Are any of you familiar with the term, “Jumped the Shark!” Rick Harrison signed NGC slabbed coins has “Jumped the Shark!” for slabbed coins. I think anyone can make a fairly good argument for the designer, Sec. of Treasury or even an astronaut in special cases. But a pawn shop owner! Give me a break. (Not everyone watches Pawn Stars – I happen to and I even like it.) But who’s next?? Kim Kardashian? Jay Leno? Justin Bieber? I hear Tiger Woods is short on cash. I think that this move actually cheapens the entire signature program. I’ve seen the signature craze get out of control with lots of other collectables, from plates to collectable cards. It gets confusing and overwhelming to the collector who basely just gives up and stops collecting that category. I know that many collectors don't think much of the signature programs in the first place. But now they have some real good ammo to fire off at the programs. Is there anyone out there that just can't wait to get their hands on an AU50 gold coin that has been slabbed with Rick's signature??
Some fans of the show might like it like when NGC graded the pawn shop bullion coins. I don't care for this signature but I wouldn't be worried about. It will be like anything else people may go after certain signatures while ignoring others. The one mistake they could really make would be putting the Rick signature labels on anything but ASEs or bullion, in those cases many people would probably want a nice numismatic coin to be reholdered before buying. Plus NGC has done much worse with the Wyatt Earp facsimile signatures and the like.
Personally, aside Glenna Goodacre I cannot see it as possible to cheapen that program any further than it has been from the start.
Come to think of it. Rick's pawn shop has become a big tourist attraction in Las Vegas. I can see people who go to the shop buying the slabbed coins, and getting taken to the cleaners in the process, being happy with their purchase. They will have no real idea of the value of the coin when they buy it, nor when they sell it later.
Wait..let me call my buddy, he is an expert on these things. We will see how much he says it is worth then we can talk.
jump the shark phrase of jump informal (of a television series or movie) reach a point at which far-fetched events are included merely for the sake of novelty, indicative of a decline in quality. This pretty much sums up the "Rick Harris" signature.
What do you expect? If idiots weren't out there buying such dumb stuff, you would think that shows like Coin Vault would have bit the dust a long, long time ago. Chris
They have hired an astronaut to sign slabs as well, I believe the name was Jacob Duke and he was one of the Apollo 16 astronauts that walked on the moon.
Is NGC starting to get desperate here? The "Jumping the Shark" phase explicitly resulted when the Fonz ski jumped over a shark tank in a 1977 Happy Days episode.The show went down hill from there.