Pawn Stars' Chumlee Reveals Who's Been Duped The Most On The Show - Exclusive
Pawning can be a risky business, as Rick Harrison, Corey Harrison, and Austin "Chumlee" Russell have demonstrated on History's Pawn Stars, simply because sometimes it's extremely difficult to determine the historical authenticity of the items coming through the door of the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas. A lot of the time, one of the guys can "call a buddy" down to the shop to help them ferret out whether an item is the real deal or fake, but no one is above being fooled completely.
History's Pawn Stars, of course, doesn't shy away from those moments of blunder, and viewers have been able to watch the mistakes Rick, Corey, and Chumlee have made in the course of business over the years. Nobody likes to outwardly admit to messing up, but at the same time, Chumlee knows he has to confront those gaffes because there are valuable lessons to absorb should he be put in a similar situation in the future. After all, despite what his persona on the show may suggest, Chumlee knows a thing or two about running a business since he owns one as well.
Chumlee has to watch out for fakes
Answering a fan question in an exclusive interview with Looper, Chumlee admits he holds the dubious title at the shop of being duped the most, saying, "[It's] definitely me for sure, especially before the Pawn Stars." "I worked at the night window and I bought quite a few Rolexes. It actually came to the point where if the Rolex hadn't been in three times, or unless the customers are really good customers that we do business with, I either had to call Corey or Rick for permission at 1 or 2 in the morning or just pass on it," Chumlee recalled. "So, a few of those and you learn quick, but it's definitely me. Corey grew up doing it, so by the time I got there, he already had a lot of experience in it."
But as Pawn Stars shows, no amount of time makes any of the pawnbrokers immune to getting duped, even Rick. Sometimes, though, the question isn't whether an item an item is fake, but if it's worth as much as they'd imagine it to be. Rick found that out in the March 29 episode this season in which he bought a set of Norman Rockwell dolls for $300 despite Chumlee's warning they weren't worth that much. In the end, the set had an estimated value of about $250. Since Chumlee has been on the opposite end where deals have gone south before, he playfully admitted that it was fun seeing that his boss miscalculated the deal this time around instead of him taking all the heat. After all, a $300 mistake isn't that much money in the high-stakes business of pawning; at least to everybody but Rick, who hates losing money on any item no matter the value.
"I like working with the guys, and we've been together a long time. So, we've seen a lot of blunders. We all feel differently about different things. And I guess that time I was just right. And it's very, very rare, but Rick wasn't right that time. So, it did feel good. It did feel good," Chumlee told Looper.
New episodes for Pawn Stars season 18 are playing now on History.