'Pawn Stars' guest brings a 300 million year old fossil — only to get lowballed by Rick Harrison
“Pawn Stars” boss Rick Harrison is notorious for his fierce negotiation skills to force customers to agree to his price for an item. However, that is not always the case, and one guest, who played hardball with the 60-year-old, convinced him to raise his offer to something a lot more suitable. He had items dating back almost 300 million years, and had brought a set of fossils of plants and a spider.
The guest said that he had collected them from the Mazon deposit in Illinois, one of the most popular sites to excavate such prehistoric items in the world. The guest wanted $1,200 for his whole set, but Harrison wasn’t sure of the valuation. He admitted that paleontology wasn’t his strong suit and wanted an expert to take a look at them. He even suggested that some of the fossils could just be an artist’s work on a rock.
Harrison knew a paleontologist named Dr. Scott, and he came to the shop in a few moments to check out these fossils. He, too, acknowledged that fossils are indeed faked, but these weren’t like that. “These are some of the nicer ones that I have seen,” he said, much to the guest’s relief. He then revealed that these fossils were of organisms that lived on the planet 300 million years ago.
“These are absolutely real. They are carbon impressions of organisms that lived on planet Earth 300 million years ago,” he said. Dr. Scott then revealed that at the time, central Illinois, where these were found, was much closer to the equator, which led to the area having a tropical climate. That is certainly not the case today in Illinois. The plant ones were nice, but the intriguing one was that of the spider.
“This one is very interesting,” he said, holding the spider fossil in his hands. “It is a spider. A 300 million-year-old spider has found its way to Las Vegas today. Just the cool factor of that alone, I mean, collectors all over the world love to find these.” Once they were confirmed to be authentic fossils, it was time to get down to negotiations. Harrison did not want to pay what the guest was asking for, but he probably didn't expect him to play hardball.
He said that he would be willing to pay $800 at first for the whole set, but this was nowhere near what the guest had asked for. The 60-year-old then raised his offer to $1,000, but even this wasn’t enough. “I’m looking for just a little bit more than that. I mean, like I said, I wish I could make a deal with you, but I can’t let them go for a thousand,” the guest said.
Put in a tough spot, Harrison was forced to raise his offer to $1,100. The guest seemed skeptical about it at first, but then agreed that it was a fair deal and a lot closer to what he had asked for in the first place.
