Jeepers, I’m turning into my Mom. She’d leave HGTV on all the time as background noise, I leave on the History channel and its plethora of antique/pawn shop ‘I’ll give you half the price you’re asking’ shows.
So, on American Pickers last night, the skinny guy took a fancy to a car made from a WWII aircraft belly tank. He worked out a deal for somewhere north of 12 grand, IIRC and the next scene has him attempting to load the vehicle into his van. The question is, how did he pay for it? These guys were hundreds of miles from home; if they are routinely riding around, in a freakin’ van, with tens of thousands of dollars in cash, that doesn’t seem very safe (even, or maybe especially, with a video crew as part of the entourage), and I wouldn’t think a cashier’s check could be had in that short an amount of time. My guess is they came back a few days later, with a cashier’s check, and edited that part out. Or maybe the producers actually pay, by some reasonably secure means. Any ideas?
Oh, and their ‘busting’ the bearded guy in Sturgis in the same ep screamed ‘Staged!’ to me.
It was totally staged. My husband and I called it 10 minutes into the show. “Hey, do you think they’ll all meet up in Sturgis?” We were :rolleyes: at the end. Sure, we know just what bar they’ll all be in!
How do they make enough money to pay for their gas and lodging? The “big item” is often a few hundred dollars, with a rare find in the thousands. I know all these $20-$150 profits add up, but damn, they sure seem to be treading water financially.
Good point. I know they always close the show with an estimate of what the return on the picked items will be, but I don’t recall ever seeing them making an actual sale, and thus, whether the estimate was correct.
Pretty much the same for Pawn Stars, come to that.
Every once in a while they do show an item as “Sold” during the close, but in general you’re correct.
I imagine the reality of the situation is a combination of:
a) they have a successful business beyond what is seen on the show (the boring stuff makes all the money but is never shown because it’s…well, boring), and
b) the History Channel is providing a nice income supplement
I’ve been to their actual store in Le Claire, IA a few times (and have met Danielle, who is quite a sweetheart IRL) and the entire place is pretty much just a showroom with “NOT FOR SALE” posted on anything interesting. They now seem to make most of their retail money by selling logo’d t-shirts, hats, or whatnot.
History Channel’s contracts with each of the guys must be in the 6-figures by now, given what I’ve heard of other reality show contracts (eg: one of the Teen Mom’s on MTV made around $300k for her run on the show).
IIRC in the first or second episode the picker guys mentioned that they had just opened that store Danielle hangs out in. Danielle was a very recent hire.
I think all that was done just for the show. Before that they probably had some old ratty buildings to store the stuff in before selling it privately or at auction.
From what I understand, they hired her just for the show - to get a more youthful appearance so that it isn’t just two middle aged guys talking to old guys.
I also went to their store in LeClaire and I was pretty unimpressed - it was just a converted auto garage with very little in it. When I was there, they were selling shirts and hats hand over fist and the girl working (whom I had never seen but then I don’t really watch the show) was on the phone with one of the guys about an offer someone had made on one of the antiques.
When I first saw it I looked up some stuff on Youtube and it seemed like Mike had been pitching the show to people. The History channel is obviously the one that bit.
This is one of the reasons I’ve stopped watching Pickers.
All of these “reality” shows seem very staged to me.
Pickers would never be able to find all of these places, travel to them, get the stuff back to a shop and sell the stuff without the help of the producers. The producers have to scout all the locations to make sure they are suitable for filming, they always find some great stuff, and they always get people to sell. Anyone that has any experience with folks who hoard and collect stuff over decades knows they have a hard time parting with anything.
Storage Wars are also a joke. Think about it. The lockers are going on the auction block, right? So what would keep the owner of the storage facility from breaking the lock and cherry picking anything worth anything. Those two guys always find a great storage unit, and there is just no way. I call “bullshit” on this show, too.
Yeah, I run a storage facility, some guy doesn’t pay his bill for a year, and I am finally permitted by law to empty out the space by putting it up for auction. I’d NEVER open it up to see the 65 Mustang convertible sitting there. Please.
As for Pawn Stars, I don’t even know what to do with that show. The father looks to be playing with 28 cards, and Chumley? That’s a joke, right?
I just watched “The Big Wheel” that the belly tank cyclecar was supposed to be used in, didn’t see it. If this was used in a movie I’d like to see pictures from that movie.
Dropmom used to pick us up after school and take us antiquing in the foothills of the Blue Ridge in the early 60s. I love Antiques Roadshow. It tends to be a little rich for my blood, but I can play the game fairly well. OTOH, American Pickers has me arguing with the TV as if it were a football game (for my blood pressure I never watch football), except over a buck or five here and there. It’s fun. These are my peeps and I wish they showed the final sales so I could see them destroyed, but they have a handle on their market. Which used to include my mother, but even she knows what I mean when I make an extravagant eye roll, lift my hands Heavenward, and ask, “Why did you make this poor woman so stupid?”