Pawn Stars s03e17 Episode Script

Ready, Set, Pawn

On this episode of Pawn Stars I have colonel Sanders' suit.
It smells like chicken.
I love the colonel.
He was an American icon.
What were you looking to get out of it? $80,000.
What do we got here? It's a presidential document signed by grover Cleveland.
Presidential memorabilia can be super valuable.
The paper looks right, the ink looks right, but some presidential documents were signed by secretaries.
I wanted to get rid of my zamperla punchball.
Awesome.
I love these machines.
They're an immediate attention grabber.
It's got vintage history, and people love punching stuff.
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.
How you doing? All right.
Got a 1966 Beatles' Yesterday and Today Butcher album.
will still be more popular than the music you listen to today.
I'm sorry, dude, but there's gonna be 80-year-old people listening to snoop dogg.
[Laughs.]
I came to the pawn shop today to try to sell my Beatles' Yesterday and Today Butcher album.
Picked up this album at a record store in Dallas for $800, and today I'm hoping to sell it for $2,100.
I'm trying to get money to help my son with college.
Why do they call it the butcher album? Well, what the Beatles did, they released an album here in North America that had a controversial cover.
They had to recall it.
Most of the copies were destroyed, but a few of them, they slapped this new cover over, and it was released that way.
So what was so controversial about the photograph? Well, here's a picture of what the original photograph looked like.
As you can see, they're wearing these white butcher smocks with meat and baby doll parts, and it was just too far ahead of its time.
It went against what their image was at the time.
Some say the Beatles wanted to show their record label butchering their American albums, while others thought it was more about the absurdity of fame.
For me, what's the deal with the baby parts? It's a really, really neat album.
It's in incredible shape too.
It's actually a very collectible item.
As far as the Beatles are concerned, this is one of the most sought-after and rare items associated with them.
We can work it out, day tripper, yesterday: You don't remember any of those songs? I mean, really, they were just kind of like the first boy band.
They had a few good songs and a lot of crap.
Well, I think most of the music you listen to is crap and this is a lot better.
Corey may not appreciate the Beatles yet, but one day, he's gonna wake up, he's gonna hear hey jude, and go "holy [Bleep.]
.
This is amazing.
" How much do you want for this? Online, these things are going, in this condition, over $2,500.
I'd like to get $2,100.
When you looked online, that's what they were asking, or that's what they were getting? That's yeah.
That's what they're asking.
Okay.
I mean, you can ask anything you want.
I mean, whether you get it or not is a different situation.
I'd pay you, like, 1,200 bucks for it.
Could you take $1,500 for it? I'll go $1,250.
All right, $1,250.
All right.
You want to go write him up? Yeah, let's go do some paperwork, man.
Beatlemania is alive and well, and collectors love rare albums, especially ones that were misprints or pulled out of stores.
I'll be able to sell this thing in a second.
So what do you got in here? I have a world war ii era flag.
It has 48 stars on it.
Okay, let's fold this thing out.
Yeah, this is big.
Rick, this is what is known as a huge flag.
[Laughs.]
I decided to come to the pawn shop today to try to sell a 48-star American flag.
The fact that it's 48 stars means that it could be anywhere from 60 years old to however long ago it was the 48th state joined the country.
My husband purchased it 20 years ago from a military history shop in northern Virginia.
Could be, I guess, as old as 1914? Arizona was admitted in 1912.
I could be wrong, though.
The gentleman he purchased it from said that it was flown over fort hood.
You don't have no paperwork or anything? No.
There's no way of documenting it.
But it's a great piece.
Most people have no clue that our flag, the one that replaced this one, was designed by a 17-year-old kid.
He sent a design of our current flag to congress as a school project, and they picked it.
I hope he got extra credit for it.
I mean, it's in relatively good shape.
I mean, there's a few rips and tears in it, but the thing about this flag is, I don't know what I'm gonna do with it.
And why is that? It's really difficult to display.
You could stretch it out across the countertop.
Yeah, and it'd just hide everything else I have for sale.
It is really interesting, though.
Something like this is worth right around 200 bucks.
Okay? And that's probably what I'll get out of it.
I'll give you $150.
Oh! Okay.
Got a deal.
Sounds great.
Thank you.
You want to do the paperwork, or you want me to? I don't run computers, son.
All right, come on.
Let's go do some paperwork, and we'll get you paid.
Okay.
Thanks.
This flag is not that rare.
Now, if it was a flag from a famous battleship or raised on iwo jima, then we'd be talking serious money.
Hey, what can I help you with? Have a look at this.
What is it? Well, the old man's a watchmaker.
He's now retired.
He told me it was a pivot turning tool.
Okay.
Where you from, sir? I'm from england.
Sounds like it.
[Laughter.]
I decided to come to the pawn shop today to try and sell my antique watchmaker's tool.
I got this tool from my dad.
He used to be a watchmaker.
He's quit, so I was clearing all his stuff out, and he gave it to me to try and sell it.
It's really old, you know.
It's in good condition.
We'll see what we can get for it.
So what can you tell me about it? It's a pivot turning tool, which don't mean a lot to me, 'cause I'm not a watchmaker.
So you never worked on watches with your dad? No, he always wanted me to, but, you know, I ain't got the patience for it, you know? I ain't got the small little teeny hands required.
And I ain't got the eyes for it.
Early watchmaking was a delicate and tedious job, because it was all about precision.
They used so many tiny, intricate instruments, very few people had the patience or the steady hand.
You know how old this is? I think it's about turn of the century, something like that.
Yeah, it wouldn't surprise me.
You know, you got some steel collets, some brass collets for gripping, like, a drill bit or something like that.
This holds the collets, and this does I have no idea.
Um Well, it holds this for something.
And maybe this goes into something.
Yeah, I have no idea.
You know, I know all about watches, but the tools that put them together, I'm not real big on.
I have no idea if even all the parts are here or even if the thing works.
But I do have a buddy who's a watchmaker.
I can have him come down and take a look at it.
He could tell us what it is and maybe tell us what it's worth.
Yeah, sounds good to me.
Okay.
Cheers.
It's a presidential document signed by grover Cleveland.
You have a signature that's very sharp and clear with a nice consistent flow.
And I have a really interesting story about grover Cleveland.
The ball drops down, and you hit it as hard as you can.
The dial spins around, tells you how strong you are.
How about you guys battle for it? I'm game.
Earlier today, a guy came in with an old watchmaker's toolkit.
It looks very old.
But I have no idea what it's used for, if it has all the pieces, or if it even works.
So I called in my buddy ferdinand to take a look.
My name's ferdinand, and I'm a watch and clock maker.
Rick called me in to look at these things because in watchmaking, you have such a lot of different specialty tools.
You may not come across another one in your lifetime.
Okay.
I haven't seen anything like that in a long time.
It's a watch screw refinishing tool.
A what? Watch screw finishing tool.
I know it's a mouthful.
And it's even longer in German.
But this is actually for fine refinishing screws.
Just to Polish screws.
Just to Polish screws.
Can you show me how to use it? Yeah, I could.
Mind you, we don't have the vise here.
If you want to hold it, I can give you a demonstration.
I can hold it for you.
Yeah, okay.
So I'm putting the screw in the collet here, the thread.
All the way in.
And with that, I tighten it.
So now it's tight in there.
Put that in there.
Now, this is emery paper on the stick so it's nice and flat.
And you need to hold it nice and flat here so you got a good angle.
And you as you're going like this, you can get a good finish.
Okay.
So how old do you think this thing is? Well, "g.
Boley, made in Germany.
" Yeah.
Boley was actually a very well-known and high-quality manufacturer of watchmaker's tools.
But from about 1900 onward, people would use lathes now to do the same thing.
Okay.
So I would say before 1900.
Basically, this is just antiquated? Yeah.
It's a novelty.
It's a novelty now.
The tool is not really used today.
You would use a lathe to do the same job, you know, and far more efficiently and quicker.
So the market would only be for a collector.
What do you think it's worth? Well, it's worth, um It's worth a lot If you need to Polish a screw.
But unfortunately, there isn't much demand for that.
That's the biggest problem.
I was hoping I could sell it to you.
Okay, I've got 20 bucks in my pocket.
Well, I appreciate you coming in.
Oh, you're welcome.
You have a good day.
You too.
Ah, well, you heard him.
I'd give you, like, 20 bucks for it.
I'll take it back with me and give it to my old man.
Cheers anyway.
All right.
Thanks a lot.
Thanks for coming in.
You have a good day, my friend.
You too, mate.
What do you got? What I have here is colonel Sanders' suit.
Colonel Sanders' suit.
Colonel Sanders' suit.
It's got to be.
It smells like chicken.
[Laughter.]
I came to the pawn shop today to see if I could sell colonel Sanders' suit.
I got this suit when I purchased a house which was owned by colonel Sanders.
And I bought the contents of the house, which had some furniture as well as his suit.
I'm hoping to sell this for between $40,000 and $50,000.
When he sold the company in 1964, he stayed on as an ambassador, and he traveled on behalf of kfc.
He always wore the suit.
And the suits were numbered and dated for him.
This was the last suit given to him in terms of his contract.
How old was he when he died? He was born in 1890, and he died in 1980.
He was 90 years old.
He was an interesting guy.
I always loved kfc.
I was, like, raised on the stuff.
We ate Kentucky fried chicken at least once a week when the kids was growing up.
I love the colonel.
He was working at a crappy gas station in Kentucky, and one day, he said, "let's sell some chicken.
" Before he knew it, he was an American icon.
Talk about cooking up some damn fine chicken.
Did you want to pawn it? Did you want to sell it? I'd like to sell it.
I brought proof of my ownership of the contents of the house.
Okay.
What were you looking to get out of it? The last suit sold in an auction for $80,000.
[Exhales.]
I truly believe that the suit should be worth $40,000 to $50,000.
[Exhales.]
I mean, this is my quandary with it.
You got all the proof in the world that it was colonel Sanders'.
The problem is figuring out how to market something like this.
It's really tough.
I mean, it's a really, really specialized crowd.
There are, you know, thousands of franchises around the world.
They're opening two kfc franchises in China a week right now.
I understand that, but it's too much of a risk.
I would be too afraid to buy it.
I'm glad you brought it in, but it's one of those things I'm not gonna make an offer on 'cause I have no idea what I'm gonna get out of it.
Yeah.
Okay? No, I appreciate your help.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks for coming in.
I really appreciate it.
This thing is awesome, and I'm sure it could be worth $40,000 to the right collector, but that person would have to love kfc.
To everyone else, it's neat, but it's not 40 grand neat.
What do we got here? I believe it's a presidential document signed by grover Cleveland.
Huh.
I'd be so mad if my parents named me grover.
Pops, come here.
What do you want? Thank you for not naming me grover.
[Laughing.]
I decided to come into the pawn shop today to try to sell a presidential document, and I believe it's signed by president Cleveland.
I thought I'd bring it down here to see if I can get some extra cash to pay some bills.
"Grover Cleveland, President of the United States of America.
" Where'd you find this? I was actually rehabbing a house.
And I was in the attic, and I saw that tube, and I opened it up.
That document was in there.
Okay.
President Cleveland is known for two things.
He was the only president to serve two nonconsecutive terms, and his face is on the $1,000 bill.
That's about it.
Right here, it says he's appointing William lochren of Minneapolis, Minnesota, to the commissioner of pensions.
It's signed by the secretary of the interior and grover Cleveland.
Pops, what do you think? I mean, everything looks right.
I mean, it's It's definitely old.
The paper looks right, the ink looks right, but I know some presidential documents were signed by secretaries.
So I have no idea if this is grover Cleveland's signature right here or his secretary's.
Did you want to pawn it, or do you want to sell it? I'd like to sell it.
I think I need to have someone look at it before I make an offer.
I just don't want to put out the money without knowing.
Okay.
Let me call someone in here who knows more about it than I do.
Okay.
We'll get this thing figured out, and we'll see if we can do some business.
All righty, thank you.
Thanks.
You never know with something like this.
President Cleveland's signature could be very rare and this guy could have found a treasure in his attic.
Holy [Bleep.]
.
Awesome.
Wanted to get rid of my zamperla punchball.
It's just one of those pieces that's got vintage history, and people love punching stuff.
He thinks he's a tough guy, and he loves to brag, so this is his type of machine.
I decided to come to the pawn shop today to sell my 1981 zamperla punchball.
It's a old-school electromechanical punching game for bragging rights, most of the time.
It's just fun.
So what can you tell me about this thing? The ball drops down, and you hit it as hard as you can.
The dial spins around, tells you how strong you are.
These were great in bars.
I mean, they gave you instant bragging rights.
And, you know, guys would just feed money into them 'cause they couldn't let the guy next to them hit it harder than they did.
I love these machines.
They're an immediate attention grabber, and I really like punching them myself.
Maybe I just got a whole lot of pent-up aggression.
So you looking to pawn it or sell it? Sell it.
How much were you looking to get, boss? At least $1,000.
The problem I have with it, man, is, it does need some restoration work on it.
It's got some dings, but it still works.
Any of the artwork original? No, except for the wheel face, everything else has been replaced.
Another thing is that there's an entire top piece that goes with it too.
You don't have that, do you? No, it wasn't there when we bought it.
Okay, that being the case, I can offer you around $600.
Go $700? $650 sounds better.
I'd really like to see $700 on it.
I mean, it's a lot of fun.
Everybody's gonna have a good time, whoever gets it.
How about you guys battle for it? I'm game.
I'll do that.
All right.
Let's do it.
Who's first? Well, you go first, 'cause you're trying to get the money.
The key to being good at the game is angle.
When you go to hit it, punch through the ball, not punch at the ball.
[Loud smack.]
[Bleep.]
.
All right, so if I get above 170, it's $650.
Yep.
[Loud smack.]
Winner! Damn it.
All right, man, $700 it is.
Let's go do the paperwork.
Got the $700, really happy about that.
They might be bigger, but technique over brawn.
I took a swing.
He took a swing.
I won.
Earlier today, a guy brought in a document that appeared to be signed by president grover Cleveland.
I had a few questions, so I called in my buddy Dana to take a look.
He's an expert in American documents.
I'm president of early American history auctions.
The guys at the pawn shop call me whenever they have early-American documents or items that need authentication and valuation.
Let's see.
Grover Cleveland.
He was our 22nd and our 24th president.
I have a really interesting story about grover Cleveland.
Before he was president, when he was 27 years old, his law partner had a little baby.
Grover Cleveland purchased the first baby carriage for that little baby.
he married, in the white house, the little baby girl who he gave the carriage to, The white house has definitely had its fair share of scandals.
I mean, fdr married a distant cousin.
Harding had an affair with his wife's married friend.
Jfk and Marilyn Monroe supposedly had a fling.
And Bill Clinton, well [Laughs.]
This appears to be a presidential commission to this fellow, William lochren.
The document itself is in fairly rough condition.
Typically, a document of this nature would have been fairly well treasured by the person who received it.
They're typically framed and hung on a wall if you're given a document by a president.
But the printing on the document appears nice.
There's a embossed seal in the left lower corner.
I know some things like this were signed by secretaries.
Well, having been doing this for a long time, I've seen a number of signatures of grover Cleveland.
You have a signature that's in brown ink that's very sharp and clear with a very nice consistent flow.
And I believe this, um This is authentic.
There's no question about it.
Typically, if a document is signed by a secretary, the name of the person who is signing for the president would have been listed just below the president's name.
How much do you think it's worth? In the condition that it's in, with the tears and the stains and all and being wrinkled and edges crinkled, it's worth maybe a couple hundred dollars, $200, $300, something of that nature.
Okay, thanks, Dana.
I really appreciate it.
You take care.
Take care, Corey.
Well, you know what it's worth, son.
You handle the deal.
All right, man, what would you realistically take for it? Like, $250.
Realistically, man, I'm gonna have to have this thing framed and matted.
That's gonna cost me another 50 bucks.
I can offer you, like, 100 bucks for it.
Okay.
I'll take $100 for it.
All right, deal, bro.
Let's go do some paperwork.
Thanks.
$100 wasn't even close to what I was thinking I was gonna get, but what the heck? I found the document in an attic, and that's better than nothing at all.
[Loud smack.]
[Buzzer buzzes.]
[Loud smack.]
Damn it.
[Loud smack.]
[Buzzer buzzes.]
[Loud smack.]
[Bleep.]
Stupid.
[Buzzer buzzes.]
[Loud smack.]
[Bleep.]
.

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