‘Pawn Stars’: Rick Harrison on What Viewers Don’t See on TV, Celeb Customers & What Next

Scott Fishman February 11, 2025, 11:08 am

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Rick Harrison, son Corey and Austin “Chumlee” Russell are back wheeling and dealing for Season 23 of Pawn Stars. The three welcome property owners to add to the inventory of Gold & Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas.

The premiere saw Rick meet up with 1980s and 1990s hit-maker Taylor Dayne to give the owner the opportunity to acquire some wardrobe pieces and memorabilia from her tours. During the January 29 episode, Rick, a noted car guy, takes a ride in a bright yellow 1975 Bricklin SV-1 and looks at a Shyvers Multiphone that gets him thinking about his late dad. The one on February 5 included everything from a Stock Oil stock certificate to a camera that shot the first footage of Elvis.

Coming up during the February 12 episode the three take a look at an apparent outfit worn by Alice Cooper, a 7-foot tall Deadpool PEZ dispenser, MetaZoo cards and a 1988 Winter Olympics torch. Never a dull moment at the proverbial office. Here Harrison talks about this season’s items, what viewers don’t see on TV, and how filming the popular History series helped him after his son Adam died.

One of the cool things that happened so far this season was Taylor Dayne coming into the Pawn Shop. How was it working with her?

Rick Harrison: She was really nice. You neve know what you’re going to get with rock stars. I’m not going to mention any names, but I’ve been around some rock stars that I didn’t like being around and weren’t the nicest people. She was such a sweetheart. She was absolutely amazing.

Who have been some your favorite famous faces to come through?

It’s an iconic show and airs all over the world. So, people like to get on the show. It’s a little promotion for them. It’s great TV, and I get to make a little money off of them. Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. That’s absolutely iconic. Steve Carell was on the show. There have been so many. Those are two of the biggest ones that pop out.

History Channel

During the February 12 episode, someone brings in Alice Cooper’s worn items. What’s the market for celebrity worn items these days and how you assess them?

It’s kind of weird. If you take stars from the 1940s and 1950s,there aren’t many who know about those people anymore unless it’s a James Dean or Marilyn Monroe. Those prices have gone down a bit. When you start talking about rock stars, Alice Cooper, people will be looking at his music 50 years from now because it’s Alice Cooper. Something like that I love because there is always a fan base for that, at least for as long as I’m alive. There is always a market for something like that.

Gary returns to the shop with sheets of MetaZoo cards. This is the same person that [during a 2019] episode brought Charizard Pokemon cards you passed on that jumped big time in value to the tune of millions of dollars. Any regrets on not taking that initial deal and did that play into how you decided with this latest offer?

No. If the deal is not right, it’s not right. I can not predict the future. At the time, the deal wasn’t right. It’s like someone asking me if I regret buying Bitcoin when it was 25 cents. Bitcoin still doesn’t make sense to me by the way. I don’t regret it. It’s one of those things that it is what it is. I’m not buying stuff to invest in it. I’m buying stuff to resell. If I bought those Pokémon cards at the time and immediately resold them, I wouldn’t have made any money anyway because I didn’t plan on holding them for a couple of years.

Are you amazed how these cards have increased in value?

Yeah, but nothing goes up forever. I’ve seen this with the collectibles business my entire life. Baseball cards in the 1990s, everything from Beanie Babies to Zippo lighters, World War II bomber jackets to Levi’s jeans. My advice is when they are going up too fast or really, really fast, be careful. When there is a glitch in the economy, what’s the first thing you’re going to sell, it’s the Pokémon collection.

What can we expect this season?

We finished filming the season a couple of months ago. It literally becomes a blur. I’ve done about 700 episodes of Pawn Stars. I still enjoy filming. It’s always fun. I have literally the world’s greatest job. I get to meet really interesting people. I have a good time doing it. Every day is different, and I make decent money.

This past year was a challenging one for you in many ways. How would you say your work helps you get you through a difficult time like losing a family member? Has this become an escape?

It was good being able to start work right after my son passed away because unlike most TV shows where every season you may get a different cameramen, sound guys. One of the beautiful things about Pawn Stars is I kind of mandate having the same production crew every year so we’re sort of like a family. We’ve been doing it together for so long. My producer and showrunner has been on for 11 years. I’ve got sound guys who have been around for more than 10 years. They are all good friends. It was nice to work all of them and stay busy every day.

Fans were excited to see photos posted by Brandi Passante of Storage Wars on Instagram that included Chumlee. Any talk of any crossovers? Do you want to do any crossovers?

I would enjoy doing it. We did things with American’s Pickers before. Back in the day we did Counting Cars, American Restoration. I have no problem doing anything like that. I have fun just filming my job. It’s just fun. I get to talk, educate people. Chum makes people laugh. Rarely, is there ever a bad day.

History Channel

Anything you’ve learned more about recently that has become an interest of yours?

I am really that nerd you see on television. Ask me anything about pop culture, I will know nothing. I’m currently reading about the history of the vacuum tube. That’s the kind of stuff I read about. I think collecting a few rare vacuum tubes is a super nerd thing. The new thing I’m sort of in love with is weird vacuum tubes.

Is there anything you’ve been in the market for?

As far as the shop goes, it has to be something that is popular and resalable. Personally, my collection is so bizarro. I have a NASA rocket engine that was piloted by Neil Armstrong. I have the oldest stained glass window hanging in my house. That’s the sort of weird thing I collect. It’s all over the place.

What do you think it is about the show that has been able to maintain popularity?

It’s never been a show with a train wreck. Like that Detroit [Hardcore Pawn] show was always a train wreck. Ours is a family show. I’ve heard this for years and years from fans. People tell me it’s the only show where they can sit down with their kids and parents and sit down to watch it and have a good time. I call it laugh and learn TV. I’ve always thought people love to learn, but don’t want to learn it from a professor looking down his nose at you and getting all technical and hoity-toity. They like to learn from their uncle. That’s me.

What do you think is the biggest misconception about the show or something viewers don’t see?

You’ve seen plenty of shows. I’m really a non scripted show. We don’t set anything up. It’s really me. When someone walks in and you see them put an item in front of me, that’s the first time I’ve seen it literally. The only thing I may have seen is this two-inch-by-two-inch picture on a little sheet of paper of something the person thinks they have. That’s all I get before the show. The rest is all me. That’s one of the reasons I think the show is so successful. It’s just nerdy Rick talking.

So you’re not getting this list of items coming in. It’s just they come in and you just draw from your own knowledge at that moment? That’s impressive.

It’s like I said. I’m really that nerd. Don’t ask me about anything pop culture though. Like if one of the Kardashians walked in my store right now I would not know who they were. I would not recognize them. I have done the television business kind of bad. I don’t watch television basically at all I just read books each night or work on my old cars or do some woodworking. Things like that.

Is 'Pawn Stars' Shop Real? How to Visit the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop

Pawn Stars Do America, can we expect more of that spinoff?

We’re talking about another season trying to see how we’re going to get it done.

What do you want to tell people about the rest of the season?

It’s Pawn Stars. It’s always fun. One of the things about other shows like American Chopper, there is only so much you can do to a motorcycle. My show is genuinely different every single show. You have no idea what it will be about. That’s why you will enjoy watching Pawn Stars every episode.

Pawn Stars, Wednesdays, 9/8c, History Channel