My Pawn Stars Experience

In this post, I'm going to share my experience being on the popular History Channel Show, Pawn Stars. It was without a doubt one of the coolest experiences of my life and I wanted to write out my thoughts... 💭

First off, I'm a HUGE fan of the show. It's the perfect blend of historic items & market value. I love the actors and how they bring in real "experts" for appraising various objects. I would have never dreamed to actually be featured on the show.

Anyways, last year in 2022 I sent Pawn Stars a message on Instagram. I told them I have a pretty rare Harry Potter book and that I'd love to be "featured on the show." The book has never appeared on Pawn Stars before and I thought it'd be cool to spread appreciation for the item. Truth is I never wanted to actually sell the book but Pawn Stars would never message me back right? They probably get hundreds of requests... 😬

A few weeks later I get a message from the casting director wanting to get more information. I chatted about the book, what I would want to sell it for, and they booked to have me in Denver Colorado during filming. I couldn't believe it.

The episode was going to be for their parallel series: Pawn Stars Hit The Road-- where Rick and "the boys" travel to several cities throughout America searching for their next great deal.

Fast forward a few months later and I'm on a plane landing in Colorado with my rare Harry Potter book (thank goodness TSA did not mess with it in security!) I request my Uber ride and punch in the address.

As we near the location (some historic building in the downtown area), I'm panicking. "What if they accept my asking price?" "What if I leave Colorado without this book?" "Why did I even do this in the first place?!?" in my mind, I thought 30k would be a solid ask price. Market value is probably 20k. Pawn stars will always low-ball, I felt like it was a good starting point.

It was a gloomy day-- rainy and overcast. I get out of my Uber, walk up to the registration tent, fill out some paperwork, and get my Covid test. Minutes later I hear a lady saying, "I need to find the book guy!" She tells me im scheduled to shoot at 2pm. I hang out and make some really good friends with a few locals from the area.

As 2pm drew near, I started getting nervous & excited. I saw Rebecca Romney, Rick Harrison, and Corey in passing. I wondered who I was going to meet with. Where was Chumlee?

The audiovisual people hook me up with a microphone, tell me how to position my body in the lighting, etc. it was GO time!

it was Chumlee!! My favorite guy on the show. We both are big Pokémon fans and have a few mutual connections so I was excited about that. He's also pretty easy going and isn't as hard-nosed as the others. I do the first couple of takes saying that I'm "looking to sell" my 1st edition copy of Harry Potter & the Philosophers Stone". Chum gives a quick overview of Harry Potter, assesses the book condition, and then calls in the expert Rebecca Romney.

Rebecca comes in and values the book in the 18k-20k range. *Breath sigh of relief* Chumlee offers me 15k to which I politely decline.

We chat about rare Pokémon cards after the shoot and get a picture.

Even though the episode wasn't as dramatic as others, I still had a blast and I can now share this episode with my children who hopefully get my collector genes 🧬 I wonder what the value of the book will be when they're my age 🤔

Here's a link to the episode if you'd like to watch: https://youtu.be/zqn_lr1prD0