Old Man says "Oh my God" offscreen, as though it contained something like FDR in a wheelchair (which, as the expert and show mentions, only three photos and no film are known to exist of him in his wheelchair). After the break, the film is just home video of FDR in a motorcade somewhere in DC. Much later, Corey and Chumlee start arguing who is stronger and set up a series of challenges behind the shop. This is when the Old Man says "Oh my God."
  • Nightmare Fuel: Invoked. When Chumlee decides to fumigate his house, he asks the others if he can stay at their homes for a few days. The Old Man is the only one who would take him in, and Corey says he'll regret that decision. The Old Man loves to collect Native American figurines and other collectibles, and has a room decked wall to wall with hundreds of them. When Corey was a kid, he would have to sleep in that very room whenever he stayed over. He could never get to sleep because of all those figurines staring at him. It was creepy as hell, and the Old Man got a good laugh from being reminded of what the kid went through.
  • Noble Demon: Despite the old man generally being a cranky old bastard, he's very polite around customers. A few times, he's even given a few customers more than their first asking priced to give them a fair deal.
  • Noodle Incident:
    • Averted. When admonishing Corey for getting a tattoo on company time, the Old Man is reminded that he himself has a tattoo. While the Old Man tries to downplay the hypocrisy of him getting one compared to Corey and Chumlee's inkwork, Rick immediately describes the incident. The Old Man in 1959 was in Japan, and he promised his wife that he wouldn't get a tattoo. However, he reasoned that getting one with her name would pass; unfortunately, he spelt her name wrong.
    • While in the Philippines when in the Navy, the Old Man, at age 22, rode a caribou. Apparently he was drunk.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Multiple versions:
    • First, there was Rick and the woman who was selling a Faberge spider brooch.
    • Then there was the time Corey went to get the pawn shop posters framed.
    • And then there was the time Corey bought a Jimi Hendrix poster to give to Rick for Father's Day. Rick is thrilled to get it, but then Corey also gets him in trouble with the Old Man. The Old Man tears Rick a new one for only getting him chicken wings for his Father's Day gift, while Corey went and got Rick a framed poster.
  • Nostalgia Filter: The Old Man has a very, very thick one, as his Back-When-I-Was-A-Boy stories will attest.
  • No Swastikas: Neither Rick nor The Old Man will permit any Nazi memorabilia or anything with a swastika on it in the store. There are no exceptions.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: While Chumlee's reputation is fairly earned, he'd almost have to be smarter than he looks on the show. It's pretty clear that at least some of the time, he's purposely playing the fool, either for the cameras or for his coworkers. He also shows occasional surprising flashes of expertise or competence when he actually puts his mind to something.
  • Obstructive Bureaucrat: In his autobiography, Rick describes the hoops he and the Old Man had to go through to set up the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop. These ranged from corrupt city bureaucrats who were trying to keep Rick from horning in on the sales territories of the "good old boys" network to crooked city politicians who demanded campaign contributions in exchange for supporting their efforts to open their shop to a city mayor who came up with some pie-in-the-sky idea of making all the pawn shops in town gather on one street, and eventually in one large building.
  • Offscreen Villain Dark Matter:
    • The boys obviously aren't evil, but the basic idea of this trope still applies in that pawning, which Rick mentions makes up around 60% of their business, is rarely done on the show. Almost every customer that appears on the show intends to sell whatever it is they're offering.
    • Various interviews Rick has given both before and after the show say that this is most likely an effect of the economy. His overall business is way up (and was even before the extra publicity), including pawning, but also people are simply more willing to part with family heirlooms and their personal collectibles when the economy is down.
    • Rick's also mentioned how he has a number of regular customers who come in and pawn items on a regular basis before paying him back and then retaking their belongings. They don't want to appear on the show, and in any event Rick points out it wouldn't be very interesting to see the same people hawking the same items every couple of months.
      • Despite this, a few brave souls actually have pawned a few things. In one early episode, a guy pawned a set of prehistoric shark's teeth for $3,000. In two other episodes, a guy pawned a huge collection of mint-condition Matchbox toy cars, and another guy pawned a painted lithograph by Pablo Picasso, each for $20,000. The Matchbox collection was valued at $28,000, and the Picasso lithograph at over $100,000. In both cases, Corey made very clear just how much money the customers were going to have to pay him to retake their belongings. He even tried to talk the Matchbox guy out of it, but the man insisted on taking it not because he wanted $20,000, but because he needed $20,000.
    • A lot of potentially cool items are not put onto the show (with some brief glimpses of it between deals), either because the volume of interesting things outweighs what can possibly shown on the show, or the shop just refuses to even bid on it outright for various reasons (Nazi related items, anything stolen, guns made after 1898, etc.).
    • The same could be said for customers buying items from the shop. Obviously, it wouldn't be a successful store if no one bought anything.
  • Oh, Crap!: When customers find out that the items they're trying to sell aren't nearly as valuable as they thought (or counterfeit).
    • One man had what he thought was an actual whip used in the production of Raiders of the Lost Ark, which could go for upwards of $5,000 if actually used by Harrison Ford. When it was appraised, he was told that without any documentation there was nothing proving it was anything other than a normal whip. You could almost see his face droop to the floor.
    • Or the rare occasions when the staff bought something hoping it turns out to be worth a lot of money only to find out it isn't.
    • What about the guy that paid out the ass for an antique pistol only to find out it was a cheap reproduction? The Cluster F-Bomb just barely showed the audience how pissed off he was.
    • Also the woman who bought a carved ivory tusk for a lot of money in Taiwan, only to find out it was bone shaped over a wood frame that was hardly worth $100.
    • The woman who brought in an extremely rare Smith & Wesson 320 revolving rifle she found at a garage sale. She had thrown the original stock that came with the gun in the trash, thinking it was useless - Rick's appraiser had to break the news to her that the stock alone was worth between $5,000 and $6,000, and without it the gun itself was only worth around $1,000 at most, given its poor condition. Rarely has a customer sounded so mortified on the Confession Cam.
    • Corey's purchase of a toy Stretch Serpent head nearly turned into this when the Old Man found out he'd paid $500 for it. A toy appraiser valued it at between $4,000 and $5,000, but the store ended up losing money on it anyway — it went missing from the shop's inventory, possibly because someone threw it out by mistake.
  • Old-Fashioned Fruit Stomping: Chumlee does this after the shop acquires a large glass bottle designed for fermenting wine. He stomps on the grapes, adds the yeast, then adds actual wine for coloring, etc. During the tasting, Rick and Corey spit it out but the Old Man actually seems to enjoy it, although it's up in the air whether he really did or was just doing a Pet the Dog in appreciation of Chumlee's efforts, since the gang had been riffing on him that he'd never get it done.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname:
    • Nobody calls the Old Man by his real name (Richard); this has been true since he was originally dubbed "Old Man", when he was in his thirties, although Rick will call him "Pops" and Corey sometimes calls him "Grandpa." Chumlee occasionally addresses the Old Man as "Boss" when he calls him over to look at something interesting.
    • Chumlee (whose real name Austin) is always Chumlee; not even Chum Lee.
      • He was given business cards which were misspelled "Chum Lee" in one episode. While upset at first, he later mused that he liked the idea of being called "Mr. Lee".
      • Chumlee is sometimes called "Chum" by others, which means shark bait.
    • Inversion: The quote at the top of the page is what Rick says as each episode opens. It's usually the only time in an episode where Corey will be called "Big Hoss," but Chumlee will regularly call him just 'Hoss'.
      • Technically, Corey's real name is also "Richard", just like his father and grandfather. Corey is his middle name.
    • He doesn't appear too often, but the shop's house mechanic is generally referred to as Fat Back.
    • A sort of inversion and straight example at the same time: since the restoration specialist they often use is also named Rick, the pawn shop employees generally refer to him by his full name; but many of them, especially Corey, have a habit of running the names together, resulting in them calling him "Rickdale" all the time.
  • Only Sane Man: Rick occasionally comes across as feeling like he's this, in between the antics of the rest of the crew: a Grumpy Old Man, The Ditz, and a son who thinks he knows better than his father.
  • Parental Substitute: In at least one interview, Rick has alluded to how he's semi-adopted Chumlee as a surrogate son. According to Rick, Chum wasn't raised well and he ended up bonding with the Harrisons as a result. Chumlee apparently gets Mother's Day cards for Rick's wife, and even the Old Man's alluded to the fact that he loves Chumlee like a son.
  • Planet of Steves: The shop is run by Richard Benjamin "Old Man" Harrison, his son Richard Kevin "Rick" Harrison, and his son Richard Corey "Big Hoss" Harrison. Just for fun, there's also Rick Dale, the restorer.
  • Playboy Bunny: A customer sold Rick an original 1960s Playboy Bunny costume with a training manual that he'd gotten from an old girlfriend who worked at a Playboy club.
    • Also a copy of the inaugural issue from 1953 with Marilyn Monroe (sold) & a display of Playboy Mansion keys, including one of the original 8 that allowed the owner to date Bunnies (not sold).
  • Please Keep Your Hat On: Averted with museum curator Mark Hall-Patton, a consultant who is almost always seen wearing a wide-brimmed hat. On the rare occasions that he takes it off, he reveals a full head of hair.
  • Possession Implies Mastery: Invoked in numerous ways. Sellers thinking they can "improve" an item by fixing it, cleaning it, or trying to convince the gang to buy it with an elaborate history, saying they "researched it," or some weird argument that implores that the gang has to buy it because they need to. It's no surprise some of these sellers also fall into Jerkass territory.
    • Literally invoked with a seller of two medieval pikes, as noted above. When Craig (the weapons expert) evaluates the pikes and determines them to be of a much later vintage, the guy attacks Craig's evaluation, claiming he's an expert on pikes and questions Craig over his evaluation.
    • Invoked again with a seller of a Mosley Gospel Guitar prototype. They guy claimed he was the "only authority" on such a guitar, but Rick brings in his own guy, stating that he needs an unbiased opinion and that people who enter the door to sell items are just customers, not experts. Needless to say, the guy trying to sell the guitar goes into verbal fisticuffs with the expert, which pretty much sours the deal with Rick. What was it about being nice with the Pawn Shop...?
  • Product Placement:
    • Several times, the Pawn Star crew would be seen eating Subway. Once, Chum and Corey were seen eating at a Subway restaurant.
    • One guy brought in a 2010 Hoyt crossbow. The way he was dressed paired with how he was trying to sell it to the guys and even Corey's initial questioning reeked of product placement.
    • Or the time a customer drove a 1978 GMC motorhome which had been given away in a contest run by the Coca-Cola Company, & hence fully decked out in the company's colors & logo, into the store's parking lot.
  • Promotion to Opening Titles: Kinda. Chumlee has appeared around the "Pawn Stars" logo in the On-The-Next-Episode commercials.
    • Inverted with the latest opening, as Chumlee is now prominently part of the new opening for Pawn Stars.
  • Pun:
    • The title of the show. Replace the AW in Pawn with OR.
    • Lampshaded in the title of the spin-off game show Pawnography.
    • Further played with on the Season 19 Retool, Pawn Stars Do America.
  • Put on a Bus: Several experts have gone missing from the Rolodex the store uses to help authenticate and verify items.
    • Drew (Autograph Expert)
    • Sean (Gun Expert)
    • Wally (Mechanic)
    • Olivia (the bespectacled black-haired girl who seemed to be The Smurfette for the group in 2012) disappeared after the National Enquirer revealed that she had previously done nude modeling. She continued working at the shop after that, but was removed from the TV show.
    • Both Rick Dale (restorations) and Danny "The Count" (cars) are hardly seen any more either, though that's probably because they have their own shows now.
      • The Bus Came Back: Sean reappears in "Tough Cookie" appraising a blinging Remington revolver.

    R-Y 
  • Real Men Wear Pink: Rick and Chumlee are looking at a collection of John Wayne memorabilia, and Rick says that there's just something wrong with depicting the Duke in a pink bandanna. Chumlee points out that Rick once wore a pink shirt, but Rick explains that it wasn't pink, it was salmon.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure:
    • Despite his general crabbiness, the Old Man occasionally acts this way. Whenever he's yelled at someone like Corey and later proven to be in the wrong, he's apologized and admitted his mistake. He was also the one who pushed Rick to get off his butt and resolve the issue with Corey wanting a stake in the business.
    • Contrast Rick, who tends to have a harder time admitting mistakes. Corey has a lot of fun milking this fault for all it's worth.
  • Recurring Extra: Several of the sellers appear multiple times with various items. Also, pay attention in the brief glimpses of the shop between deals, you will notice the same people appear quite a bit.
  • Refuge in Audacity: A man came into the shop with a can of Zoo Doo, canned elephant dung fertilizer sold by a zoo as a novelty item. His asking price was $10,000, though he admitted that he'd take $5 if offered. He ended up getting $20. In the end, he probably just wanted to get on TV.
  • Rule of Cool: Rick will sometimes buy items because they'll look good in his store.
    • Rick sometimes points out that eye-drawing, impressive, "cool" items that look good in the store draw customers. And drawing customers means money. This was the rationale behind the Old Man badgering Rick into buying a rusted-out, broken down Confederate printing press for $25, even though Rick didn't initially want it.
    • And then there's the show itself. Along with all the money they've made from episode royalties and merchandise sales, the crew has benefited from a massive increase in business brought about by the show. According to Corey, the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop used to get between 70-100 customers a day. After the show started airing, this increased to over a thousand customers a day.
  • The Scapegoat:
    • When the Old Man buys a pair of Western studio dummies for $500 (for the pair), Rick blows a gasket. He thinks that Chumlee was the one who purchased them, given his apparent record of dumb purchases, and is floored when the Old Man speaks up and reveals the truth. He bought them because he thought they were neat; he even named them Ed and George.
    • Chumlee purchased a Leslie revolving organ speaker from the 1960s, took it to get restored to operating condition, then brought it back to the shop. Later, Rick hears somebody fiddling around with a keyboard and the speaker in the back room, grumbles about Chumlee goofing off during working hours... and opens the door to find the Old Man at the keyboard.
    • During inventory time, Rick announces there will be a booby prize for the person that bought whatever item had been sitting around the store the longest. Chumlee is blamed for the two worst purchases, but he points out that Rick and the Old Man bought them and that his name is on the paperwork only because they had him write up the sale. Footage from past episodes corroborated his point.
  • Scary Black Man: Antoine, the greeter/bodyguard. 6'5" and gigantic. And carries a gun in a holster, as permitted for a security guard, and a wooden board.
    • Downplayed because whenever we see him on camera, he is very polite. Still, most likely not a guy you want to mess with.
  • Schmuck Bait:
    • Someone attempts to sell an old fighter plane ejection seat they had sitting in their living room for years. Frighteningly, it was still functional — in all that time, no one had ever pressed the "eject" button, which would have slammed them into the ceiling at a hundred miles an hour.
    • If you were offered a set of five mint condition Pete Rose bubblegum baseball cards, would you think the opportunity was too good to be true? If so, you're smarter than the customer who had these cards and tried to sell them. A suspicious Corey called Rick over to look at them, and Rick didn't need ten seconds to realize they were fakes. Along with explaining all the defects that showed they were forgeries, Rick lampshaded just how incredibly unlikely it would be to have five mint condition cards. Needless to say, the customer wasn't happy.
  • Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!:
    • The Old Man is a perfect example. At best, he's blunt and no-nonsense. At worst, he's bitter, sarcastic and insults everyone.
    • The man who came in with what he claimed was a baseball bat autographed by Babe Ruth seemed like this at first, but ultimately turns out to be reasonable, if more than a tad smug.
  • Screw the Rules, I Make Them!:
    • In one episode, Rick makes a rule that they can't keep anymore items for themselves. A few episodes later, Corey gets a good deal on a 1937 Oldsmobile, which the Old Man immediately claims for himself. Corey protests, citing Rick's rule. The Old Man replies that, as majority owner of the shop, he decides what the rules are. Corey is pissed, but the Old Man praises him for doing a good job, something he rarely ever does.
    • On another occasion, Rick breaks his own "employees are not allowed to purchase from the store" rule by buying an "incunable" (a book printed before 1500). The others, particularly Corey, give him a really hard time about it.
  • The Scrooge: The Old Man has been compared to the Trope Namer more than once.
  • Seinfeldian Conversation: Occasionally crops up either during the stingers or lulls in the buying and selling action. During an intermission when they were waiting on their resident toy appraiser to look at a very fancy stuffed teddy bear, the conversation devolves into seeing who would win in a fight between a lion and a bear:
    Corey: Then why is the lion the king of the jungle?!
    Rick: Because bears don't live in the jungle!
    Old Man: Why are we having this dumb conversation?!
  • Self-Made Orphan: The Old Man occasionally thinks that Rick and Corey are doing crazy things on purpose so he'll have a heart attack and die, leaving them free to take over his share of the business.
  • Senior Sleep-Cycle: The Old Man is often seen napping at his desk during business hours and still works harder than everyone else there. Or so he says.
    • This was part of a storyline in one episode. Rick expanded the shop to make an office for the Old Man, so he wouldn't be sleeping at his desk within sight of the customers. At first he liked the office, but by the end of the episode he was back at his desk, once again sleeping.
    • In another episode, Rick, Corey, and Chumlee try to break him of his napping habit by giving him espresso, ginseng, and energy drinks. The combination works too well, and soon all three are wishing that he'd just go back to sleep.
  • Serial Escalation: So what kind of weird antiques are customers going to bring in today?
    • A couple of the asking prices customers want for their items fall under this trope. The guys who tried to sell Corey and Chumlee Robosaurus wanted one million dollars. No prizes for guessing how the deal turned out.
  • Sharp-Dressed Man: Everyone else in the store wears the typical black Polo with the company logo on it. Old Man on the other hand always wears a black dress shirt, tie and vest.
  • Shout-Out: The photo in Rick's office is an autographed photo of Jonathon Joss (aka John Redcorn).
  • Shur Fine Guns: Some of the antique guns customers bring in have designs that make them useless. These useless guns weren't produced in large numbers, so they're very appealing to collectors.
  • Signature Laugh: Rick Harrison's staccato, wheezing laugh.
  • Skewed Priorities: Played for Laughs when demonstrating the homemade mortar cannon. Chumlee is tasked with lighting the fuse. Rick is worried about the cannon misfiring and/or blowing up, citing he doesn't want another workman's compensation claim on his business.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: A couple of the customers who've tried to sell Rick their classic cars brag about being "car guys" who did their own work. This turns out to be an Informed Ability when they start the cars up and Rick immediately realizes their work was shit.
    • This also applies to the people who violently thought the guys were wrong about the value of their items.
    • The "artist" covered under Squick invokedbelow wanted $7,500 for his demonic gold figures, which he bumped to $6,500 because he recognized Rick is a businessman and has to make money. Rick turned him down, telling him plainly that no one is going to pay thousands of dollars for figures from an unknown artist. The guy walked away sneering that his work will one day be famous, Rick will kick himself for not getting in on it early, and he might consider coming back to give him a second chance.
  • Snark-to-Snark Combat: The Harrisons get into this from time to time, such as when the Old Man took a leisurely test drive in their recently purchased and restored Shelby Cobra.
    Rick: You didn't even go fast enough to mess up your hair!
    Old Man: At least I have hair!
  • Snipe Hunt: Old Man Harrison sends Chumlee on one, to get a bucket of steam, a left-handed coffee mug, and a glass hammer. Chumlee returns with all three items. Making it more awesome, Chumlee immediately recognized the "errand" as a Snipe Hunt and proceeded to use it as an excuse to spend some time goofing off while on the clock, and he manages to trick Old Man into pouring coffee on himself while "proving" the mug he had brought back was indeed a left-handed one.
  • Sore Loser: Some sellers sometimes come across as this if the deal doesn't go their way regardless if the guys buy the item or not.
  • Spin-Off: Rick will take certain antiques to be restored by one of his buddies, Rick Dale. Dale got his own show, American Restoration, which focuses on his work restoring things such as bicycles, refrigerators and candy machines. In one of the first episodes, he restores a 1950s-era golf cart for the Old Man.
    • Danny "The Count" Koker, often called in to check over and fix up vehicles, now has his own show, Counting Cars.
    • Rick, Corey, and Chumlee appear on the game show Pawnography, which gives players a chance to win cash and items from the shop.
  • Squick: invoked
    • Rick is usually more than willing to buy anything if he thinks he can make a profit. But there are some items that make Rick have a squick moment and he refuses to buy for some reason, whether it be on moral or other grounds.
    • One person brought in Nazi war spoils, which a family legend said was ransacked from one of Hitler's own private camps and belonged to Hitler himself. Rick was able to authenticate it as actual Nazi memorabilia, but knew it didn't ever belong to Hitler. Even then, Rick said he won't offer anything for it as the items themselves and the market for them just creeps him out.
    • Another time, an "artist" brought in pieces of gold he himself cast. In addition to painting them black and thereby defeating the purpose of the gold pieces, one of them incorporated the leg from a roadkilled owl.
      Artist: "I have pieces of art for you."
      Rick: "They're pieces of something."
      Artist: (Death Glare)
    • Rick has also mentioned that he doesn't like taking in ivory, items since he doesn't like how ivory is obtained nor does he like the politics behind it.
      • It's difficult to authenticate ivory as "pre-ban." In order to legally buy and/or sell ivory, you have to have proof that it was harvested before the ban on the ivory trade. So unless the customer brings in a certificate or some other kind of authenticating document, it's going to cost money and time to authenticate the ivory, and if it is post-ban Rick is in a boatload of legal trouble.
    • The WW2 gas mask for babies also came close to just completely squicking Rick out. He said the longer it was in his shop the more it bothered him, despite the fact that it was of historical significance and he considered it important to remember such items.
    • Rick was wary of a saint's relic a man tried to sell him since it looked like it had blood on it. This was even before he knew he would be threatened with going to hell by purchasing it.
    • One man brought in a Civil War-era cast iron coffin that showed discoloration of the pillow at the head end. Even though he said it was due to water leaking in, Rick was sufficiently creeped out that he declined to make an offer.
  • Stealing from the Till: In his autobiography, Rick mentions that employees have stolen over half a million dollars in merchandise from the shop over the years.
  • Stealth Pun: The logo they use for the Old Man is a $100 bill. His middle name is Benjamin.
  • The Stinger: Most episodes end with some kind of finagling with an incident earlier in the show, such as an item purchased or some altercation, making this double as a Brick Joke.
  • The Stoic: The Old Man, most of the time, is monotone and business focused.
  • Stout Strength: One of Rick's employees is a large fat black man named Antoine. He's occasionally seen in the background helping customers take heavy items into or out of the store, though his explicit role at the shop is as security.
  • Surrounded by Idiots: The Old Man certainly views this as his lot in life.
  • Sword Cane: A gun cane was brought in by a customer in one episode.
  • Take a Third Option:
    • Sometimes, when Rick or the Old Man and a customer are at an impasse, one of them will offer a straight-up trade as a means of sealing the deal. For instance, the guy who tried to sell Rick a Revolutionary War-era war bond drafted by Paul Revere wasn't very keen on Rick's $12,000 offer until he threw in the electric guitar the kid had originally wanted to get. Another customer who wanted to sell the Old Man a collectible poker chip finally agreed to his price if the Old Man also agreed to give him three figures of Rat Pack members. The Old Man later told the camera crew that the figurines were only priced at $300 and he paid only $100 for them, so it wasn't really a problem for him.
    • One of the more interesting examples and the only such shown to date is when a man comes in to sell a South Pole glacier marker and one of the first ATM receipts from its science station. Since Rick has absolutely no way to value them but knows they're unique enough to be interest-drawers if nothing else, he accepts the seller's offer to simply leave them in the store to be sold and take a percentage of the profit if they do.
    • In another episode, a guy comes in with an old double-flintlock shotgun with a spring bayonet. He was hoping for a few hundred bucks to go towards a new guitar, but the expert priced the gun at ten grand. When they subsequently had trouble coming to a deal, Rick offered him a guitar as trade, and brought out a '78 Les Paul Standard, which was in such good condition Rick mentioned he kept it off the floor because he didn't want people constantly fiddling with it. The deal was made.
    • A customer brought in a 1932 Lincoln town car that was in amazing shape for something nearly 80 years old. He wanted $100,000 for the car, and initially refused to budge even when Rick raised his offer to $95,000. Finally, he asked the customer what it would take to seal the deal, and the customer finally agreed to sell the car for $95,000 in gold. Rick couldn't legally trade gold for the car, so he bought it for $95,000 in cash, immediately sold the customer $95,000 worth of gold, and arranged for a security guard to help him load it into his car.
    • Corey buys a left-handed motorcycle and takes it to Danny to be fixed up. When it's ready, Corey and Rick have to decide which of them is going to ride the bike back to the shop. They both refuse to do it since they're both right-handed, and they each say the other should do it. Finally, they just load the bike into the back of the company van instead of having one of them ride it back to the shop the way they usually do.
  • Take That!:
    • One promo indicates their resentment for Cajun Pawn Stars, although the words they use can be a Stealth Pun ("knockoffs", "the real deal"), considering their trade.
    • Rick has mentioned a few times that he considers Andrew Johnson to be one of the worst Presidents in American history.
  • Telegraph Gag STOP: Referenced when a man brings in an old telegraph machine.
  • Three Successful Generations: The Old Man, a Navy Veteran with loads of experience buying and selling. Rick, the well-read business man. Corey, the store manager who's been working in the store since he was a child. Bonus points for the fact that they all share the same name, Richard Harrison - and now there's a fourth generation Richard Harrison as well.
  • Too Awesome to Use:
    • A man brought in a launch key used for the Russian space program. It was confirmed as genuine and likely worth a lot of money to the right person, but Rick didn't even want to even try and buy it because he didn't know anyone who would pay upwards of $10,000 for a small piece of titanium.
    • This is a general problem with truly one-of-a-kind items, which could potentially be worth a king's ransom. Sadly, their uniqueness means that it's almost impossible to figure out how much these things would or could sell for, which could mean either a huge profit or a huge loss when Rick finally finds a buyer. Oftentimes he simply won't make an offer because the risk is too great, and when he does the customers typically reject his offer as too low.
  • Took a Level in Badass: As of the fourth season, Chumlee has begun negotiating for a few low-level items and he's actually been doing an okay job. Even the Old Man stood back and let him negotiate with a customer who was trying to sell them a 1970s boom box. The guy was trying to sell it for $250, but Chum haggled him down to $90 by pointing out how it was kind of beat up.
    • He does even better. He bought an original signed Charles Lindbergh autobiography for about $300, but he didn't get it checked out. It would've turned out bad for him since the signature was an unusual signature. But when he had Rebecca check it out, he found out he could sell it for about $600.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Old Man loves him some chicken wings.
  • Trailers Always Lie: One specific example is when a customer brings in a 1997 Winnebago motorhome, asking for somewhere around $130,000. In the clip shown before the opening credits, we hear Corey saying "My dad is going to kill me.", after a shot of the customer stating his price, carrying the implication Corey agreed to the price. In the episode proper, he actually says, "If I buy this without getting it checked out, my dad is going to kill me." (Sure enough, Rick's offer was too low for the seller.)
  • Trophy Room:
    • In a way, the entire shop. There are a select few items that Rick is proud of owning and will not sell them unless it's for absurd amounts of money, like his prized Patriots Super Bowl ring. Sometimes Rick is also tempted to keep choice items for himself, such as a jukebox that he could sell at a $1,400 profit but that plays some of his favorite music.
    • Another such item is a stamp crafted by Benjamin Franklin, which Rick bought and assigned an exorbitant price to keep people from buying it.
    • In one of the videos posted on the shop's YouTube page, the Old Man mentions that he's got a collection of several classic cars and trucks, some of which he no doubt acquired from customers.
  • Unfortunate Names: Big Hoss's full name is Richard Corey Harrison. His parents named him after a fictional character who committed suicide in an Edwin Arlington Robinson poem.
  • Unknowingly Possessing Stolen Goods: Rick explains this is why they are so careful about finding out if the person selling the item really owns it, and even then they've inadvertently purchased stolen items and had the police come by to confiscate them.
  • Unsatisfiable Customer: The boys make an effort to avoid this trope. On the Pawn Stars section of the History Television website, there are a number of videos filmed by the cast that explain many of the ins and outs of the pawn industry. In one of the videos, Rick and the Old Man point out that if you really want to get a good deal from a pawnbroker, you should be polite. Being a Jerkass won't get you anywhere.
  • Very Loosely Based on a True Story:
    • In an early episode, a guy brings in a Coke machine to sell to Rick. When Rick buys it, he takes it to Rick's Restorations to have it restored. As it turns out, the guy selling the Coke machine is the brother of Rick Dale, who owns Rick's Restorations.
    • A guy selling a guitar and the expert brought in to assess its value both work for the same guitar shop, yet the show portrays them as not knowing one another.
  • Waistcoat of Style: The Old Man is never seen at work without one.
  • The Watson: Chumlee often plays this role accompanying Rick when he makes deals.
  • We Buy Anything: With only a few exceptions, the Harrisons are willing to buy almost anything they think they can profit on. Rick once said that he'd be willing to buy a fifty-pound pile of manure if he thought he could sell it to someone. There are some exceptions, though:
    • Alcohol (Shop does not have a liquor license)
    • Anything stolen (The police occasionally check up on pawn shops and/or regularly distribute lists of stolen items)
    • Anything illegal (items made of ivory after the ban on the ivory trade, for example)
    • Guns made after 1898 (weapons from before 1898 are considered "antiques" while guns made after that date require gun dealer permits to sell)
    • Nazi items and those rare items that are just too disturbing to buy.
      • An episode of Insomniac with Dave Attell featured Rick showing off a collection of Nazi weapons, so this may be a more recent rule.
      • Then again, the weapons were just bayonets, while the offered items were a literal Nazi Party handbook, silverware and plates personally owned by Hitler and photos of Hitler lifted from the Eagles Nest.
    • There's a market for certain acknowledged forgeries and fake items (for the artistry of the forger, the history behind the scam, etc.), but Rick won't touch them. As he noted, even a slight chance that one of his employees might unknowingly sell the item as "the real thing" would put his business in jeopardy. There are exceptions to this rule, as he was willing to buy a Joseph Cosey forgery of Abraham Lincoln but it turned out to be a copy.
    • Taxidermy items might be worth something to the right collector, but Corey doesn't like buying them because they tend to creep out the rest of his customers. The one item he did buy was stitched together out of two separate animals, so it didn't even look like any real creature. Then again, that may be why it sold for such a large amount of money...
    • He does sometimes buy fake items made of precious metals (such as fake Spanish gold coins), simply to melt down for the metal value.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy:
    • There are times when Rick doubts Corey's ability to eventually take over the shop, which Corey obviously resents. Then again, it's arguably Justified when Corey makes boneheaded decisions like buying a hot air balloon (for $38,000), a boat (Rick says that boats never make money), and a Belgian motorcycle (which has very rare parts and is expensive to maintain).Only one of these was a good decision: the boat made sufficient money that it caused Rick to get rid of the shop's "no boats" policy, and went on to make good money from buying another one later. In that case, it was played quite straight, as Rick made money and acknowledged Corey's accomplishment, but took some time to be gracious about it.
    • In one episode, he was giving Corey grief for spending "too much" money on getting a car restored, even though they'd be able to sell it at a nice profit when the car was ready. It got to the point where the Old Man intervened and bluntly told Rick to shut up, stating that they were going to see the project through.
    • Rick bought four posters about movies dealing with pawn shops. Rick intends to keep them to decorate the shop, and sends Corey to get them framed without telling Corey that he wanted to keep them. Corey ends up selling one of the posters to the owner of the frame shop in exchange for $1,400 in cash and framing the other three posters for free. Rick is furious with Corey when he comes back, even though Corey not only sold one of the posters at a $1,000 profit but also saved the shop a fair amount of money in getting the framing done for free. Corey ends up being yelled at and forced to go back to the frame shop to buy the fourth poster back, but how was he supposed to know that Rick wanted to keep the posters and not sell them?
    • Came close to being invoked by name in Blaze of Glory:
      Hoss: Just say 'good job, son'.
      Rick: I ain't sayin' it.
    • One time, Corey buys a program from the 1932 NFL Playoff Game for $2,750, giving justifiable reasons for why it's worth it. Rick and the Old Man both chew him out for it until he gets it looked at by an expert who reveals it's worth $10,000 for pretty much the same reasons Corey thought it was valuable (it's extremely rare, there only being around four in existence, one of which is in the Football Hall of Fame and in worse condition than the one he bought). When Corey, reasonably, asks for an apology, they chew him out again even though he was completely right about it.
      • An episode or two later Corey does a Call-Back to this when he pays a lot for a panel off of an SR-71 Blackbird and it turns out they'll probably only break even. Rick starts to blow his top even though he's done the same thing several times lately himself, only for the Old Man to actually come to Corey's defense. "You weren't any better when you were his age." Oddly enough, the Old Man seems to be more gracious about this sort of thing, such as when he apologized to Corey for yelling at him for buying the Stretch Serpent head. See Cool and Unusual Punishment, above.
    • And again when Corey decides to take a risk and buy a katana for $1500. Rick and the Old Man explode at the fact that he didn't have the katana checked out before purchasing. However, when the sword expert informs them that the katana was owned by genuine samurai and could be worth $15,000 when fully restored, they still can't bring themselves to admit that Corey actually did a good job.
    • This finally comes to its natural conclusion in one of the later episodes, where Corey reveals that he is considering taking up employment at another pawn shop because he's tired of being treated like shit by his father and grandfather. note 
    • Rick Isn't immune either. He once bought a mini sub for $3,500. The Old Man chews him out for violating the above stated no boat policy which Rick points out it's a submarine not a boat. While it wouldn't be worth the money to restore ($100,000) an expert tells Rick he could sell it as is for $10,000. Of course The Old Man tells him he got lucky. Unfortunately, a later episode reveals it was discovered to have been stolen and was confiscated by police.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?:
    • Several retrospective episodes reveal what happened with items after their appearance on the show, such as whether it sold and for how much, if any complications showed up (such as stolen or non-transferable items) or if it's still in the shop.
    • Rick buys a 1950s arcade bowling game. Later in the show, Chumlee goes into the back room, picks up one of the balls and flings it into the glass covering the upright portion, shattering it. He sneaks away and... the episode ends. It's not known if Rick finds out or what happens when he does.note 
  • Where da White Women At?: Not on the show itself, but in Rick's book License to Pawn. In it, Rick recounts the story of a black pimp who came in to pawn some of his bling jewelry and brought an entourage of white women in with him. The pimp explained to Rick that many of his black customers couldn't resist what the pimp called the "forbidden fruit" appeal of white women, and so they'd pay huge sums to get with his white girls.
  • Who Would Want to Watch Us?: Once when a customer brought in four movie posters about pawn shops, Chumlee remarks that a movie should be made about them. Rick replies with "No one's going to want to see us." As they're being filmed for their TV show.
  • Who's on First?: When Corey explains what IDK means to the Old Man.
  • Worthless Currency: One episode has a man come in and presents thousands of dollars in Confederate currency, and asking to sell it for a few hundred. It's only after he asks for a price that Rick has to inform him that he is legally not allowed to place any form of monetary value on Confederate money, as dictated by federal law.
    • Another customer brought in a large amount of German marks from the Weimar Republic. The Weimar Republic's hyperinflation was so bad that its currency was nearly worthless. It wasn't worth any more in the 21st century, so much that Rick outright refused to make an offer for it.
  • Worthless Yellow Rocks: Played with. As noted above, there have been a few one of a kind items that have came into the shop, pieces that may be worth huge amounts of money. It is entirely worthless to the Pawn shop, however, because they have no idea how much they could actually sell it, so tend to not even make an offer.
  • Xanatos Gambit: One episode has Rick testing Corey's knowledge of shop merchandise. If he wins, he gets $2500, but if he loses, he has to work the graveyard shift. Corey gets 3/4 right. The Old Man steps in, says he fails, and punishes Rick too for arranging the bet without his permission. To the camera crew, Old Man explains that neither one of them would win. He himself wanted a break from one of them and regardless of how the contest ended, one of them would not be working during the day.
  • You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Watch the show a few times, and it becomes apparent that many of the people who bring in items to sell begin the negotiations with asking prices that they clearly got by reaching as far up their asses as they could. As a general rule, the higher the initial asking price, the bigger the Jerkass the customer is. Rick and Corey usually take it in stride, but the Old Man will cut this off quickly by offering a price lower than he would have otherwise, and not budging. "If you don't like it, you can carry it back out of here," is one of the Old Man's standard lines.

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