Pawn Stars s03e11 Episode Script

On this episode of Pawn Stars I have three letters from the Kennedy brothers.
Kennedys might as well have been American royalty.
This one was personal, so I really want them.
Well, I can't blame you.
A Salvador dali Alice in wonderland book.
What a perfect combination.
Right.
His art can be very collectible and be extremely valuable.
Any idea what you were trying to get? $10,000.
Holy mother of transformers.
All different types here.
We have your first-generation optimus prime, second, third, fourth, fifth.
I could go on and on.
This is, like, the transformer mecca.
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 can I help you? I have three letters from the Kennedy brothers: John F.
Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Teddy Kennedy.
Where in the world did you get this? I got my ways.
Black ops.
Okay.
[Chuckles.]
Well, I'm here at the pawn shop today to try to sell my letters.
I'd say these letters are pretty valuable because they're letters sent by those three brothers to the same person.
You ain't gonna find those letters sent to the same person unless maybe it's, uh, Marilyn Monroe or somebody.
I don't know.
They're all to the same lady.
She's my aunt.
Why'd your aunt get them? My aunt wrote them first.
Okay.
since the '20s and '30s and '40s.
Okay.
The Kennedys might as well have been American royalty.
The brothers John, Robert, and Teddy were the family's superstars.
After all the tragedies and Teddy's death, there is a huge market for this memorabilia.
This letter from Teddy Kennedy is very interesting because he says in here, "rose Marie, I want to thank you "for sending me the prayer and the medal.
It was extremely thoughtful of you to do so.
" I don't know if that's a signature or not, 'cause it looks like it's a little smudged right there.
I don't know.
I don't know when they came out with autopen.
Yeah, I don't either.
Okay, and I'm afraid that's what these might be.
So I would like someone to take a look at them, make sure they're real signatures.
If the signatures are real, I really want them.
Let me get someone in here.
We'll look at them.
If they're real, I'll make you an offer, and we'll see what we can do.
All right, works for me.
Don't get that guy that did the o.
J.
Trial when the glove wouldn't fit.
Okay.
Get a real expert.
I really can't take a chance of buying these without someone taking a look at them.
If they're real, they could be worth a lot.
If they're not, I could get burned.
Hey, how's it going? Good.
How are ya? Grandpa? What? You want to come look at this with me? What you got, son? I have a Coca-Cola ice chest that was made between 1948 and 1952.
So Where'd you get this, man? I got it from a neighbor of mine in Texas about 25 years ago.
For some reason, all the good Coca-Cola stuff wound up in Texas.
Well, I'm here to sell the ice chest today because I've had it for about I believe this ice chest is probably fairly rare.
I would like to get around $400 for the ice chest.
This was called an airlines chest.
The way I understand it, it wasn't available or sold to the public.
No, it wasn't sold to the public.
They used these on small airplanes, and they could put a dozen cokes in here for customers on board.
They were well-built, like everything back then, well-insulated, and they kept stuff cold, and that was their job.
You used to say how flying was a lot classier back then, right? Oh, it was.
You were treated like a king.
I mean, now today when people travel, they travel in sweatpants, flip-flops, and it's like a cattle call.
Flying used to be a big deal.
It was a pleasure for both the passenger and the airlines.
Now it's a big pain in the ass.
So what are you trying to do, sir? You want to sell it, pawn it, what? I'd like to sell it.
What are you trying to get out of it, boss? I'd like to get $400 for it.
Couldn't go $400 for it.
This thing's in pretty nice shape, but you're fighting the economy right now.
Well, make me an offer, then.
What do you think, Corey? To be honest with you, chief, I could offer you around 100 bucks, man.
Well, I was hoping to get a little bit more.
Can you, uh hey, listen, man, I mean, I think it's really awesome, and I I do want it, but the most I can pay for it.
Well, you got a deal, then.
All right, let's wrap it up.
Okay.
I ended up selling the ice chest for $100, and I figured that's a fair price since it's probably worth $200 in the condition it is, so $100 to me, $100 for the shop, fair price.
How are you doing today? Good, thanks.
And what do we have here? It is a Lewis carrell, Salvador dali Alice in wonderland book.
What a perfect combination.
Right.
[Laughter.]
I came to the pawn shop to try and see what I can get for a Salvador dali Alice in wonderland book.
I want to sell the book today because it's just something that we've been sitting on.
And I'm hoping to get, bare minimum, $10,000 out of this book.
Yeah, these were really popular back then.
This was a way you could buy a lot of artwork.
If you wanted to, you could frame the entire book almost.
Why did Salvador dali do weird stuff like this all the time, man? This is the way he saw things.
He was original at it.
You've seen picassos that are really weird, and you go, "I could do that myself.
" Okay, but the thing was, Picasso was the first one to come up with that style.
This is his style.
This was his style.
He was the first one to do it that way.
And to be art, it must move you.
And it does.
Salvador dali was a Spanish artist who is just as famous for being pretty damn strange as he was for being an artist.
His art can be very collectible, but it can also be found in just about every dorm room in the country.
He's the one who became famous for the painting of the melted clocks.
Pretty cool for something done in the 1930s.
This entire series was one etching, and then there was heliogravures.
An etching is when they take a copper plate.
They take a pen with, like, a needle on the end of it.
And they scratch into it.
Mm-hmm.
And this is where you can tell it's an etching.
See this around here? It was pressed into swelled paper that was wet.
Very cool.
Okay? Back in the day, people didn't want lithographs or anything.
They only wanted etchings, because an etching is done by the artist's hand, as a part as a lithograph, someone transferred it got ya.
These are heliogravures.
You ever seen a newspaper, where it's all little teeny little dots? Right.
Heliogravures is more or less the same process, except it's a lot weirder and a lot more complex.
Okay.
[Laughter.]
I really like this book.
I already have some options on how can I resell it.
I can sell it as a whole, or I can piece it out.
Either way, I can make money, as long as I get it for the right price.
What were you looking to do with them? Sell it.
You have any idea what you were trying to get? I'm hoping for $10,000.
Okay.
It's a really neat set.
That's what I thought.
But I'll be honest with you.
I see 5 grand here.
He is not as popular as he used to be.
I'm gonna have to pass.
You sure? Yeah.
I mean, have you been offered more? Um, we've had it valued at more than that.
Good luck with it.
It's just, in the current market, I don't see you getting much more than that.
If you do, more power to you.
Okay.
I tried.
All right.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for coming in.
Absolutely, thank you.
I didn't accept the $5,000 offer, because I think if I hang on to it, I can get some more, and I'm not that desperate to get money right now.
We got some vintage Mickey mouse phones.
Mickey mouse is the king of all cartoon characters.
There's beaucoup collectors on these.
[Bell rings.]
Kennedy pieces, awesome.
In the autograph collecting business, if you die young, your autograph is gonna skyrocket.
It could be pushing $10,000.
Earlier I got a call about a guy with a huge collection of transformers.
I don't know a lot about them, but I know some are worth a ton of money.
So me and chum are on our way to go check them out.
All right, it's broken into two rooms, but this is the main room right here.
Holy mother of transformers.
This is, like, the transformer mecca.
[Machinery whirring.]
I acquired the transformer collection over the years.
I sacrificed eating lunch at school and used my lunch money that my mother gave me to buy transformers from the store.
I have to part with the transformer collection today because I have to make room for our newborn baby.
My transformers take up the entire room, and both the baby and the transformers can't be in it.
All right, so tell me all about these.
They came out in 1984, and I've been accumulating them up till now.
All different types here.
We have your first-generation optimus prime.
You've got fortress maximus over there is about two foot tall, one of the most expensive transformers you could have bought.
Devastator, got all the dinobots, soundwave, blaster.
I could go on and on.
It's pretty sick.
Yeah.
One of the cool things about transformers is, they've been around for a pretty long time, and they're still relevant.
If Hollywood is still making movies about them, that means they still bring in money.
It also means that the value of the original transformers is going up, up, up.
So what'd you want to do with these? Well, I have to part with them now.
Baby's on the way, so we need the room.
What do you want for them? Well, I was hoping to get about 20 grand for them.
That's a lot of money for Decepticons.
I think 20 grand's a fair deal.
If you broke this collection up and pieced it out, you could make a lot of money.
Specifically that tall one back there sells for a grand easy with the box, and I have the box.
All right, if what you're saying is true, I love to make money, so let me get someone over here.
We'll take a look at these things, and maybe there's some money to be made.
All right, excellent.
All right, thanks a lot, man.
Hey, no problem.
I think these transformers could be a good buy.
But 20 grand is a lot of money.
I have to get ahold of someone who knows about these things.
What do we have here? We got some vintage Mickey mouse phones that I've been collecting over the years.
My girlfriend's moving in, so we needed to clear some room for her shoes.
I got a lot of Mickey mouse stuff in general.
I got cookie jars, bedsheets, skateboards.
And you got a girlfriend? [Bell rings.]
I decided to come down to the pawn shop today and sell my vintage collectible Mickey mouse phones.
Some have the rotary, so you just spin it.
You don't see that anymore, especially not Mickey mouse.
I believe this one is probably the oldest out of the collection here.
It's got to be around the '70s, probably late '60s.
Of course, this is, like, late '80s, early '90s.
Yeah.
Do they all work? They should.
So you didn't try them? I didn't want to, you know, waste them up by plugging them in.
They're collector items.
Mickey mouse is the king of all cartoon characters.
There's beaucoup collectors out there on these.
What's beaucoup? A lot.
Yeah, I know Mickey mouse is a really big character.
I've been collecting him for years.
Are you in the Mickey mouse club? [Chuckles.]
With all these phones, I should be.
But unfortunately, I'm not.
Oh.
There's no shortage of Disney collectors, and these phones are cute.
They'd be an easy sell for us.
But we got to buy them cheap.
It's simple as that.
So what you wantin' to do, son? You want to sell 'em, pawn 'em? Yeah, I think it's time to sell them.
Have you got a figure, an amount of what you're wantin'? Yeah, I was thinking that with these two rotary ones right here, I could probably get $100 apiece, and the two in the middle right here, they're a little bit later, probably $75, and then $50 for this guy right here.
Maybe $350 $350, $375 for all of them.
I was thinking a little lower.
I'm looking at about $250 for the lot, son.
'Cause I was thinking this one by itself should be $100.
And these two should at least be over $50.
You can figure it any way you want to, but $250 is where I want to be on these.
You know, these are collector items.
Well, you got to understand, son, I'm not a collector.
Whatever I buy, I have to resell.
I have to have a margin in there where I can make something.
I would say at least, at least $300.
We can go $275, but I'm not going over that.
[Sighs.]
Well, I guess it beats $250.
All right, you got a deal.
Chumlee, write him up.
All right, meet you up there.
Earlier today, I had a guy come in with a set of letters signed by j.
F.
K.
, r.
F.
K.
, and Ted Kennedy.
There's no way I can buy these things without first having them checked out, so I called in my buddy drew to take a look.
Kennedy pieces, awesome.
I'm a forensic document examiner, more commonly known as a handwriting expert.
Yeah, Kennedy pieces are one of the most popular collectors' items there are.
I understand we have j.
F.
K.
, r.
F.
K.
, and Ted Kennedy.
Well, letters by John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy are extremely valuable, one, because j.
F.
K.
Was President of the United States, but both were assassinated at a very young age.
And in the autograph collecting business, if you die young, your autograph is gonna skyrocket.
So, Rick, what is your concerns with these letters? I just want to know if they're autopen or something like that.
It looks like a real letter from Kennedy and everything else, but it was the middle of a presidential campaign.
I don't think he had time to sign every letter that was written to him.
But then again, they could have.
Looks like on the Robert Kennedy's, he's talking about the Vietnam war, which is very interesting.
Let's take a look at it here, what we have.
Bring out the big criminy, you got the big Sherlock Holmes job there.
Yes, we do.
Well, we're definitely dealing with correct and original letterhead.
The boldness, the print, and everything is definitely clear, not done by a cheap copy machine.
Proper type of paper for the time period.
If these were original signatures, they'd be worth thousands and thousands of dollars.
If they had content like, for instance, here he is, Robert Kennedy, talking about the Vietnam war it could be pushing $10,000 to a real collector who wants it bad.
But unfortunately, John f.
Kennedy and the Robert f.
Kennedy were definitely autopens, and the value is, like, a fraction of what it would be Yeah, I know.
If it was worth a lot of money, so Man, that's sickening.
I can't believe it.
Signature was written by some kind of stupid automatic pen.
I mean, who ever heard of something that crazy? If you're elected officials, sign your own letters, or get a job somewhere else.
That's what I say.
So what do you think about Edward here? In this particular case, I don't believe this one is an autopen.
The endings are feathered in certain areas.
The pressure is different in certain areas.
Unfortunately, the Kennedys were famous for secretarial signatures, and I think this particular one is the secretary.
Sorry, guy.
Well, thanks, drew.
You bet.
Good seeing you, Rick.
All right, sorry, man.
I wouldn't want them.
Thanks for bringing them in, though.
I really appreciate it.
Well, you might find them later for nothing because they might fly all over Vegas.
[Chuckles.]
Okay.
Thank you.
All right.
I'm very disappointed I couldn't make any money with these letters, because I was planning on going out and having a big night.
Now I'm stuck at home with two dogs and a and a glass of water.
What in the hell are you guys doing? Playing a joke on the old man.
We're hooking up all the Mickey mouse phones.
It's gonna be hilarious.
You guys are [Bleep.]
.
What do we got here? I've got an antique razor from the '20s.
You still use one of these? I have in the past, son, not now.
Okay, 'cause I just I know how you're not really big on new things.
That's true.
[Chuckles.]
So I decided to come to the pawn shop today to try and sell my antique razor.
It's about 85 years old.
It's in great shape.
It's got the original box.
There's gold on the blade.
There's ivory on the handle.
I'm hoping for $300, but if I can make 100 bucks, I'm happy.
Where in the world did you get this? I got it at an estate sale probably about ten years ago.
You know anything about it? What I've been able to find out was, ewald krone made it.
I don't know much about Mr.
krone, but they're not as rare as you think, because just about every guy had one.
I mean, this one's a little nicer, but that's not ivory.
That right there is celluloid.
It's, like, one of the first plastics.
They would add those lines to make it look like ivory.
Didn't know they used plastic back in the '20s.
Yeah, it came out in the 1900s, early 1900s.
Actually, the reason they came out with it is, they were desperate to find something to make billiard balls out of besides ivory, because ivory was damn expensive and plastic wasn't.
The use of plastics exploded in the 1920s.
It was cheap and easy to produce.
And now a razor that used to be made with hand-carved ivory could be made out of plastic at a fraction of the cost.
It's still sharp.
Did you ever sharpen it? No, never sharpened it.
Did try it.
You tried? How did it work? I'm still here.
[Chuckles.]
Yeah, I've been to a barber before, and, you know, just when they start shaving your neck right here with one of these things, you just don't want to breathe.
I remember going to the barbershop with my father.
He got a shave every other Saturday when we went and got our haircut.
So it sounds like your father took you to a nice barbershop, not like me where you'd take me down to the Navy base and pay 25 cents to get my haircut.
This is what he did to me as a child.
I'd go in there, and some guy would just grab your head with the buzzers and go And this is probably why I'm bald today.
I got follicle damage.
All right, so what do you want to do with this? You want to pawn it or sell it? I want to sell it.
How much did you want for it? Um, I don't know.
I mean, I've seen some online going for, like, $300, $400.
The ones you've seen online go for that kind of money, there will be a lot more gold inlay on the blade.
The handle will not be celluloid.
It'll be ivory.
I'll give you 50 bucks for it.
You know what? I got to take my girlf my wife for dinner tonight, so I'll do it.
Okay, all right, let's go do some paperwork.
Great.
Well, I originally wanted $300.
Then I found out how much it's really not worth, so, you know, 50 bucks, I'm not complaining.
Earlier this week, I went to a guy's house who had a ton of transformers.
I don't know much about this market, so I called down my buddy to tell us what we got here and if we can transform this into a profit.
Welcome to the mecca of transformers.
Oh, wow.
Oh, my gosh.
This is amazing.
So, Johnny, this is why I called you.
What do you think? I love this collection.
I'm glad you brought me here.
My name is Johnny jimenez.
I'm the owner of the toy shack of Las Vegas.
I've always had a passion of toys ever since I was a little kid.
And my collection's been growing ever since.
You know, this is one of the best collections, the biggest collections I've seen.
There's a lot of money here in this room.
So why do people collect so many of these things? These were by far the coolest toys ever made in the '80s.
I mean, these were two toys in one, and they were quality.
Most of these were die-cast.
People want their old toys back that their mom threw out, so they're going back and paying top dollar to get their old toys back.
I mean, it's just a mass collection.
I mean, you just don't have one of each.
I mean, you've got four or five.
So what do you think it's all worth? He's got the box that goes to fortress maximus.
A collector would pay $200 to $300 just for that box.
Without the transformer? Without the transformer, just for the cardboard just like that.
This collection here is worth about $15,000 to $20,000.
In order to get the $20,000 out of this collection, you're gonna have to take the time to piece it out.
And that's a lot of labor.
Thanks, John.
I really appreciate it.
No problem.
Thanks for bringing me, Rick.
Okay, all right, so how many pieces are here total? A little over a thousand.
My problem is that I'm looking at $5,000 just in labor.
And by the time I'm done and want to make a profit, you're not gonna like my offer at all.
But I can give you, like, I can't do that.
I can't part with this for $5,000.
I'll come down, come down to $18,000.
I can't do it.
You know, I could give you $10,000 for this stuff.
Well, I I can't do that.
All right.
I appreciate you coming down, though.
Yeah, I appreciate it too, man.
At least I learned something.
Thanks for letting me see this collection.
Next time I'm at a yard sale and I see one of those things, I know to buy it.
All right.
Well, it's unfortunate that we weren't able to come to a deal today.
But, you know, at least I got an expert opinion on it, and I'm you know, I'm happy.
[Phone ringing.]
Hello.
[Phone continues ringing.]
Hello? [Bleep.]
Damn it.
Hello? [Bleep.]
Damn it.
Get these damn phones off my desk.