Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
It's the only pawnshop I know that's got real Picassos hanging on the wall. I have Salvador Dalis on the wall. I have LeRoy Neimans.
'Game of Thrones' really is an amazing series. Political intrigue, and then they throw in a little magic. I mean, it's got a dragon in it.
I am just a normal guy, and suddenly I am really, really famous. It's definitely got its perks; I never have to wait in line at a restaurant.
I compete with the 'Welcome To Las Vegas' sign for the number one non-gaming tourist attraction in Las Vegas. I get more visitors than the Hoover Dam.
I got the Pawnbroker of the Year award. They said I did more for the pawn business in one year than their media team, in 30 years, has been able to do.
My wife got all freaked out when we started doing the reality show because she said she saw all these reality shows, and everyone was getting divorced.
There's a million things wrong with government that need to get fixed, but none of its ever going to get fixed unless we start educating our children better.
I was a really sick kid. I developed epilepsy when I was eight years old, and I would have violent seizures, and I would - literally, I couldn't get out of bed.
Most of those who pawn things and want to borrow money don't want to be on television. That part of my business you don't see, and I do five or 10 times as much.
What's normal life for the majority people of America, the liberal press thinks is like, 'Oh my gosh.' We don't live in that little, weird, bizarre vacuum of San Francisco.
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.
Everyone likes to learn history. They just don't like to hear it from a professor looking at notes. They like to hear it like it's from their uncle, and that's how I explain history.
I asked for a horse for Christmas, and I got one! It's an adult horse. I didn't want a 5-year-old, which is a teenager for horses. It has a beautiful gait. It's the Cadillac of horses.
When the premiere of the show came out, we threw a big party, and, like, five minutes into the party, me and Corey walked out of the party and said... 'No one's ever gonna watch this.'
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.
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.
I had this when I was 17 years old - a 1969 Oldsmobile Delta 88 with no backseat. I paid 150 bucks for it, I think, rode it for a good six months, and put four or five quarts of oil a week in it.
Being a middle-class family back in the 1970s meant we only had one TV... and it wasn't in your room... so when I was 8 years old, I began developing a passion for reading history, and it's never stopped.
The weird thing about the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop is that people come on vacation, and they bring stuff here to sell. They come here to see what we'll give them for it. Mostly, it's people from out of town.
Never fall in love with something when you're negotiating a price. Never decide you're going to buy something because you can't live without it. Negotiating to buy an item shouldn't be an emotional process.
There's only so much stuff you can buy. I have to retail the stuff. Stuff that's really really weird - it's cool, but who are you going to sell it to? I do collect some stuff. In the end, I have to run a business.
Five or 10 years from now, people are going to be sitting around going, 'Wasn't there a show about four fat guys in a pawn shop?' And I am sitting on this really nice piece of property on Las Vegas Boulevard. Why not?
It costs you just as much to ask a doctor 50 questions as it does to ask him one question. So go see your doctor with questions written down... And if he doesn't want to answer your 50 questions, go find yourself another doctor!
When you come across something, and its quality is just outrageous, that's probably something of value. It's been that way for hundreds and hundreds of years - the really, really expensive stuff is also really, really high quality.
That's the beautiful thing about my show... It's truly different every week. We get to pick and choose. Every morning, the girl from production comes to me with 100 different items, and I go, 'Fake, fake, fake, fake... that's cool.'
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.
The number one thing in this world that has brought people out of poverty is the ease of doing business. And it's getting harder and harder and harder. I mean, you basically have the Democrats out there saying I should pay more and more taxes on the profits I make.
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.
The people who pawn stuff never want to be on the show. And the reason behind that, I find out, is when people are pawning something, it's - they're getting a loan. They have to admit they're broke. For some reason or the other, something has happened, or they're financially irresponsible.
You have some cities that are saying that if you have a man who feels like he's a woman, he can use the women's restroom. I guarantee you that will be taken advantage of by some very bad men who want to go into a bathroom where there's young ladies. That will happen if you pass a law like that.
We talk nonstop about what needs to be changed, and everyone has excuses for why the changes can't happen. I believe we must change our educational system first to get the changes moving forward. I'm happy to be a voice and get in front of an audience who can help by making education a priority.
In the '90s, I went on eBay to buy some paddle tires for my four-wheeler ATV and couldn't find any. When I did find a manufacturer that sold them, I bought 20,000 and had no problem reselling them. So the next time you get mad when you can't find an item, realize there's a market waiting to be explored.
The part I hate is when we go out to eat. My youngest son, who's 11, doesn't like to eat in more fancy restaurants, so we often go out to places like Red Robin and such. Well, as you can imagine, in that kind of place I probably have to jump up about 10 times during a meal to take a picture with somebody or sign an autograph.
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.
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.