These things are rarely announced officially -- reality stars, like normal people, have various reasons to not want everyone knowing how much money they put in the bank every two weeks -- however, of course numbers do get tossed around.

The answer is, also of course, that it depends. For example, reality stars whose personalities and names are central to the nature of the show -- "celebreality" is the popular term for the genre -- tend to get more.

The Kardashians, for example, are reportedly the highest-paid reality stars, having signed a $30-million deal for three more seasons of their popular E! hit, "Keeping Up With the Kardashians."

By comparison, stars of ABC's "The Bachelorette" -- a show whose concept makes the individual women involved more interchangeable and thus expendable -- reportedly pull down between $100,000 and $250,000 per season.

However, getting to a show like "Pawn Stars," whose stars are purportedly leading normal, business-running lives that just happen to be caught on camera, their salaries are an even better-kept secret. They are, however, almost sure to be less than those of the Kardashians or the various bachelorettes on ABC.

But in the entertainment biz, salary is often almost beside the point -- it is the so-called "ancillaries" that yield the big payoffs. "Pawn Stars" star Rick Harrison, for example, at one time had leveraged his History Channel fame into a gig as a spokesperson for Swiffer.

As for the folks who come on the show looking to make a deal, it would seem they are not paid. The show's official website says that would-be sellers who will be in Las Vegas (where the "Pawn Stars" store is located) can email pawnstarstvshow@leftfieldpictures.com with a description of the item they want to pawn, and "If your item is selected, you could be on 'Pawn Stars'!" This suggests, of course, that the fame and prestige of being on TV is the only prize at stake.

Indeed, in an interview with the "Las Vegas Sun," Harrison said that even the expert appraisers who frequently guest on the show aren't paid for their services.

Another "Las Vegas Sun" article pointed out that, while such efforts are made to keep the show as real as possible, some staging is required for the cameras. Negotiations are often edited for time, and occasionally customers are asked to shoot the exchanges more than once.

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