The Rare Basketball Card Collection That Fetched $25k On Pawn Stars
When you look around the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop featured on "Pawn Stars," you'll find every collectible imaginable. There's a market out there for pretty much everything from old firearms to autographed guitars. Basically, if there's money to be made, Rick Harrison wants in on the ground floor. And one of the most collectible items of all time is vintage trading cards.
While plenty of people will shell out fistfuls of cash for the chance to get their hands on a rare item, Rick needs to be prudent. The prices of these cards fluctuate wildly, which isn't a good marketing proposition for a guy as level-headed as Rick. When he buys an item, he wants to be 100% sure he can turn a profit. That's why he had to turn away some holographic Charizard cards. Even though they eventually sold for a pretty penny, Rick didn't want to gamble.
Things turned out more favorably in Rick's favor during a different haul on the show. On Season 18's "Action Packed Pawn," a seller comes in with a collection of rare basketball cards, and after some back and forth, they settle on a more than reasonable exchange.
Rick Harrison bought the lot for $25,000
The seller has 507 cards total, which will entail a lot of work to sell. It would likely require piecing out rather than selling to one individual, which makes for a lot of work on Rick's end. After getting everything authenticated by an expert, Rick enters the negotiations. The seller wants $120,000, but Rick only offers up $25,000. It's a hefty price discrepancy, and generally, on the show, Rick wouldn't even make an offer when their price points are so different, but he provides a good explanation for why he'll only do $25,000.
The cards may be rare, but Rick's going to have to figure out how much each one is worth. He then has to find buyers for each one, which could naturally take a long time. All that time and effort eat into his profits, so while he may be able to make six digits off of the purchase, he has to buy them cheaply. Fortunately, the seller doesn't want to do all of that work, so he agrees to sell to the pawn shop.
It will be a massive undertaking for Rick to sell the cards. But we're betting he could find someone to take care of all the grunt work for him. After all, Chumlee has proven he knows a thing or two about cards.