'Pawn Stars' boss Rick Harrison ends up paying $8,000 for a rare book that cost the guest only $25
Diverse literature from comic books to literary classics often makes it to "Pawn Stars," and Rick Harrison, as well as his associates, have an eye for rare editions. One such classic is 'Anne of Green Gables,' written by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery was first published in 1908, and since then it has sold over 50 million copies worldwide. Matt, an average reader, surprised "Pawn Stars" boss Rick Harrison with a rare first edition of the book and expected to get a fair $18,000 bargain deal. "I bought it from an estate auction, actually," he tried to make himself sound sophisticated. "Did you know right away that it was worth money?" Harrison tried to test his knowledge. "I did not. I originally got it from my mom, and then I ended up doing a little bit of research into it and told her sorry, I may end up having to hold on to it and get her something else," he said in jest.
Harrison then made a quick dive into the inspiration behind the book and the history of the author. He also revealed that the manuscript was rejected several times before becoming an overnight sensation. "She ends up writing this sends it to multiple publishers and all gets rejected couple of years later, she opens up the drawer, dust is off, starts sending it around again and, it got picked up, and it was like an immediate success, I mean like right off the bat," Harrison said. But after listening to Matt's asking price, Harrison was left in a dilemma and turned towards an expert.
The expert Rebecca Romney, the CEO of Type Punch Matrix, a firm that deals with antique items, especially books. She said, "One of the reasons she wrote this was because she was really frustrated with the type of girls she was seeing in the literature." She then began to evaluate the condition of the book to determine its actual market value, and added, "I'm just going to check out with the condition, we've got what we call a broken hinge, the inside here, so one of the weakest points of a book are the joint or the hinge, it's called the hinge inside the joint, outside, so that is the most common place you're going to see wear, especially from reading and a book like Anne of Green Gables."
"It was read to death scale of 1 to 10, I would probably put this is around a six, okay, it is better than average," Romney shared. She valued the rare classic at $17,500 to the delight of the seller. However, Harrison wasn't in the mood to pay up, and what ensued next was a price war. Matt came down to $14,000, but Harrison soon countered it with $8,000, a direct cut down. Matt looked visibly disappointed and chose to quote $10,000, but Harrison shot it down. The seller finally accepted defeat and quoted $8,400, and Harrison locked it. It was a win for Matt since he had paid merely $25 for the rare edition.
