'Pawn Stars' guest brings a 1920s train set, Corey Harrison spends a small fortune to get it

The whole train set was made in the 1920s by one of the most iconic toy companies of all time.

PUBLISHED SEP 27, 2025

Screenshots showing the guest and Corey Harrison on "Pawn Stars" (Cover Image Source: YouTube | Pawn Stars)

"Pawn Stars" guests can sometimes make a fortune from the most unexpected items, although the pawn shop owners are hard negotiators. On one such occasion, Corey Harrison bought an entire train set for just a thousand dollars. Stuff like this sells for a lot more to collectors, but Harrison stood his ground and got the deal he wanted. He did, however, see the whole set in action first, which was a great sight.

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The guest said that the train set was made by Lionel and that it was from 1923. That would make it over 100 years old. It looked to be in fantastic condition, as the guest said that the coaches only missed one seat. Back then, only a small percentage of the country had electricity. So, something like this would be considered futuristic. The guest wanted $1,100 for it, but Harrison wasn’t sure of its value.

As a result, he decided to call in an expert to take a look. However, before that could happen, Chumlee and the guest decided to set the train up in a room at the back of the shop. The former said he’d help, but it was the guest who laid out the tracks and put all the lights. Seeing a fully working train set that’s 100 years old and by the iconic Lionel company was going to be epic.

Screenshot showing components of the train set. (Image credit: YouTube | Pawn Stars) — Screenshot showing components of the train set. (Image source: YouTube | Pawn Stars)

When the expert came in and took a look at the setup, he was instantly impressed. “Oh my gosh. That’s fantastic,” he said, before adding, “You got your working headlamps, you got your brass embellishments there, all steel, I mean, they put a lot of work in this. This has two working engines here. You only see half of them work; the wheels always break off, but in the collector market, you want to see everything 100% original.”

Connected to a small transformer, the guest turned it on, and the train left its station without any sign of damage or any issues at all. It even moved at an impressive speed for a toy train. All in all, something like this would appeal to a lot of people, even non-collectors. There were some issues with the condition as the train had some wear, but that’s because it was played with, loved, and appreciated for many years.

Screenshot showing the guest and Chumlee setting up the tracks. (Image credit: YouTube | Pawn Stars) — Screenshot showing the guest and Chumlee setting up the tracks. (Image source: YouTube | Pawn Stars)

The expert then said that for this particular set, one could get around $1,200 to $1,400. The guest believed that was a bit low but did not make too big a deal of it. Harrison then said that he’d be willing to pay $800 for the set. This was obviously much too low. So, the two parties bargained a little and agreed that $1,000 was a good enough price for the Lionel train set.