'Pawn Stars' boss Rick Harrison was ready to pay $125,000 for a 'Wanted' poster — it still wasn't enough

Experts on “Pawn Stars” are supposed to help Rick Harrison figure out whether an item is genuine or a fake and to ascertain the value of such items before he gets into negotiation mode. However, on an earlier episode of the show, Rick offered to pay an expert a large amount of money for an item that he brought in for comparison. It was a wanted poster for John Wilkes Booth, the man who assassinated former US President Abraham Lincoln.

The expert was a man named Dana who claimed to be the President of Early American History Auctions Inc. He was called in to take a look at another wanted poster of Booth that a guest had brought in. Dana had a client who owned a verified original wanted poster and had brought it into the store to compare the two. However, he never expected Harrison to make him an offer.

The expert concluded that the poster brought in by the guest was an early reproduction worth $100. Harrison was disappointed that it wasn’t the original, but with another proven original in sight, he had to shoot his shot. “Are you serious?” was Dana's reaction when he was asked how much his client would be willing the accept for it. After thinking about it for a little while, he came up with a figure of $180,000.

This was quite high, and Rick countered with $100,000, which later went up to $125,000. However, the least Dana was willing to accept for it was $150,000. Unfortunately, no deal was struck that day, but the expert still appreciated the offer. “It was really fantastic that he had the interest, but we just couldn’t get there,” he said. This was highly unusual for the pawn shop boss, but he had a good reason for doing something like this.

An original wanted poster for Booth would attract thousands to the pawn store in Vegas. The manhunt that was launched for the assassin of Lincoln was one of the biggest in the history of the country. At the time, the authorities offered $100,000 as a reward, which was pretty much as big a fortune as it gets back in those times. It would have been a fantastic way to get several people to the store.

“I can’t begin to tell you how much I want this thing,” Rick had said. “It would look great on my wall. This is exactly the type of item that gets people talking about the store and heads through the door.” After he failed to strike a deal for it, he was a bit dejected. “I can’t win today. The first one turned out to be fake, and the real one, I can’t make a deal on,” he added.

The first poster that came to the store looked genuine, but the expert said that the font was too small compared to the original. That’s what helped him conclude that it was an early reproduction of the original wanted poster. Not many original posters were printed since Booth was killed 12 days after Lincoln’s assassination.