'Pawn Stars' guest holds her head in disbelief after her US President footage was not an 'original'
Guests on "Pawn Stars" often come with the expectation of making the most of vintage items or collectibles in their possession. But Rick Harrison is a shrewd negotiator and doesn't proceed without authentication by an expert. Although getting a valuation lower than expectations is normal, finding out that the item was fake all along can be devastating.
That’s what happened to a woman who had brought tapes of the former U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt. FDR is considered by many as one of the greatest Presidents the country has ever seen. He stabilized the economy after the Great Depression and was the man at the helm during World War II.
If these tapes really showed footage of the former President that had never been seen before, they could've been worth a large amount of money. Corey Harrison and the old man Richard Harrison knew this, but there was only one way to be sure. They called in expert Mark Hall-Patton to examine the tapes physically.
After all the formalities were taken care of, Corey and Richard Harrison, the guest and the expert, proceeded to watch the tapes. Indeed, they were videos of FDR, but nothing that hadn’t been seen before. “That’s FDR, alright, but this is not original footage,” the expert said. The guest’s head sank into her arms in disappointment. The item was not sold, but she said that she would donate it since the video quality was fantastic.
Presidential items are worth a lot of money, and no one knows this better than Rick Harrison. On one occasion, he wanted to buy a suit that belonged to the late great George Washington. He had gone down to Washington, D.C, to check out an Americana collection curated by a man named Brian. He was the one who had the iconic suit and set a massive price tag of $3 million on it.
Harrison knew that this could bring him a profit of gigantic proportions. However, he’d have to pay a huge amount of money to get it. The 60-year-old was never going to pay $3 million but wasn’t afraid to splash a substantial amount of cash to get the suit. "I'm just like, it is amazing! If I could go back and have a cup of coffee with just about anybody in history would probably be this guy," he said.
"I mean, it's George Washington's suit. It never occurred to me that one would be available. I am gonna go think and contemplate about this for a little bit.” He then offered $1.5 million for it, but that was not enough for the owner. Unfortunately, no deal was struck that day.
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'Pawn Stars' guest brings a cigar box owned by JFK and Rick Harrison was ready to pay a fortune
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