'Pawn Stars' boss Rick Harrison refused to pay $500k for Pokemon cards — now it's worth $5 million

As the owner of America's most famous pawn shop featured on "Pawn Stars," Rick Harrison is famous for spotting the value even in seemingly insignificant junk that appears on the show. But that does not mean he does not make mistakes. Harrison did make a major blunder when he once came across one of the greatest collections of Pokémon cards in the world and let it slip out of his fingers.

The collector, Gary, aka 'The Pokemon King,' brought a mint condition collection of 'Charizard Cards'. Since his collection includes some of the earliest realises, he asked Harrison for $500,000 for the lot. While the show's expert somewhat supported the demand, Harrison wasn't willing to pay that much. A few years down the line, the same collection ended up being worth $5 million, according to Looper. In the episode, Gary made it clear from the get-go that his collection was precious. "I have probably the world's number one Pokémon collection inside this case," he said as he walked into the shop. "I got into Pokemon collecting with my sons, and eventually they grew up and went to college, and I never did grow up, so I continued with Pokemon for the last 17 years," he added. Gary then revealed that his collection only had the Charizard cards, the most sought-after character amongst collectors. However, to Harrison, who couldn't even pronounce Pokemon right, they were worth nothing.

Thus, he called his sidekick, Chumlee, to take a look. The co-star immediately recognised the worth of the collection and advised Harrison that some of the cards could be worth over $40,000. He further explained that the interest in the 'Pokeverse' had peaked due to the popularity of the "Pokemon GO" game. However, it was all gibberish to Harrison, who said, "I really don't understand why Pokemon is such a big deal but if something like a beanie baby can become worth a lot of money maybe these can - I just need to know a lot more."

The pawn star then called in his expert, Steve Johnston, the owner of Rogue Toys, to come take a look. Upon inspection, Johnston realized that Gary's collection had some of the most sought-after cards, which were astonishingly in mint condition.

He explained that the cards were graded by Becket, which is more stringent than the PSA. "I just can't believe my eyes there's pristine tens everywhere!" He said after looking at the cards. He told Harrison that some of the cards would surely go for $40,000 to $50,000 in the market, and the collection would be worth anywhere between $380,000 to $390,000. "This is a one-of-a-kind collection," he told Harrison.

However, Harrison hesitated to make an offer as Pokemon cards just weren't his forte. "I'm absolutely blown away. These are really interesting, I mean you actually have lots of value here but my problem with these is if I go to sell them I can't have any conversation about it. I know absolutely nothing, I don't even know what a charizard is or does," he told Gary. 

"I'm not gonna make an offer, it's just it's out of my skill set completely 100%," he said in the end before showing the guest to the door.