'Pawn Stars' boss Rick Harrison offered $200,000 for a superhero costume — it didn't go as planned
Rick Harrison rarely makes a six-figure offer on "Pawn Stars," and only goes high for items that he considers Holy Grails. Over the years, many special items have appeared on "Pawn Stars," but very few could match the novelty of the original Superman suit worn by Christopher Reeve in the first film of the franchise. The owner of the suit, Nader, brought the special superhero memorabilia to Rick Harrison's table, who couldn't stop marvelling at the item. After making sure it was the real deal, Harrison even agreed to pay a whopping $200,000 for the suit. However, Nader stuck to his original offer of $250,000 and left the store without a deal.
In the episode, Nader brought the suti and an original piece of 'Kryptonite' from the movie, which Superman used to build his 'Fortress of Solitude." "This is the original Superman one costume worn by Christopher Reeve. I bought this at an auction about four and a half years ago," he shared. Harrison found the item quite fascinating, and his son, Correy, geeked out on the items. "It's from the Superman movie. At the time, it wasn't like they had CGI, so they had to create all this stuff. Christopher Reeve had to put on all the muscle. They didn't use a padded suit at all, so he'd put on like I think 20 pounds of muscle for the movie," he explained.
Harrison also acknowledged that the suit was really iconic, but he was skeptical of Nader's claim that it was the only suit made for the movie. "I'm just assuming there was a costume change, all right? Because if you're filming seven days a week, long hours, there's no time to wash. This thing would get really funky, so I'm assuming there was more than one," he suggested. The owner then showed Harrison the Kryptonite crystal as well, which added to the collection.
He then asked for the price of the items, and the owner demanded $300,000 for both. Hearing the big ask, Harrison called in his expert, Rob, to authenticate the items. Upon walking into the shop, Rob confirmed Harrison's assumption, saying that it was a thumb rule for studios to make more than one costume or prop. Rob further asked Nader about how he got the suit to verify the chain of ownership. When the guest told him that he got it at an auction, Rob said, "The last one I saw come to auction was about four years ago, and interesting enough, you were the buyer." The next step to checking authenticity was to look for a prop number, Rob suggested. "The materials are absolutely right for 1978. It's a stretch nylon. I'm gonna carefully lift this (the cape) up. We have a sewn-on label that says C Reeve and a prop number and a studio number, so that's an excellent sign," he further noted. Confirming that it was the real deal, Rob told Harrison that the two items could be worth a total of $250,000.
Getting down to the brass tacks, Harrison ditched his traditional hard-ball techniques to offer Nader $200,000 for the items. However, the guest wasn't willing to go below $250,000. "Like Rob said, I think it's a great investment, but investments go up and down, and I've seen it happen a million times. I will give you $200,000. Remember that's cash!" Harrison reasoned. Despite the big offer, Nader chose to keep the items and refused to make a deal.
"If I have to hold off for a little bit, I'm willing to do that. I'm confident I'd get the price that I'm looking for because I know the right buyer's out there," the guest said in the end.
