Scariest items sold on Pawn stars

What have you got hidden away in your loft, basement, storage unit, shed or garage? If you’re anything like us, the chances are you’ve plenty of stuff stashed away all over the place. And if you really are like us, almost all of it will be absolute rubbish.

For most of us, the things we hide away are dull: tatty furniture, broken tools, musty Christmas decorations, dreary old photo albums of long-forgotten holidays... That’s not the case on Pawn Stars, however.

In the Blaze show, the owners of the famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas - the Harrison family - welcome anyone who has something interesting and potentially valuable to sell. They evaluate the thing and, if there's money to be made, make them an offer. More often than not, the items brought in are more than a little intriguing...

To celebrate this year's Halloween, let’s take a look back at some of the scariest items ever sold on Pawn Stars, shall we?

The season 13 episode Silver Stash Pawn saw a chap called Jad stroll in with something you don't see on the shelves of too many pawn shops... An Ancient Egyptian death mask. It was made of something called ‘cartonnage’ (a kind of paper-mâché made from papyrus) and dated all the way back to the second century BC. 

Jad was a little cagey about where he got the creepy as heck funeral mask from, but was a whole lot less cagey about how much he wanted for it (a cool $70,000). Corey called in his eccentric archaeologist college professor pal Dr. Phineas Kastle to give the mask the once-over. Doc Phineas confirmed it was legit and the negotiations began. A deal was struck at 30 grand and the boys took receipt of the millennia-old death mask that's - let’s face it - almost certainly cursed.

The boys in the shop have seen plenty of swords land on their countertops over the years. But few have come with such a gruesome back story and prompted such horror as the giant curved blade that a lad called Ryan brought in for their consideration in the season four, episode 25 episode ‘Silent and Deadly’.

Dull, dirty and scythe-like, Rick wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the iron weapon, so he did what any good TV pawn shop guy would do and called an expert. So in came Sean - a whizz with antique armour - and an explanation was soon forthcoming. The sword was from mid-19th century Congo. Its purpose? To lop off human heads…

Actually.

It was a BEHEADING SWORD.

A price of $225 was agreed upon and all without a single noggin being sliced off. A result for all concerned, we’re sure you agree. 

How creepy can a book be?! Well, it depends on what book we’re talking about. A dog-eared copy of The Hungry Caterpillar’s not likely to put the willies up many folk. But an early dust-covered copy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula from 1897, signed by the author himself, just might be.

The classic dark Gothic tome was featured in the season four episode 'High Stakes', but while it was old and signed, it wasn't a first edition. So the spooky novel only saw Big Hoss prepared to splash out $2,350 to its owner Mark.

 Nowadays, thankfully, blood transfusions are quick, painless and sanitary affairs. However, as with most medical procedures, they have their roots in barbarism. Chumlee found this out (the easy way, luckily enough for him) in episode 25 of series 5 when a lady called Artie came in to see him.

Two glass bottles, some rubber tubing and a foot pump were all Artie brought in. Together the items made up a rudimentary blood transfusion kit manufactured by a company called CM Sorenson & Co. It was a set-up that wouldn’t have looked out of place in Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory.

$125 was agreed upon and the Gold & Silver boys had taken receipt of yet another seriously creepy bit of kit to haunt their shelves before making them a profit.

If we had any of those things in our possession, we’d be looking to get rid of them as well...