487 replies to this topic

[aquarian1]

I didn't see a thread for this yet, so here goes...

Hardcore Pawn is a new show on TruTv. Beware, an episode clip loads and starts playing right away, but you can turn the sound off.

Meet the Gold family. As owners of Detroit's biggest pawn shop, they've bought and sold things you can't begin to imagine. Every day brings new danger as the Golds operate in the heart of one of America's most troubled cities. With 50,000 sq ft of cash and goods surrounding them, there are millions to be made, but their profits come with huge risk. Welcome to the world of Hardcore Pawn.

I love me some Pawn Stars, so I was looking forward to this one. However, it is on at the same time so I only saw part of this last week. As indicated, it did seem grittier than Pawn Stars, and they're store looks huge in comparison. I might have to start DVR-ing this one (and still watch Pawn Stars "live", since I love me some Rick ;-) ).

ETA: Not sure how I named this wrong - I'll go get a mod to fix it.
ETA2: It's fixed now - whoo-hoo!

Edited by aquarian1, Aug 20, 2010 @ 2:19 PM.

[Quilt Fairy]

I only watched bits and pieces of the first 2 episodes, but it's pretty obvious that Pawn Stars is right where it belongs, on the History Channel, and this show is right where it belongs on what used to be Court TV. Most of what I saw was that woman screaming about who she was going to kill because they wouldn't redeem her earrings without a ticket, a whole lot of the Security people, and the owner being OK with his employees carrying concealed weapons (with a permit) and suggesting that they give everyone time on a gun range! More of what a pawn shop is really like? Probably. Anything I'd watch again? Probably not.

[AlRockhead]

A real disappointment. Mr. Rock and I shall all continue with Pawn Stars and not bother with this garbage. Even the Pebbles see that it's a bad show.

[amnesia]

I watched this for the first time last night, and I confess that I found it far more entertaining than Pawn Stars.

Pawn Stars is almost entirely about the unusual and historical merchandise that people bring into the store. Hardcore Pawn is a COMPLETELY different show. It's about a very typical (though very large) pawnshop in a city full of desperate people. The customers need money to feed their children or get their spouses out of jail. Some of the customers seem genuinely crazy (to the point that I wonder if some of the incidents aren't staged). There is quite a bit of tension among the family members who work there.

I don't know how long this show will last, as it's all a bit depressing to watch, and cheerful, upbeat shows that are about the "stuff" (like Auction Kings and American Pickers) seem to be more popular now. But if you're a TruTV fan and love the true-crime shows, you'll probably enjoy this.

[lola212005]

I watched this show for the first time and I initially thought this was in Vegas, like Pawn Stars. I kept saying to my boyfriend, "What a rough crowd for Vegas" and then they flashed the '8 Mile' sign and then I was like... "Aha!". This is the "Jerry Springer" of pawn shops and slightly reminiscent of "Operation Repo" where some of it seems to be re-enactments of prior disagreements/fights. But I like it... the owner seems to be rough around the edges, and very sleazy looking but it's all entertaining. I feel like I need a shower after watching it though.

Edited by lola212005, Dec 30, 2010 @ 1:29 AM.

[walnutqueen]

I've watched this show from the start, and am glad to see new episodes airing again. It is gritty and shows a different segment of society than most of the others shows of this ilk. I like the old man, but the son (Seth, I think) is a tool, and the daughter tends towards shrill harpie. The older jewelry guy is cool, and the goatee guy seems nice. It's an entertaining half hour, if you like watching other people's misery as much as I do!

[plain]

The woman who went to Cornell and was pawning her camera because her family wasn't supportive... oh my, I keep thinking about how she came to be there. Did they turn around and sell it immediately, even though she thought she could come get it back?

Also are they paying people to be all dramatic? I would think the customers would make a comment about the cameras during their tantrums. "I get a camera bonus because I'm on camera, and this is America!"

Detroit is reallly fascinating if you like the trainwreck thing - there are a bunch of urbex blogs out there documenting a lot of interesting stuff if you want to scope it out.

[sereion]

I caught this show On Demand yesterday, and it was rather entertaining. I like everyone on the show, but I think daugther tries too hard to be a beyotch.

[biakbiak]

Did they turn around and sell it immediately, even though she thought she could come get it back?

She was doing a loan, so they wouldn't sell it until the terms expired and she didn't make the payments. They went sort of for that illusion by immediately having someone come in and look for an SLR but it was a different color and model.

The woman who demanded that she was going to get paid what she wanted to for her playstation because this was America was ridiculous. And then in her interview at she revealed the reason she needed the money was to get bail money for her boyfriend.

Edited by biakbiak, Dec 30, 2010 @ 11:43 PM.

[mom23boys]

I watched a couple of episodes of this show online and thought how sad. First, it being set in Detroit where pretty much everyone is unemployed and second, seeing the ignorant, loud people that behave so shameful in front of their children. I think the father is cool, he wants to help the people that come in. I like the show and can't wait to watch more.

[swansong68]

It made me sad too. There's nothing sadder than a guy pawning his leg for 50 bucks! His leg!

[walnutqueen]

I was surprised at one of the earlier episodes to hear that some people use the shop as a fur storage unit. Apparently, they pawn their coats for the summer, because it's cheaper than other secure fur storage places ... you learn something new every day.

I loved the fact that they actually pawned that guy's leg for him - he obviously needed a short term loan, and seemed as happy to pawn it as he was to come back and redeem it later. It would appear that they do try to deal "fairly" with people who don't give them a bad attitude (if you can call usury fair - I wonder how their "interest rate" compares to those payday loan outfits?).

[Forn]

I do find this show fairly entertaining. All of the urban unpleasantry that goes on though, I don't know. It seems like working there would be emotionally draining. Sort of like working in a prison or a mental hospital.

The guy who runs the shop, it's like he is king of his own little world there. How many jobs do you know where you can command your own little security force, and manhandle the customers when they raise their voices?

[funkycatt]

The woman who went to Cornell and was pawning her camera because her family wasn't supportive... oh my, I keep thinking about how she came to be there. Did they turn around and sell it immediately, even though she thought she could come get it back?

Also are they paying people to be all dramatic? I would think the customers would make a comment about the cameras during their tantrums. "I get a camera bonus because I'm on camera, and this is America!"

Detroit is reallly fascinating if you like the trainwreck thing - there are a bunch of urbex blogs out there documenting a lot of interesting stuff if you want to scope it out.

The woman who pawned her camera with her kids in tow because she'd fled an abusive relationship in New York I really felt bad for. I'm sure the only reason she picked Michigan is because she thought her family would help her out and then they didn't. She clearly wasn't doing it for the jobs here.

Are they paying people to be dramatic? Probably not. That type of attitude is really kind of typical. The whole "you're trying to rip me off because I'm black/white/poor/whatever" is pretty common.


I do find the show to be pretty depressing. You can only watch so much reality. I don't know if Vegas is any more shiney happy people than Michigan is. In that way, I prefer Pawn Stars. It is more fun to watch some random historical item be brought in than to see someone selling their toaster for $20 because it is $20 more than they had when they walked in.

[gregg247]

I stumbled onto this show by accident last week and really enjoyed it. It definitely seems like a tough business to be in, and the owner (Les) seems really good at his job. His bodygaurds are big guys, but some of the 'trouble-making' customers are big, too. I definitely wouldn't want to spend a lot of time in that store.

The daughter on the show is kind of sexy.

[eliza422]

His bodyguards are big guys

Yeah, they are big, but they're not all that effective as far as I can tell. They are more for show. If you catch the first couple of episodes you'll see what I mean.
I think they just hire really big guys that look intimidating...

I do love this show though. I think it's a much more realistic view of pawn shops than Pawn Stars, much as I love the latter show as well.

[iggystar]

I do find this show fairly entertaining. All of the urban unpleasantry that goes on though, I don't know. It seems like working there would be emotionally draining. Sort of like working in a prison or a mental hospital.

Don't forget this is the reality television edit of the shop. I live in Detroit, work a few blocks from the store and have been a customer for ages often to buy jewelry for myself. I've dealt with everyone on the show and they're all really nice. It's a good place to get some great jewelry and get pieces fixed, etc.

For the most part, it's just a regular, inner city business with not much excitement. Obviously they're not going to shoot a clip of me shopping there, it would make for boring television.

Oh, all of the security is needed because when things do get exciting, it gets very exciting, very quickly. Not to mention those guys act as quite a deterrent. A person will think twice before doing anything crazy, most of what you'll see on the show is mouth action.

Now crazy was the owner of the gun store!!!!! That place is in the suburbs somewhere too, lol.

[Ouisch]

For the most part, it's just a regular, inner city business with not much excitement. Obviously they're not going to shoot a clip of me shopping there, it would make for boring television.

But it's not even close to the inner city, it's on Eight Mile near Greenfield (the outskirts of the Detroit city limits). I used to pass this place every day en route to work when I worked at 12 Mile and Southfield (before I-696 was open), but I've never shopped there. I did, however, occasionally cash my paycheck at the Michigan National Bank on Eight Mile (Detroit side) near Dequindre, and even in the early 1990s I encountered many agitated customers similar to those shown on Hard Core Pawn. Cussing because there was a line, and they'd been waiting X minutes and why the eff wasn't the line moving and pushing ahead to the front, etc. Security would attempt to escort them outside and it became a shoving match "don't you touch me!" etc.

Ashley just rubs me the wrong way; if I ever stop by American Jewelry I'd much rather do business with her brother, who at least manages to wipe the "Eeew, I hate to be this close to you, loser" look off of his face when dealing with customers.

[amnesia]

One exchange in last week's episode really fascinated me. A woman brought in two flutes, hoping to borrow $1200 to pay her rent. One of them was a wood flute. Les picked it up and innocently asked, "What kinda wood is this?" The woman immediately answered, "Grenadilla." Les then told her that he was testing her; he knew it was grenadilla, and wanted to see if she was selling something that didn't belong to her.

The woman ended up with $1100 and was happy. I'm guessing that if she hadn't answered the question correctly, Les would have made a ridiculously lowball offer for the flutes. The transaction was a good example of Les probing a customer's knowledge in order to determine what to offer them.

This is one thing I think is fairly realistic about Hardcore Pawn. Pawnshops are determined to give you the lowest amount possible for your item. If you walked into a pawnshop with a Faberge egg, they'd probably tell you it's worthless. The only thing you have going for you in a situation like that is knowledge, and pawnbrokers can spot BS in a heartbeat.

I could really relate to the woman's situation, as I was a struggling musician myself before a career change. It was clearly painful for the woman to have to pawn her beloved flutes, but it was either do that or be homeless. That's a far more realistic pawnshop situation than the typical Pawn Stars customer, who typically has something "interesting" from their attic and wants enough money for a vacation or a nice dinner out.

[Sea]

I read an interview with Rick from Pawn Stars recently where he said the show skewed more towards people selling things outright because most of the people who came in to pawn items didn't want to be on TV.

[plain]

The whole thing with "Chad" (if I am recalling his name right) skeeves me out. I wrote a horribly ungrammatical paragraph about the chain (ugh) of events, so I think a list would be better:

-they lost/misplaced his 14k chain back in 2007 a month after he pawned it
-then the owner did a personal search and found it 3 years later
-owner tried charging Chad a few multiples of the pawn amount for 3 years of storage if the computer screen is to be believed
-but knocked the price way down to about double the pawn amount
-but now Chad says what they returned to him is a 10k chain that didn't have his initials, i.e. not his
- then the owner lets Chad get something "14k" -- "is this 14k?" "That's what it says." <- slick. So what is it?

No wonder Chad brought a lawyer, or a "lawyer", who knows.

We didn't see what kind of deal the gun shop owner had already cut them on the weapons btw, he kind of referred to it.

I don't think I can watch this show. It is way too easy to imagine needing their services.

[KingExQueen]

I respect the owners and employees of this pawn shop, because they deal with liars all day. I couldn't do it for even one day: I don't like liars.

It's like when a homeless person comes up to me and asks for money so they can get to the shelter. I say, "I'm not going to buy a forty for you, so get out of my face". I can only imagine what it is like walking through the streets of downtown Detroit. This pawn shop isn't exactly getting the classiest clientele.

[livinggreen]

My first time watching.

A women wanted to pawn her 8 millimeter camera for just $30 so she could get her young son something for his birthday. Pawn guy tells her it's a nice camera but they are worthless because everything is digital now.

Problem is that when young son was asked when his b-day was, he said "Jan 21. The pawn shop guy caught the mom in a lie because kid's b-day is more then 2 months away.

The over the top Black women who came in to sell/pawn her "gold chain" I thought that she was just an actor for the show because no one could be that ghetto, then I remembered the opening scene showed an "8 mile' sign which is in Detroit, so I knew she was probably for real.

[kiki1234]

This is the "Jerry Springer" of pawn shops.......

Aint that the truth!! I've just recently started watching but I love this show. Some of those customers are crazy!!

The daughter is a complete bitch-o-matic and I was glad when her dad made her cry. The son weirds me out for some reason. I haven't been able to figure out why. I haven't decided if I like the dad or not. I hate that greasy long hair.

[kiki1234]

I just saw a new-to-me rerun. This time her brother made her cry. He He.

The new episode was crazier than normal. I get a kick when the security guards have to carry someone out. Especially when they start clutching at stuff to keep from being tossed.

[lola212005]

It's funny that I previously mentioned that this show was very Jerry Springer-ish. I did some digging and found that Jerry Springer's executive producer is the one who pitched the show to Tru-Tv.


http://www.dailytrib...c0671200211.txt

Hardcore Pawn” came about in an innocuous way. Former “Jerry Springer Show” security guard and current talk show host Steve Wilkos had been in the Gold’s pawn shop before to sign autographs. and both he and former Jerry Springer Executive Producer Richard Dominick were impressed with the store’s makeup. Les Gold says he averages more than 450,000 items in the store and has 40 employees on his staff.

Once Dominick left the “Jerry Springer Show,” he came to American Jewelry and Loan in 2008 and shot a day’s worth of promotional material that was edited down to an eight-minute tape. It took a few months, but Dominick came back in July 2009 and shot for more than a week. Eventually, he sold the two initial 30-minute shows to truTV.

[livinggreen]

I really like this show because most of it seems REAL with a little bit of acting thrown in for good measure, like that women who came in to sell Hitler's mother's watch for 6 figures. I don't buy it at all that she thought she had a genuine piece of history.

If she thought it was real, why would she take something like that to a Pawn Shop?

Edited by livinggreen, Mar 2, 2011 @ 11:38 AM.

[kiki1234]

I really like this show because most of it seems REAL with a little bit of acting thrown in for good measure, like that women who came in to sell Hitler's mother's watch for 6 figures. I don't buy it at all that she thought she had a genuine piece of history.

If she thought it was real, why would she take something like that to a Pawn Shop?

She was probably just trying to put one over on them thinking they wouldn't notice the date on the notary stamp.

I'm still wavering about whether things are scripted or not. It seems real enough but then I thought when I first watched Operation Repo it was real.

[Gardenlover]

This pawn shop isn't exactly getting the classiest clientele

Definitely. As much as this show annoys me with the bad attitude a lot of the potential customers have, I sometimes still can't change the channel.

[Jon N]

I'm still wavering about whether things are scripted or not. It seems real enough but then I thought when I first watched Operation Repo it was real.

Me too. I feel the same, I just really want to think it's scripted, otherwise I can't imagine people behaving the way they do. But then again, I've seen my share of people doing things like that.

Such a train wreck of a show, people are scary. Especially when they yell out because they've been waiting in line for so long for a window to open.