These Are The Dream Items Chumlee Would Love To See On Pawn Stars - Exclusive
The reason Pawn Stars has worked so incredibly well on History since its inception in 2009 is that the hit reality series is deeply rooted in, well, history. Not only have sellers brought a plethora of unique items through the doors of Rick Harrison's Gold & Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas, but many of the artifacts also come with a unique story that plays well on TV. Whether it's about where they were acquired or how long they have been around, the untold tales of the items on Pawn Stars are half the fun.
The stories of the items bought and sold on the show have always fascinated Austin "Chumlee" Russell, the playful and sometimes mischievous pawnbroker who has been featured on the series since the very beginning. In an exclusive interview with Looper to talk about the 18th season of Pawn Stars, playing now on History, Chumlee couldn't name a specific dream item he'd like to see make its way into the shop, but he certainly has an idea of the type of historical artifact he'd love to see.
"We've got a few, but I always like samurai swords that come in. I'd like to have one that's really old, early 1500s or something like that," Chumlee revealed to Looper in an exclusive interview. "Those are pretty much my favorite thing, just because they have so much history. And they've been around for hundreds and hundreds of years. So anytime something like that comes in, I'm just like, 'Wow.' And then someone like [UFC President] Dana White comes in and buys them all."
Chumlee names some of the dream items he covets for his own collection
With so much coolness arriving at the pawn shop daily, it shouldn't come as a big surprise that Chumlee — and Rick Harrison and Corey Harrison for that matter — are tempted to buy some of the time-honored inventory that arrives (so long as Dana White doesn't get there first). So, what items are in the ultimate must-have category for his personal collection?
"Dream items probably for me would have been the big Nike shoe collection that came in, [which] Rick passed on years and years ago, and then also the Charizard [card lot]," Chumlee revealed to Looper. "They're probably my biggest dream items [that] came in, because those are things that I actually collect. So, what can be bigger dream items than things you collect that you don't have?"
Since Chumlee is a major shoe fan, he wishes a purchase of a facility that housed a massive collection of Nike sneakers — featured in the 2013 Pawn Stars episode "Just Shoe It" — would have materialized.
"When we went to the ShoeZeum and [the owner] wanted $1 million dollars for that, and it was too much," Chumlee recalled for Looper. "It turns out some of those shoes in there sold for $100,000 apiece and [the lot] was worth well over a million dollars, but [that] would have cost a lot to get rid of it and taken Rick too much time [to resell them], so he passed on it."
Chumlee said that one major thing he's learned from working at the pawn shop over the years can be explained in one simple word: discipline. "I try not to buy anything from the pawn shop anymore, putting stuff on hold all day, but yeah, it's really hard not to leave with something every day," Chumlee said.
Season 18 of Pawn Stars is playing now on History.