The Spy Plane Memorabilia That Caused A Rift On Pawn Stars
A lot of rare, high-end valuables have been featured on Pawn Stars over the years. On the opposite side of the coin, they've gotten a bunch of junk, too. Sometimes the team has a hard time telling which is which, and they have to call in one of their trusty experts to illuminate what they're actually looking at.
With a seemingly endless array of experts on speed dial, it seems kind of weird when the guys just decide to take a major gamble on something when they're unsure of the resale value. Sometimes, this can work in their favor, such as the time Corey paid $1,500 to get his hands on a samurai sword that turned out to be worth as much as $6,000 (or more if he was willing to get it restored). If an expert had provided that information in front of a customer, then there's a good chance they would've asked for even more money.
In appropriate Las Vegas fashion, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. In one instance, Corey lost a pretty penny, and it caused a huge uproar at the World Famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop.
Corey's family wasn't happy when he purchased an autographed SR-71 panel
The season 6 episode, "Bossy Pants," finds Corey Harrison meeting with a guy selling a panel from an SR-71, one of the most technologically advanced jets ever made that's capable of traveling three times the speed of sound. On top of that, it's autographed by two men associated with the aircraft, so Corey's feeling pretty confident he can turn a profit and pays the man $1,500 for it. That's a good chunk of dough, and his father, Rick, isn't too happy to hear he's spent that much on what looks like a piece of scrap metal.
The Harrisons get into a bit of verbal tussle because everyone else thinks Corey spent too much on the item, so they call one of their experts after the fact to take a look. The bad news comes first: The panel isn't actually made out of titanium like the seller originally said, which automatically brings down its profitability. The good news is that the signatures on it are legitimate and the panel itself does seem to have come from SR-71, so there is some value. The expert estimates the item could bring in $1,500, which means at best the shop will break even.
That's not good enough for Rick and the Old Man, who are running a business after all. After hearing about how the panel isn't as valuable as Corey initially thought, they continue to chew him out. It's not the worst mistake Corey's made on the show, like when he spent too much money on an Evel Knievel pinball machine, but all it takes is a few bad decisions to sink any business. At least Corey didn't have to collect quarters this time around.