I had passed it by, thinking it was a show about banjo players (hey, gimme a break, I live in Nashville). Caught it this weekend and fell in love. The weirdest thing is that I hate junk collections and junk collectors. They irk the hell out of me. Just get rid of all that junk already!!! This show fascinates me, though.
Anyone else have the love for Mike and Frank? Or Danielle, for that matter?
If it’s on, I’ll watch it.
I liked it when it first started and they showed what they really got for some of the items they purchased. Now that it’s just an estimate, I don’t like it quite as much. I don’t know if they stopped doing it because they got less than they estimated, or more.
I do like the fact that they are rescuing some of these items from just deteriorating totally. True some of the people they show have collections that actually are a collection. Nicely displayed, or at least stored somehow. But a far larger portion of what we see are piles of stuff just piled in someone’s back yard or storage barn. True the person often knows exactlly where things are, but it’s still just rotting out there. I’m glad to see some of these really interesting items get saved and passed onto people that will hopefully preserve them better.
I don’t understand how they make any money. Gas, wear and tear on their vehicle, restoration costs, all for an old oil jug?
It would be nice if they showed a real profit for one item. How much someone actually paid for it, and how much money they spent refinishing said item before purchase. I get irritated when they say something like “This will sell for $50” and then we never get any follow up.
Yeah, that’s what bugs me too. They’ll say that they bought an ugly rusted-up sign for $25 and then tell you that it’s valued at $50 so they made $25. Not only do they seem to deal in nickels and dimes like that, but “valued” isn’t really the same thing as “sold for.”
Yeah, the whole show makes it hard for me to believe their business model is successful. Clearly, everything isn’t being shown. There’s no way they drive around for days on end, pick up a few hundred bucks in things, resell them, make a few hundred bucks, and stay in business.
I’ve wondered from the beginning how they can make a living at it.
Aside from the wear and tear on the vehicle, they have rent to pay, Danielle’s salary, routine business expenses, plus have some left over for their own salaries?
If you take their road trips at face value, it seems they spend days upon days driving to destinations or just wandering around, often several states away from their home base of Iowa. The vehicle is nice, but it can only hold so much per trip. At the most, it seems they are netting what, $1000 per vehicle load (if that)?
So, they’re gone for, say, five days. They pay all the aforementioned expenses (plus fuel, food, and lodging)…is there even anything left to split?
Sure, it looks like fun. As a hobby, maybe; not as a way of earning a living.
mmm
I watch it with my 10-year-old son, and between this and Pawn Stars, learn a lot…
I, too, wonder how they make a living, and figure the Pickers make their money from the television contract…
I don’t like these guys. There’s something really creepy about them, and they seem to take pleasure in misleading sellers about the value of their stuff. At least on Pawn Stars, they seem to be more up-front about what kind of profit they expect to make and let the seller decide whether that kind of mark-down is worth it to them.
ascenray - I don’t see them defraud anyone, or misleading them. And I have seen the guys set someone straight on what something’s worth.
My mother was an antique dealer (fortunately supported by my dad’s salary as an executive) who at one time had a shop. She’d stop at houses and ask to look through the barns, and we’d go to auctions (which I still do today). Even at the end of her life, in her 70’s and debilitated by a massive brain hemorrhage, she was buying and selling at a profit.
The guys probably take 3-day trips on the road and fill up their van. You can fit a lot of oil cans and flat signs in the back of a panel truck. If they’re like most retail operations, they sell for about double what they buy for, on average. And although it seems like two-bit stuff, they often know people who will want what they’ve bought. Their Antiques Archaeology shop doesn’t seem overwhelmed with stuff, so they must be selling it.
StG
Seconded. Pawn stars is a fun, free lesson in supply and demand, negotiation, and business.
Pickers just seems like a knock-off that’s worse in every single way. They deliberately manipulate the sellers, never show that they actually make money as business, and don’t appear to be very hard working. :o
I have seen them cackle about how cheaply they got something once they’re out of earshot of the person they bought it from.
Well, they do appreciate a deal. But the thing about the guys at Pawn Stars is, almost every time it’s “let’s call in an expert”. The Pickers are flying by the seat of their pants and the knowledge they’ve accrued along the way. Some times they win, sometimes they lose, often they just make a little. A lot of littles keeps a shop going, but the occassional score doesn’t hurt. They never lie to a seller, and they’ll tell the hoarder “oh, that’s a 1902 Harley Davidson motorized bike frame! Wow!” Either they can come to an agreement or not.
StG
And History. Don’t forget that because it’s pretty rare these days to learn any actual history on the History Channel.
It’s a fine line. But do you see all the stuff these junk collectors have ? It’s usually just going to waste. The owner is good at obtaining the stuff but isn’t going to sell it. Their families seem to not care. If it’s a choice between letting the stuff rot or the owner making a little money I’d rather see the owner part with a few of his cherished belongings (out of many thousands of items.) Maybe that will even start the collectors towards clearing out their collection a little. The collector can always say no, and some do, to every offer.
As for the show, I was introduced to it by a friend and was hooked. Luckily it’s on Netflix instant watch because I don’t have cable any more. It’s a great show and I’m looking forward to seeing more. I love seeing all the junk these collectors have.
I like the show, but I like the guys less and less.
Lanky gets way too giddy; at times, he’s like a 6-foot tall schoolgirl. His conversations with older folks (usually, not always) seem more patronizing than genuine. And he needs to stop saying, “it’s on!”.
Rotund seems to be wondering how he ended up on a television show. I don’t think he is all that bright; doesn’t have a mind of his own. I see him glancing at Lanky now and then to determine how he’s going to react to something.
Neither one of these guys is funny, though they think so. Particularly when they’re on the phone with Danielle, giving her the business. They cackle like a couple of hens.
And finally, they absolutely must stop high-fiving each other.
But really, I do like the show. 
mmm
Huh. They seem respectful to the sellers to me. At least they don’t make up silly names for them. 
Le Claire, Iowa…where they are based out of, is just a few minutes from where I live but I have yet to catch an episode. I should probably watch one to see what the fuss is.
I’ve only seen one episode, but on that one they actually refused the amount a lady asked for and offered her more. She’d say, “I want $25 for that”, and the picker would respond “Oh, that’s too low. How about I give you $50?” So at least in that case, they weren’t trying to rip anyone off.
But I also have no problem with them buying stuff cheap and selling it high. It’s not their job to educate people on the value of their stuff. So long as they’re honest with them. If they tell a seller that a Coca Cola sign is a reproduction when they know it’s an original, then they’re acting unethically. But if they say, “Hey, that’s a rare, original 1953 Coke sign. How much do you want for it?” and the guy lowballs a figure, it’s not unethical to take it.
The owners of the Gold and Silver Pawn shop on Pawn Stars go out of their way to get appraised value on things when they’re taking a risk, and they happily tell the owner what the appraised value is. But I’ve also seen them low-ball offers on items that they don’t want to bother getting appraised, taking a risk that it will turn out to be not worth much in exchange for the change that it might be worth a lot more. On the last episode I watched, they bought an old Coca Cola sales case shaped like a Coke machine for, I think $200. They even played hardball with the owner to get the price that low. Then they had it restored and it turned out to be worth thousands of dollars. That was great.
Are these shows telling the whole story? Nah. The ‘buddies’ Rick calls in for appraisals are sometimes experts pulled in from a long way away, who would never be affordable to bring in if it wasn’t a TV show. I wonder if the customers get appearance fees to be on TV - I think they must if they have speaking parts. That changes the whole negotiation. Rick often gets restorations for amazingly low prices - but the restorers get free publicity on TV. So there are a lot of angles being worked. I don’t care, so long as it’s entertaining.
It might be the same way with American Pickers. Maybe the whole nature of their business changed when it became a TV show. Or maybe they don’t air the real ‘scores’ because they don’t want to poison the well and have all their opportunities dry up if they get a reputation for buying low and selling high.
I agree, the American Pickers are definitely creepy, and UNlikeable, and they get on my nerves, I dont trust them, and I would never want to be near them in person, they are not funny, they are obnocious .
If there were different people on American Pickers, I would like the show, because it is a good premise that I would be interested in watching. It would be interesting to find old stuff and know what it was used for.
(OTOH, everyone seems to like Pawn Stars, and Chumley is esp likeable)