'American Pickers' question

[crypto]

@filmore

As for Storage Wars, that is somewhat contrived. What I think happens is that producers go out and buy lockers at the real public auctions. Once they have a few good lockers, they bring the cast in with a bunch of extras at a later date. The auctions they show are not the true public auctions. They are filming the fake auction of the units they bought earlier. I sometimes wonder if the producers sprinkle a few collectibles in the units themselves. The extras are told to make a few bids until the price gets up to a certain value, after which only the cast will be making the bids. I don’t think the cast knows what’s in the lockers beforehand. They do seem genuinely surprised when the items are revealed. I’m not sure if the cast uses their own money or not. I recall someone saying they went to Jerrod’s store and saw some of the items from the show, but there were signs on them saying not-for-sale. When he asked about it, they said the producers owned those items. That may indicate that the cast is bidding with the show’s money.

Thanks for your post. I appreciate the POV of an actual storage facilities owner,so if that’s what you were told, it certainly gives it credibility. But I’m still a skeptic. I guess if I found out the owners skimmed a coin collection or something I wouldn’t be shocked.

As for your idea on how these shows are run, I like it. Like I mentioned before, they would more than likely have to control every part of the auction, so buying the unit and then bringing in actors to bid is a good idea.

[Mewl_Dear]

Danielle used to work in burlesgue. Of course she was brought in for ratings.

[interface2x]

@Becky2844

(Clutching my chest and staggering backward.) You think they look middle aged? Now I’m looking behind me for the edge of my grave.

Heh, that’s what they said!

[Jophiel]

@El_Kabong

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.

For Pawn stars, I assume the bread and butter of the shop is more standard stuff. Maybe not old VCRs but they often show people looking over a selection of gold rings, etc during the bumper shots. They just don’t bother showing someone selling their wedding band, guitar or Grandma’s silverware because that’s not “historical” television.

[Silver_Tyger]

@Jophiel

For Pawn stars, I assume the bread and butter of the shop is more standard stuff. Maybe not old VCRs but they often show people looking over a selection of gold rings, etc during the bumper shots. They just don’t bother showing someone selling their wedding band, guitar or Grandma’s silverware because that’s not “historical” television.

They’ve said (early in the show - I don’t know that it’s still true) that they had regular pawners. We’ve seen people pawn things once or twice, but it’s probably just not as exciting. Apparently their shop focuses more on antiques and collectibles than standard pawn fare, because there are so many pawn shops in Las Vegas. And the last episode I watched, we saw some of the stuff the night shift guy had bought as Rick was going through it. It was mostly jewelry and some other unexciting things.

[Palooka]

Buddy said in some NPR interview that the people who pawn stuff don’t like being on television.

[aceplace57]

I’ve noticed Mike refers to both stores as his store. Note the description for the new Nashville store.
http://antiquearchaeology.com/antique_arhaeology_nashville_tn.html

I don’t think Frank is a partner at all. He joins up with Mike and goes picking but I don’t think they are business partners. I’ve noticed each guy seems to use his own cash to buy stuff.

Kind of like the Mythbusters. Jamie owns the business and Adam just worked for him occasionally.

[markm]

@aceplace57

I’ve noticed Mike refers to both stores as his store. Note the description for the new Nashville store.
http://antiquearchaeology.com/antique_arhaeology_nashville_tn.html

I don’t think Frank is a partner at all. He joins up with Mike and goes picking but I don’t think they are business partners. I’ve noticed each guy seems to use his own cash to buy stuff.

Kind of like the Mythbusters. Jamie owns the business and Adam just worked for him occasionally.

This kind of explains it: Stock Portfolio & Tracker - Yahoo Finance

Wolfe is Antique Archaeology and Fritz has his own business. Based on that, I’d say Frank’s picks go to his store/site and Wolfe’s to his, or something like that.

[Tangent]

@Becky2844

(Clutching my chest and staggering backward.) You think they look middle aged?

They’re in their late 40s. Isn’t that middle-age? Just how long do you expect to live?

[El_Kabong]

@markm

This kind of explains it: Stock Portfolio & Tracker - Yahoo Finance

Wolfe is Antique Archaeology and Fritz has his own business. Based on that, I’d say Frank’s picks go to his store/site and Wolfe’s to his, or something like that.

And he mentions that a lot of the stuff ends up on eBay, apparently. Thanks for the link. That answered several questions I had beyond the one in the OP.

[Becky2844]

@Tangent

They’re in their late 40s. Isn’t that middle-age? Just how long do you expect to live?

They’re in their late 40s? But…they look so young to me.
I expect to live for as long as my life span turns out to be. When I die, I’ll know.

[striper5162]

Again, this is a reality show, all staged… I’ve been buying selling stuff for 30 years and there is no way these guys are making any money with some of the outrageous prices they pay for pure unadulterated JUNK that no one in their right mind would purchase (but, this is America with lots of discretionary income out there despite what the economy purports to be)…

[mawskin]

How does it work? On the show Mike says he’ll buy a item and then Frank says he’ll buy a item. Are they buying for the company or seperate? Something doesn’t make sense.

[Skywatcher]

@crypto

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.

Bumping because I just heard confirmation of this, albeit secondhand. I’m listening to a talk radio program which was discussing an episode and a woman called in to mention that her friend had been contacted by a producer or somebody for the show. They told the friend that they were interested in four specific items, which would be placed in specific locations on the property, but the friend wouldn’t come down to their price.

[Johnny_Ecks]

It’s obvious that it’s staged. It may not be scripted, but no one is going to be filming without waivers signed and such, and the show isn’t going to waste time and money filming without knowing if there’s anything worth the effort. Not to mention that cameras are already in place and rolling when we they meet the “surprised” property owners.

[nightshadea]

actually in California it used to be that in storage auctions no one could see whats inside …the owner just changed the lock …and as they say "you pays your money and take your chances "

How I found this out was in the early 80s the guy who owned the 5 or 6 arcades around here
was at a storage place for someone else seen the auction and figured “oh what the hell” paced some bids and won a storage locker for 500 bucks with out knowing it had 35 arcade games from the early 80s…and that’s how he got started …

[Skywatcher]

Bumping because Frank has died.

'American Pickers' Star Frank Fritz Dead at 60