I have a relative that was interested in this stuff, so I’ve watched some blocks of Storage Wars in the past couple weeks and caught a little bit of Auction Hunters. (So I can’t really comment on the latter.) I DVR the show so I can skip thru the bidding and such which is boring and then some.
They are clearly seeding the lockers in Storage Wars. Darell’s son buys a tiny locker full of women’s clothes and in the middle of it are Shelley Duvall’s Olive Oyl shoes from Popeye, complete with certificate of authenticity. Yeah, right.
I know they are skipping over some of the less interesting lockers, but in some episodes the Dotsons opening mentions how many lockers are up for sale and they’ve been numbers as low as 4-6 and still a couple of the buyers find treasures. The odds just don’t add up.
(I also suspect the producers are subsiding their stars so that they win enough lockers to fill a show.)
The only thing about the seeding issue is that sometimes the item is visible before the auction. E.g., the pool cue stand that Barry won. OTOH, there is no reason to believe that the footage of the locker was actually taken before the auction and not staged afterwards.
While it might seem ridiculous that someone would leave hundreds of poker chips and cash in a locker, well, that stuff happens. There was even the locker with the Jaguar that was going to auctioned off at some other time. (Which still didn’t stop people from talking about how much it would go for. Uh, Laura said it wasn’t included so forget it you idiots.)
Yeah, the estimates of value of as they are cleaning out the units are stupid. They get excited about DVD players and even old video games. Most of these are worthless even if they power on, which they probably don’t. And don’t get me started on the claims for the value of 20-30 year old TVs.
And “That fridge is worth $300.” No it isn’t. It was a $300 fridge when it was new. It’s not a nice side-by-side or anything. And you have no idea if it even still works. Plus you have to put in a lot of effort to move it, check it out, etc. One thrift store in our area has a professional appliance guy who checks and fixes things before they put them out. Even then an ordinary fridge is like $150 and he’s donating his time. Sheesh.
Other annoyances: Hesert gets excited about finding a Strad and takes it in for appraisal and it’s junk of course. Clearly a plant and clearly he was acting. An experienced guy like him would know it was a fake and not start doing the retirement money talk.
Hesert is my least favorite. Phony braggart loser. If the others are right and his business is going under, well, that’s good.
Barry is my fave. Especially since he’s only it for the fun of getting something interesting. The money doesn’t matter.
Darrell is a multi-time loser and this show is going to put him thru another cycle. Oh well.
Jarrod and Brandi at least are not actually married so the divorce isn’t going to be messy. But there are kids involved which won’t be good.
Laura Dotson needs to do a calendar.
My concern is that these shows will tempt too many people with borderline finances into going into this business. Unless you have a cheap storefront where you can sell thousands of $1 items a week, you are going to lose your shirt.
And why doesn’t everyone bring a working flashlight with them? Good grief.
