1933 Goudey Autos on Pawn Stars

[the 'stache]

Hi Daryl,

I watched both of last night's new episodes just a few hours ago from my DVR, but have already deleted them. So this is all from memory. Please forgive any minor inconsistencies or brain farts on my part.

Off the top of my head, the best 3 cards were all Hall of Famers (Bill Herman, Ted Lyons and I forget the other, maybe Sam Rice?). These were appraised at $500 total. The others the appraiser valued individually between $40-60, or $40 to 80. From what I saw, all the signatures were nice and clean. A few cards had some conditional issues (multiple spots of paper loss on at least one back, some curled or creased corners which are pretty commonplace with the '33 set), but overall, it was a really nice collection of 23 cards in total. I think he appraised the total collection at $1,300. Corey initially offered the customer $500. The guy was going to walk out, but Corey then bumped the offer up to $600, which the guy accepted. I thought the offer was quite low. I know the shop has to make a profit, but in my opinion, when an expert is called in to give an appraisal, it is incumbent upon them to provide accurate information based on current market demand. And in this case, that did not happen. Some of the experts seem to undercut current market value in an effort to help the pawn shop negotiate a greater profit. And since one of my best friends is their regular fine art expert on the show, I don't want his reputation to suffer at all as a result of this practice.

I also agree about this relatively new marriage between the shop/show, and PSA/DNA. In last night's episode with the cards and the signed Marilyn Monroe notice of contract termination letter from Twentieth Century Fox, as Chris mentioned, Rick said in no small terms that any signatures certified by PSA/DNA are pretty much unimpeachable. All I will say is that definitely raised an eyebrow here.

Didn't they have another PSA employee that used to appear on the show? Steve Grad is the current PSA rep they call down now, but I could have sworn they used to use somebody else. Or was that just a forensic handwriting analyst that had nothing to do with PSA?

I used to be a pretty big fan of Pawn Stars, because I loved the items that would come into the shop. But ever since the start of this current season (when they changed the theme + show intro), it's become more of a second-rate reality show. I don't care about Chumlee's weight loss, or the Old Man's cholesterol level. I want to see rare pieces, and learn. Last night, the sports memorabilia expert (I forget his name) stated that Sam Byrd, one of the players included in the 23 card collection, was the only man to ever play in a World Series game, and in the PGA Masters Tournament. That's the kind of stuff I like to learn. Only these tidbits are becoming too few and far between for my tastes.

I'm doing a lot more fast forwarding than I ever used to.