'Pawn Stars' boss Rick Harrison haggles for mafia boss' autographed check — then buys it for $500

Fans of "Pawn Stars" get to see all kinds of cool items on the show, and some of them are borderline controversial. Like the time when a seller named Al brought an autographed check from one of the biggest mob bosses ever known, Carlo Gambino, to Rick Harrison's table. Intrigued by the mob money, Harrison first made sure that the item was the real deal before haggling his way to a cool $500 deal. 

In the episode, Al walked into the shop with the laminated check in his hand. After he told Harrison that it came from Gambino, the pawn boss was a little apprehensive. "Usually, I don't buy stuff from guys like this because the guy was a murderer, you know," he said. He then asked the seller about how he got the check. "Well, it was a gift I got a few years back. I collect a lot of Mafia memorabilia, mob stuff," Al shared, adding that he was looking to get a couple of thousand dollars for the item.

Harrison then went on to geek out about Gambino, explaining how he was a "Sicilian mobster who came to New York City in the 1920s and created a national crime syndicate." After talking a bit more about mobster families, Harrison was concerned that someone like Gambino would be signing his own checks.

Harrison then called a forensic document examiner, Drew, to come take a look at the item. Upon taking a look at the check, the expert was a bit surprised as well. "Well, I see we have the name Carlo Gambino. Also, it looks like that's George Schiller. He was a partner of his. He was a Russian businessman. But not officially part of the mob," he explained. He further noted that, given Gambino's crime history, his memorabilia is valuable to a certain type of collector. He then noted that the check was from a company that served as a front for Gambino's operations. "I've studied Carlo Gambino's signature. There's a lotta things we're gonna look for," he said before examining the autograph. 

After taking a good look at the signature and the other elements of the check, Drew concluded that it was 100% authentic. When asked for an appraisal, he estimated that the check would be worth over $1,000. Once Drew left, Harrison started negotiating and asked Al for a revised price. When the seller demanded $800, the pawn boss, in his signature style, cut it in half to offer $400. After some haggling, Harrison managed to convince Al to do the deal for $500. 

However, Al was still happy to make the deal, even though he got a quarter of what he initially expected to get. "I settled for $500 for the check. I think it was a fair price," the seller said in the end. 

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