In an episode of the History Channel's reality show about a Las Vegas pawn shop, a man brought in a violin and asked for an appraisal. According to the man's story, he had recently purchased a piece of property that included a house and a barn. Shortly after his purchase, while inspecting the barn, he opened an old chest and discovered the violin safely tucked inside. As he dusted off the near-perfect instrument, he found the word "Stradivarius" clearly inscribed on the violin. The man was hoping the "Stradivarius" was worth millions of dollars.

However, after the pawn store owners examined the violin and then also had it appraised by an expert, they told the man it wasn't a genuine Stradivarius. Instead, it was a cheap imitation produced in the early part of the 1900s, worth around five or six hundred dollars. The appraiser concluded by telling the crestfallen violin owner, "Just because something has a label doesn't mean it's real."