Someone Got Paid A Ton For A Piece Of Presidential History On Pawn Stars

Let's face it, smoking tobacco isn't only a bad money habit, it's also harmful to your health. Nowadays, it's unfathomable to consider the president of the United States, staff, and other world leaders lighting up cigars anywhere indoors, never mind in the hallowed Oval Office of the White House. Yet, in the early 1960s, that's exactly what transpired during the tragically short presidency of John F. Kennedy, or JFK for short.

Ironically, Kennedy was responsible for an embargo against communist Cuba during his presidency. To this day, Americans are blocked from purchasing the island nation's famously high-quality cigars, among other products. However, on the eve of the embargo taking place, JFK famously asked a staffer to procure over 1,000 Cuban cigars for his personal use before doing so became illegal.

It's entirely possible that a few of those well-timed cigars were stored in a small wooden box on a corner of Kennedy's Oval Office desk. A box that the Harrison family of "Pawn Stars" television fame had the opportunity to purchase in a 2013 episode, aptly titled "Close, But No Cigar" (Season 7, Episode 33). Although some folks seek out risky pawnshop loans, the owner of this particular item sought to sell it outright. Specifically, the seller was seeking to raise approximately $95,000 from the sale of the famous desktop accessory in order to physically expand a private museum.

Reportedly, the famous cigar box originally left the White House premises with Evelyn Lincoln, who was John F. Kennedy's personal secretary. Lincoln then gifted the box to her good friend Robert White; then the current owner purchased it from the White estate. While this particular box could have contained some wonderful Cuban cigars for JFK's colleagues and guests, it probably didn't.

Indeed, Kennedy had a separate humidor for storing his most prized cigars. That other humidor, a gift from comedian Milton Berle in 1961, sold for a whopping $575,000 in a 1996 auction of items from the estate of JFK's widow, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The winning bidder was none other than Marvin Shanken, the publisher of Cigar Aficionado magazine.

By comparison, the $95,000 ask for Kennedy's desktop cigar box seems a bargain when considering the lofty sales price of his other cigar storage vessel. However, there are some important differences to weigh. To begin, the ex-president's personal humidor is much larger than the simple Oval Office box and contains multiple drawers and storage compartments. As well, the $575,000 purchase price also includes a significant buyer's premium to the auction house, in excess of the actual sale price to the seller.

In "Close, But No Cigar," after a few rounds of typical "Pawn Stars" negotiating (by the way, never say or do these 12 things when negotiating a raise), pawnshop co-owner Rick Harrison finally agreed to buy JFK's cigar box for $60,000, complete with a handful of unsmoked cigars still inside. However, there was one string attached to the sale: The seller would only receive $30,000 immediately, with the additional $30,000 payment made upon receipt of additional documentation from the White estate regarding the box's authenticity. According to Harrison, "To actually have a cigar box that sat on his desk in the Oval Office? It's just one of those things I can only dream about."

Customarily on "Pawn Stars," viewers only witness the shop acquiring a valuable item and never get to see how much profit was earned on the future sale to an end-user. However, in the case of this presidential artifact, we got full closure. In a Season 9 episode of the popular show, approximately one year after the pawnshop acquired the cigar box, an interested party haggled to make the swinging '60s Oval Office accessory their own for a price of $75,000. In the episode, Harrison lamented that "it was pretty cool having JFK's cigar box in the shop and I'm a little sad letting it go." That said, a fat $15,000 profit on this item is a pretty great consolation prize.