Rick Harrison

Businessman

1965-03-22

Quotes by Rick Harrison

• The Obama administration made it illegal for me to loan any money to anyone in the military. I have one compliance guy just for a pawn shop. It's everything from Homeland Security, FBI, the local police department, IRS - all these regulations I have to keep an eye on constantly, and it's just overwhelming for a small business.

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• I read a book every night. I really am that nerd, so when I get to go to the Smithsonian and get to go in the back rooms and play with stuff, things like that, for a guy like me, that's amazing.

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• Once, an unkempt, elderly woman came into the pawn shop. She appeared homeless, and she insisted on seeing every piece of expensive jewelry in the store. Just when I was feeling impatient, the woman pointed at the most expensive piece of jewelry and said, 'I'll take that one.' Then she proceeded to pull $4,000 out of her sock to pay for it.

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• I discovered at age 13 that if a spoon had 'Sterling' on the back, it was worth money. I'd run around a swap meet and find 20 in a day, make 75 to 100 bucks by finding silver spoons.

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• I'm just a normal guy and blue-collar historian, and people keep tuning in.

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• My dad had always bought and sold gold and other stuff. In '81, he went broke because of real estate, so he moved us to Vegas and opened a small second-hand store. We always wanted a pawn license because there's a lot more money in that.

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• Pawn shops have been around for thousands of years - they were the number one form of consumer credit up until the 1950s, but we were vilified by Hollywood. We were easy people to vilify.

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• There are a lot of weird things you might find in your basement or your attic that may have a lot of value.

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• If you go to most pawn shops in Las Vegas, they will tell you exactly what they will pay for, say, an iPod. But if you show up with an 1833 ormolu clock, it won't pop up in their computer. They are going to tell you to go to Gold & Silver Pawn, because we buy weird things.

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