Fans of the popular Pawn Stars and its spin-off Pawn Stars Do America know that Austin “Chumlee” Russell wants to become a manager after working there for all these years.
Based on how things look in a video shared by Pawn Stars on their YouTube channel, it probably won’t happen any time soon.
Rick Harrison is the owner and has groomed his son, Corey Harrison, to manage and take over the shop, but that doesn’t mean that family friend and co-worker Chumlee doesn’t have the skills to run things.
Chumlee is a fan favorite, but Rick trusts his son Corey more with the shop’s operations, grooming him to take over one day.
Recently, Rick called Chumlee’s interaction with a seller and a valuable coin she wanted to sell a “joke,” and fans disliked it.
In the video shared by Pawn Stars, a seller wanted to sell the King of Pontus coin of King Mithridates, and while Chumlee did exactly what Rick would have done, Rick still slammed him.
Rick took over Chumlee’s sale and called the interaction a ‘joke’
Chumlee seemed to have everything under control during a recent interaction with a seller.
Julie wanted to sell her King of Pontus coin at the pawnshop, and Chumlee was helping her. Chumlee knew the drill and would call in an expert to validate the coin before offering to buy it, but Rick jumped in and took over.
After it was found genuine and a price was negotiated, Chumlee tried in vain to take the transaction back over from Rick to no avail.
The seller left without closing the deal, and Chumlee called Rick a “tightwad,” as Rick said, “You will never understand this business, yet you want to be a manager.”
Later, in a one-on-one with the camera, Rick revealed his thoughts about the sale, calling King Mithridates a tyrant and no joke. He said, “The real joke would be if I wasn’t here and Chumlee had to figure out this coin sale all by himself.”
Rick does not seem to trust Chumlee with these types of sales, even though he has extensive experience from his years at the store.
The fans react to Rick bursting in on Chumlee’s sale
Fans did not like that Rick jumped into the sale over top of Chumlee, who was doing just fine with the customer.
One fan said, “Rick absolutely refuses to accept that Chumlee has negotiation skills.”
Another fan said, “He busts on Chumley’s ability to recognize the coin, and then he does what Chumlee would’ve done, which is call an expert.”
Another fan chided them, reminding them, “It’s an ongoing joke, relax.”
Another fan said, “The guy owns the store. Of course he’s going to take an interest in high dollar transactions when he is in the vicinity. But let’s be honest…this is all scripted.”
Scripted or not, Rick’s banter about Chumlee is noticed by fans who are not shy about calling him out.
Pawn Stars Do America airs Wednesdays 8/7c on History and streams the next day.