'Pawn Stars' boss Rick Harrison ends up spending a fortune on three special postcards
"Pawn Stars" boss Rick Harrison stands out for the way he plays hardball to squeeze out profitable deals from sellers. One of the best examples of this was when Harrison got three valuable postcard paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat for the price of one. When the seller named Bobby brought the collection, Harrison's own expert appraised each of them at $50,000. In the end, the pawn shop boss ended up paying that much for all three postcards.
In the episode, Bobby brought the three 'mixed-media' postcards from the famous artist. As per the show, Jean-Michael Basquiat sold artwork like the postcards on the streets before he met Andy Warhol and became a successful painter. Showing off the three postcards, Bobby told Harrison that he got them from a collector who purchased them directly from the artist's family. "These are original Bask postcards. They are extremely hard to find, especially in this condition," he claimed in his interview.
While Harrison noted that the artist was outrageously famous, he had his doubts, as Bobby did not have any paperwork to prove their authenticity. Further, when he learned that the seller was looking to get $38,000 for each of the three postcards, Harrison called in his art appraiser, Brett Maly, to authenticate the collection.
Maly brought in reinforcements in Scott Ferguson, who personally knew Basquiat and helped him sell art in the street. "He and I were friends in the East Village. We were both very young, much the same age. He was a runaway living on the streets, making these postcards and selling them as fast as he made them, and I physically helped him sell them," Scott told the guest and Harrison.
Looking at the postcards, Scott told the pawn boss that most of the markers of authenticity checked out. He examined that they all were mixed media, the style was original, and the lettering matched the artist's work. Thus, he assured Harrison that they were the real deal. Maly then took over, and explained that the postcards were quite rare, and given that Basquiat's paintings bring $100,000 at auctions, each of the cards would be worth at least $50,000.
After the experts left, Harrison got down to business and asked for the best price. "Well, knowing what we know now, I would still like to get $38,000 a piece," Bobby said in response. "I'm going to risk it and give you fifty grand for the entire lot," he told Bobby. While the seller came down to $30,000 a piece, Harrison did not budge. In the end, Bobby gave up and accepted the $50,000 deal.
"I'm taking this offer of $50,000 because I don't want to keep going back and forth to different pawn shops or galleries. It's all cash, that's not bad, so I am taking it," Bobby said in the end.
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