Tonsil removers? Electroshock kits? A beheading sword?
Are these props from a horror movie? Exhibits in a grisly museum?
Or items people hoped to make a few bucks selling on "Pawn Stars"? Watch and see.
Mummy curses are a staple of horror pop culture. But mummy stuff also happens to be quite valuable,
since only a limited amount exists. So,
do you risk a mummy curse for the chance at some good old-fashioned, hopefully not-cursed cash?
In the season-13 episode "Silver Stash Pawn,"
a customer named Jad brings in something the shop has never seen before. It's a
mummy mask from the second century BCE made of cartonnage, which is similar to paper mache.
It would have been placed on top of the mummy's face as a sort of identifier.
Corey, taking a look with Chumlee,
decides he doesn’t know enough on his own to make an appraisal.
“I’ve dealt with high-end art; I’ve dealt with high-end antique jewelry – stuff like that.
This is just a little out of my realm here. Do you
mind if I have a friend of mine come down and take a look at it?”
That friend is expert Dr. Phineas Kastle, who confirms the mask is real.
What’s more, it's worth about $20,000.
Jad's initial asking price was $70,000, but he comes down to $30,000 with this new information.
That's a bit high for the shop, so Corey nearly lets him walk away, but changes his
mind at the last moment and agrees to buy it for $30,000. Here's hoping it's not cursed after all.
You might remember a creepy chimpanzee toy from Toy Story 3 with bulging red eyes. That's
an actual toy called the Musical Jolly Chimp. And no, it doesn't look very jolly, but maybe
they thought that putting "Noisy Bloodthirsty Chimp" on the box wouldn't get as many sales.
In season 3, episode 15, aptly titled "Monkey Business," a woman named Dana brings her Musical
Jolly Chimp into the shop. Manufactured by a Japanese company in the 1950s, the chimps are the
definition of vintage toys. And Dana's is in very good condition. It's even in the original box.
The Old Man looks it over and, knowing the profit old toys in good shape can bring,
does something almost unheard of on the show. Dana only asks $100 for the nightmare chimp,
but the Old Man actually goes up and offers her $150 instead. He says he
could easily get $300 for it, not feeling comfortable purchasing it for only $100.
The deal is made and an item with a certain creepy charm comes into the shop's possession.
While French cuisine is highly regarded worldwide, it can stray into weird territory.
Foie gras, for instance, involves expanding a duck or goose liver by force-feeding the animal until
it's close to bursting, then slaughtering it and serving the liver, sometimes raw.
In season five, episode six, a customer named Keith brings in something that looks like a brass
bell with a crank wheel on top. Keith tells the Old Man and Chumlee it's a duck press.
Neither of them knows what that is, so Keith explains.
In French cuisine, the duck press is used to crush a roasted duck carcass
until a sauce made of blood and fat drips out of a tiny spout. It's done tableside, and you get to
see the duck goop come right out. Delicious! Keith asks $9,000 for the press, but the Old
Man says it's too much and offers $1,500. Keith requests $3,000 instead, but Richard thinks it
would take a long time to sell. In the end, Keith and the shop can't agree on a price.
“Then I’m gonna have to pass on that offer.”
“Alright.”
We've all heard the stories of the days of quack medicine. They include bizarre concoctions,
devices of questionable efficacy, and procedures that were just downright harmful.
One of the most common forms of quackery involved electricity.
Basically, a bunch of people in the early 20th century were so obsessed with electricity, they
just assumed it could fix anything. Accordingly, there were plenty of electrical gadgets claiming
medical benefits like restoring hair, removing acne, or even soothing minor aches and pains.
In "Weird Science," the 26th episode of season 4,
a woman named Maureen brings one of these consumer-level devices into the shop.
After playing around and shocking one another with it, Rick and Chumlee get down to business.
Maureen wants $100, and Rick counters with $75, which she takes.
Though blood transfusions are now highly regulated, that's a relatively recent development.
Refrigeration, screening blood for pathogens, and matching up blood types were nonexistent
before the 20th century. Doctors back then had to use barbaric-looking blood-transfusion kits
like the one that was brought into the shop in season five, episode 25.
Made by the C.M. Sorensen Company, it's basically just some tubing and two large
glass bottles. The actual pumping is done manually by using a foot pump.
Owner Artie jests that it’s for, quote, "lazy vampires" and wants
$211 for it — an oddly specific number. Chumlee offers her $100,
but she successfully gives him the stink-eye and convinces him to go up to $125.
Having tonsils removed is a fairly standard procedure. But in the days before modern medicine,
without anesthetic and advanced surgical tools, things got pretty scary.
Enter the tonsillotome, invented in 1827. Brought into the shop in the season eight premiere by an
MD named Daliah Wachs, it's a long device that basically acts like a tiny guillotine for the
tonsils. But it didn't remove the most dangerous part of the tonsils, so its effectiveness was
pretty questionable. Since it was used without anesthesia, the pain involved was horrendous.
Dr. Daliah initially asks for $1,100. Corey counters with $500,
noting that doctors with money to spend who are interested in the item might want to buy it.
She replies that an ear, nose, and throat specialist would pay even more,
so Corey agrees to raise the price. After some further haggling, they settle on an $800 sale.
“Alright, I’ll take 800.”
“Alright, deal.”
Peg legs are typically associated with pirates on the high seas. That's what
a customer named Charlie thought too when he brought one to the shop in season two,
episode 17. But, as the episode points out, artificial limbs have been in use
since Ancient Egypt, so it could be from many different points in time.
Rick suspects the leg actually hails from the Civil War,
so he calls in Rod, an expert in nautical antiques, who agrees with that assessment.
He also points out that there is evidence it was used, so the thing wasn't just for show.
Rod estimates it's worth about a thousand bucks. Charlie had initially wanted $7,500
when he believed it belonged to a pirate, but Rick can only offer $500
with the new information. Charlie decides no deal and walks out with three legs.
The First World War, waged from 1914 to 1918, was one of the bloodiest conflicts
in human history. It was especially disturbing that by then photographic,
and even some filmed footage, documented the horrors of the war. Since it was also the first
major war after the invention of many modern medical techniques, it revealed to the public
some of the unsettling things a combat medic or nurse might have to deal with on the battlefield.
Surgery is stressful enough as it is, so imagine operating in a trench with no real facilities,
bullets and bombs flying overhead, and dirt and disease all around you.
Bob, a customer who visited the shop in season 15's premiere,
had just the historical piece to demonstrate: a World War I German field-surgery kit. Rick
and Big Hoss open it up to find brutal surgical instruments that were necessities at the time.
Rick even points out a particular device that was likely used to amputate fingers.
Bob wants $10,000 for it. Though the kit has all its parts and is in pristine condition,
Rick mentions there aren't a lot of collectors out there for this kind
of item. So he offers Bob $2,000. They end up agreeing to $2,800.
Former dictator Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq from 1979 until he was overthrown in 2003. He
disappeared that year, but amazingly, in December 2003, US forces found the ex-dictator hiding in a
spider hole near an Iraqi farmhouse. Looking far more disheveled than normal, American soldiers
took custody of Saddam. He was then fingerprinted by the FBI. That's where Bill comes in.
A former FBI agent, Bill was in Iraq when Saddam was captured. While the original fingerprints
are kept in the bureau's vaults, the FBI gave certified copies to all agents involved in the
capture. So, Bill brought his official copy into the shop in season five, episode six.
While Rick mentions he generally doesn't buy items related to evil individuals,
he's interested in purchasing Bill's copy of the notorious fingerprints. Rick offers $1,500,
but Bill thinks it’s worth significantly more, asking for $10,000. Rick can’t justify that much,
so Bill decides not to take the offer and leaves with his strange piece of military history.
One of the original horror novels that has spawned endless adaptations, Dracula tells the story of,
well, Dracula — an ageless vampire who arrives in London and torments
the people he encounters there. To say it's an influential story is a huge understatement.
The novel is a blueprint for the entire realm of horror stories.
Count Dracula, meanwhile, has become a massive pop-culture figure.
So you can imagine Big Hoss's excitement in episode 31 of season four when a customer named
Mark brings in a hardcover copy of the novel from the original US print run. Not only that,
but it's autographed by author Bram Stoker himself. It even includes a date,
also written by Stoker, of September 16, 1897 — the year the novel was released.
Corey points out it's not a first edition though, since the book was
originally published in Europe. But this signed copy is still worth some money.
Mark wants $15,000 but has no paperwork authenticating the signature. So Big Hoss invites
a forensic document examiner named Drew to take a look. Drew confirms it's authentic and estimates
it's worth about $5,000. Corey offers $2,000, and he and Mark eventually settle on $2,350.
Civilizations throughout history have all used tools and weapons of various shapes and sizes.
It can be difficult to tell where a piece came from though, and that’s something the people on
Pawn Stars often encounter. But sometimes it’s unclear just what an item is in the first place.
Rick faced that situation in season four, episode 25 when a customer named Ryan brought
in a hand-held blade with multiple curves. The thing appeared to be a cross between a weapon and
a harvesting tool. Ryan wasn't totally certain, as he got it from an uncle who had passed on,
and Rick and Chumlee had no idea either. The blade was made from iron but crudely forged,
indicating that whoever made it had good materials, but maybe
not the advanced blade-making skills seen in other cultures.
Rick calls in his friend Sean, who’s an expert in antique weapons and armor.
Sean determines it's a sword used by tribes in the Congo from the mid-1800s. As it turns out,
a chieftain would have used it to behead enemies. Yikes.
Sean estimates it's worth about $400, and after some haggling,
Rick and Ryan agree on a sale price of $225 – no decapitations required, thankfully.
While they deal with tons of dangerous weapons on Pawn Stars from guns and swords to
more unusual weaponry, nothing beats the piece brought in by a visitor named Brian
in season 10, episode four, titled "Put Up Your Nukes." What appears to be some
sort of red warning cone is, according to Brian, something far more significant.
Brian: “That is a thermonuclear weapon cover.”
Thermonuclear weapons, similar to nuclear weapons, cause massive amounts of destruction through
atomic fusion, creating those enormous mushroom clouds you've seen in documentaries for decades.
Also known as hydrogen bombs, thermonuclear bombs have a
higher yield and size than standard nuclear warheads. Whichever type of bomb it's part of,
Brian has a component of one of the most horrific weapons of war ever devised.
According to a small plate attached to the side, the cover comes from an American B-57 warhead.
The piece is a bit out of Rick's expertise, so he visits with Allan, an expert from the nearby
National Atomic Testing Museum. Allan says the cover isn't from a hydrogen bomb, but a regular
nuclear bomb and was used to protect the weapon's nose cone to prevent accidental explosions.
Allan has a defused B-57 right in the museum, and the three guys find that Brian's cover is a
perfect fit. Brian wants $800 for it, and after a little back and forth, Rick buys it for $625.
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