Storage lockers and “Pawn Stars”? Bill Russell and Chumlee?
Well, even though Chumlee Russell prefers Pokémon cards, some unusual basketball cards offered on a “Pawn Stars” live break might pique his interest — and the interest of basketball autograph collectors.
Tyler Feldman, who found two boxes full of hundreds of autograph redemption cards from the 1995 Action Packed Hall of Fame basketball set in May in a Las Vegas storage locker, sold some of the cards to the crew of the History Channel’s “Pawn Stars” reality show. Those cards will be part of a live mystery break on Tuesday.
The break, which will take place at the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop on the Las Vegas Strip, will air at 8 p.m. EDT on Facebook Live. Collectors can buy spots online for $99 at gspawn.com/break and pick a number. There will be 85 envelopes available, and all of them will be autographed cards from the Action Packed set. Some envelopes will include the Action Packed 24k gold autograph cards of NBA greats such as Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, Bill Bradley and Bill Walton. Some of the cards that were discovered were never released to the public.
The cards will be sealed in separate, numbered envelopes and will be opened live by Gold & Silver Pawn Shop owner Rick Harrison, employee Austin “Chumlee” Russell and Steve Grad of Beckett Authentication Services.
Feldman, the CEO of Inscriptagraphs in Las Vegas for five years, found 600 cards in the boxes including 93 signed by Hall of Fame center Russell, there were 94 Bradley autographs and 96 each for Cousy and Walton.
Other signature cards Feldman found included those of Hal Greer, Connie Hawkins, Dolph Schayes, Nate Thurmond, Jerry Lucas, Walt Bellamy, Calvin Murphy, Frank Ramsey, Carol Blazejowski and Nate Archibald.
For the break, there will be four of the 1995 Action Packed autographed Russell cards, encapsulated and authenticated by Beckett Grading Services.
There will be six other autographed cards from the set, including those of Bradley, Cousy and Walton. According to the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop website, other autographed cards that will be part of the break will have the signatures of Archibald, Rick Barry, Blazejowski, Lou Carnesecca, Tom Gola, Connie Hawkins, Jerry Lucas, Al McGuire, Dick McGuire, Frank Ramsey and Bill Sharman. The website noted the break will include some duplicates.
Feldman’s sale of the cards to the Gold & Silver Pawn shop will be featured in an upcoming episode of “Pawn Stars,” according to Jeffrey Von Tobel, the eCommerce manager for the pawn shop. The break will be featured, too.
“We met Tyler when he came to the shop to sell us these cards,” Von Tobel said. “If you are a follower of the show, you know one of Rick’s common concerns is how long is this item going to sit on the shelf, especially when buying large lots of similar items.
“Tyler proposed the mystery box break to move the cards quickly and Rick loved the idea. Chumlee is familiar with the concept as well from his avid collecting of Pokémon cards so he was also excited to join.”
Van Tobel said the break will air on the actual “Pawn Stars” show “likely in mid-2021.”
Even if you miss out on this week’s mystery break, take heart. Von Tobel said the shop is planning to run more mystery breaks through their social accounts (facebook.com/gspawnshop, or on Instagram at @goldandsilver_pawnshop or @rick_harrison). Interested collectors can also get updates from the mailing list on the pawn shop’s website (gspawn.com).
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