'Pawn Stars' boss Rick Harrison agrees to pay generous money for a world map from 1700s
The most unexpected items can convince the "Pawn Stars" boss, Rick Harrison, who otherwise likes to play hardball while negotiating a price. On one occasion, he agreed to shell out thousands of dollars for an old world map, as he just couldn't let it go. Once his expert confirmed that the 18th-century map brought to the table by the seller named David was the real deal, Harrison knew he had to make a decent offer. While the seller wanted $4,000, the pawn shop boss brought it down to $2,000.
"I came to the pawn shop today to try to sell my map from the 1700s. The interesting thing about the map is how we know the world to be now and how they perceived it back then," the seller, David, said in his interview. After looking at the map, Harrison noted that it was interesting. "You know this is Vegas. This cool island is California," he said, noting that all early maps were accurate.
"Remember, these guys were on sailing ships with really crude instruments. To me, it's amazing they got this correct," Harrison said. "This map is not 100% accurate, but they never were back then. That's just part of their charm, and it's a great conversation piece," he added. The pawn boss then told the guest that some of these maps go for up to $30,000 to $40,000 at auction. At this point, the guest admitted that he was looking to get only $3,000 to $4,000 for it.
To get a fair estimate, Harrison then called in his expert to take a look at the item. As soon as the expert looked at the map, he exclaimed, "Oh, California is an island map. Yeah, this is beautiful." He explained how a wrong assumption led to California being represented as an island on the map until the 18th century. "So, I know the older the printing date of these maps, the more valuable they are," he added. After noting a few more details, the expert told Harrison that the map dates from between 1762 and 1784. "It's in very, very nice shape. It was a nice win at poker, that's amazing!" he said.
Noting that it was an 18th-century map, Harrison made a low offer of $1,500 for the map. However, David heard what the expert had to say about the condition of the map, so he tried to get some more out of Harrison. "It seems to me that it's worth a lot more than that," he said before asking for $2,500. Harrison then came up to $2,000, and after some back and forth, David accepted the deal.
"I'm satisfied with $2,000. I made a thousand more than I have into it, and I learned something today," the seller said in the end as he left the shop.
More on Market Realist:
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