Additional Coverage:
- ‘Pawn Stars’ guest stunned as Corey Harrison pays a fortune for 250-year-old book that cost her $1 (marketrealist.com)
Thrift Store Dollar Find Becomes Four-Figure Payday on “Pawn Stars”
Las Vegas, NV – In an episode that had “Pawn Stars” viewers cheering, one savvy seller recently turned a thrift store dollar discovery into a cool $2,500 payout, bypassing the usual back-and-forth negotiation thanks to an expert’s surprising valuation.
Kimberly arrived at the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop with what she confidently declared was one of the most important books of the 1700s: a 1765 medical text focused on psychiatry, authored by physician Robert White and dedicated to King George. Corey Harrison, ever the jokester, initially quipped about the 250-year-old medical advice likely being “completely wrong,” but quickly conceded the book was “really cool.”
The story of how Kimberly acquired the antique volume only added to its charm. She revealed she’d picked it up for a mere dollar at a thrift store.
“No matter what it’s worth, since you got it from a thrift store, I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be worth more than what you paid for,” Harrison noted, an understatement that would soon prove prophetic. Kimberly further detailed the book’s impressive lineage, pointing out an armorial bookplate from Sir Archibald Grant of Monymusk Bar, a renowned collector, and a second from Dr.
John Farquhar Fulton, a respected neuroscientist.
To verify the book’s authenticity and value, Harrison called in the show’s resident book expert, Rebecca Romney. Upon inspection, Romney confirmed its significance.
She explained that Robert White was a leading medical practitioner in 18th-century Edinburgh, doing “trailblazing work” at a time when psychiatry as a discipline was still a century away. Despite some expected wear around the joints, the book’s early binding was largely intact, and its overall condition was good.
A momentary “uh-oh” arose when Romney spotted Fulton’s bookplate, prompting a query about its potential belonging to the Yale Medical Historical Library. However, an inscription clarified that Fulton had gifted this particular copy because another had already been donated to Yale by someone else, much to Kimberly’s relief.
After a thorough examination, Romney delivered the expert appraisal: a remarkable $3,200, significantly more than Kimberly’s initial asking price.
With the expert’s stamp of approval, Corey Harrison was eager to make a deal. “Well, I gotta say this rarely ever happens, but you came in and you asked for $2,500 bucks, and I’m more than comfortable giving you that,” he told a delighted Kimberly. She gladly accepted the offer, sealing the deal with a handshake.
Reflecting on her experience, Kimberly, despite her initial desire to haggle, expressed her satisfaction. “I was actually a bit disappointed because I came to negotiate today.
But since I got the price I was asking, I’m thrilled,” she shared. It just goes to show, sometimes a dollar can truly turn into a fortune.