Selling Something Without Knowing Its Value?!

fmdog44

fmdog44

Well-known Member
Location
Houston, Texas
Watching Pawn Stars today I wondered why a person would walk in with a coin from the Vikings era and another with a book fron the 1776 American congressional era not having a clue what they were worth. Why would anyone do that? What if the buyer offers 1/10th what it is worth? How would you know it is a good or bad offer? If you had a painting and thought it might be a original Van Gogh and the buyer said it was only a replica would you then feel OK selling it for their offer of $200? What is even more puzzling is those people were probably 75-80 years old. By that age wouldn't you think they would be more aware of being ripped off?
 

fmdog44 said:
What is even more puzzling is those people were probably 75-80 years old. By that age wouldn't you think they would be more aware of being ripped off?
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Perhaps? Or maybe dementia is settling in and they just wanna get rid of stuff and don’t really care how much it’s worth. Maybe they like the show so much that they just wanted to be on television. Maybe they do know how much they are worth and are playing dumb, hoping to get more. Maybe they are excellent at poker faces.
There are endless scenarios I can think of .
 

I am a little bit with Keesha here. Maybe some folks, older especially are just looking to get rid of stuff, to downsize, and not as much interested in a big dollar payout, but just a pay out of some sort.
I know my husband has some old baseball cards he wants to get rid of, and he has been researching to at least get an idea of their value, before trying to sell them off.
 
Many, many rare things have little value and even with the ones that do have value the challenge is finding someone that wants it and is willing to pay for it.
 
A used item is only worth what a buyer is willing to pay. In the case of Pawn Stars...it is, after all, just a Pawn shop...and pawn shops are probably one of the worst places to try to sell an item. A person is lucky to get half of what a given item is worth at a pawn shop.
We stopped by the Gold and Silver Pawn shop a couple of years ago, during one of our trips to Las Vegas. Needless to say, none of the Harris family was present, and their prices were sky high...we just browsed for a half hour, then back to the Strip.
Even more outrageous, IMO, is some of the prices supposedly paid on American Pickers....those guys purportedly pay premium prices for what most people would consider absolute Junk. If anyone buys some of their stuff for the prices they claim on TV, that is absolute proof that P.T. Barnum was correct.
 
I'm a fan of Antique Roadshow broadcast on PBS. People often bring in junk shop/flea market finds that are valuable. It is definitely not scripted but I think most of the ones mentioned here are.
 
Keesha said:
Perhaps? Or maybe dementia is settling in and they just wanna get rid of stuff and don’t really care how much it’s worth. Maybe they like the show so much that they just wanted to be on television. Maybe they do know how much they are worth and are playing dumb, hoping to get more. Maybe they are excellent at poker faces.
There are endless scenarios I can think of .
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Yes but none of them address the point of the OP. You can come up with a million ifs ands and buts on anything.
 
fmdog44 said:
no they do not
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Loads of articles, online, say you're (mostly) wrong, including ones from folks who either appeared on the show or didn't make the cut. Do your own research. Everything is set up, beforehand, background customers are hired extras, banter between employees is scripted, haggling over prices is not entirely scripted.
 
treeguy64 said:
Loads of articles, online, say you're (mostly) wrong, including ones from folks who either appeared on the show or didn't make the cut. Do your own research. Everything is set up, beforehand, background customers are hired extras, banter between employees is scripted, haggling over prices is not entirely scripted.
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You said "everything" and that is why I posted. I have read some of the articles about the show and it is true seldom do any of the stars of the program show up for daily work because if they did they would fill the store with silly autograph seekers. A lot of the Nat Geo shows about people living in the artic and in the mountains are also staged but I am hooked on those regardless.
 
treeguy64 said:
Loads of articles, online, say you're (mostly) wrong, including ones from folks who either appeared on the show or didn't make the cut. Do your own research. Everything is set up, beforehand, background customers are hired extras, banter between employees is scripted, haggling over prices is not entirely scripted.
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Yep. I've only watched a little at a time. The fake banter gets tiresome. I've seen a few articles from people hired as background "customers" (paid extras).
 
What bothers me above all about the show Pawn Stars is Rick laughs at everything HE says. Very annoying.
 

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