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This thread is for discussion on the "cash for trash" slew of television shows that are plentiful on our dials these days. From Pawn Stars to Pickers, if it involves rusty gold, junk, trash, and paying money for it, this is the thread. Especially if someone has to sawzall a locker open... Lets take a glimpse at the life of an item of antiquity... Firstly, right now it's probably rusting away in a barn somewhere in Alabama. If that's the case, it'll probably be looked over and maybe purchased by these guys:  Mike Wolf (left) and Frank Fritz (right) are lifelong best friends and partners (  ) who travel the country digging through the rusted remains of Americana buried in barns and backyards all over the backroads. They're the American Pickers and you can find them on TV Mondays at 9/8 CT on History.Pickers is probably the most genuine of the shows in this category. You can tell these guys are really jazzed about digging through mountains of junk, and love hearing the stories of how the invariably dead people who owned it, acquired it. Back to our item, if it may fetch a prettier penny upon being restored, it may find itself traveling to this gentleman...  Rick Dale's show American Restoration (Fridays at 10/9 CT on History) is a fantastic branching of this category of shows. You must certainly recognize Dale from his appearances on Pawn Stars restoring the pawn shop's purchases whenever a bigger profit can be made. Rick and his team, including his teenaged son, do contract work for various collectors and antique enthusiasts. You get to see the process from start to finish. This is another of the really genuine shows. Aside from some of the worker banter, Rick has a passion for restoring antiquity, to the point that everything that leaves his shop must be like it was 50-60-70-100+ years ago, including being in working order. His attention to detail and artistry really shine through. After being fixed and shined up, the item in question may find itself on the shelves of this establishment...  The Pawn Stars (Mondays at 10/9 CT on History) are three generations of pawnbrokers working in Las Vegas Nevada at the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop. Rick Harrison, The Old Man, and Corey own the business, and employ Corey's sharp-in-a-weird-stupid-way friend Chumlee. The Pawn Stars buy people's valuables, from gold/jewelry, artwork, historical artifacts, old guns and bladed weapons, vehicles, and any other ridiculous item you can think of. They employ a wide variety of "friends" to speak on various items from an expert opinion, often bursting the bubble of value cruelly under the customer. Basically whatever a customer thinks their item is worth, it'll be valued at half, and Rick will offer them a quarter. They're not collectors and they're not enthusiasts, they're out to make money, period. This show has some heavy obvious scripting at times, especially banter-wise between the crew, but it's still a fun show for all the items and some of the characters that come through. Besides, who doesn't love Rick's giddiness at buying a new blunderbuss and having Chumlee test it in the desert? After an item is picked, lovingly polished, sold, and re-sold to a customer, it may sit on a shelf for several years, and after a bitter divorce and hiding of assets, it may find itself appearing on this show...  Storage Wars (Wednesdays at 10/9 CT on A&E) is about the formerly underground practice of storage facilities selling abandoned and delinquent lockers to auctioneers who then auction them to the highest bidder in a "what could be in the mystery box!?" type of way. The bidders get 5 minutes to take a peek (no touching please), then the locker is sold to the highest bidder. Storage Wars is kinda interesting in that it's as character driven as much as it is driven by the junk and learning about the gold buried in the piles of fetid clothing, miscellaneous odds and ends, and boxes that used to contain valuables or electronics. Despite being 99% garbage, most everyone stashed at least one interesting or valuable item. Even when that's not the case, the people doing it for a living, like Dave Hester, Jarrod & Brandi, and Darryl usually make a profit by stocking their second hand shops with the household items. Barry is the most colorful character, who is only in the mix to find collectibles that appeal to his personal collecting sensibilities. He has a seemingly infinite bankroll and an amazing collection of cars. Accusations of locker seeding and scripting abound, but it's still an interesting enough show. Speaking of scripting...  The Auction Hunters (Tuesdays at 10/9 CT on SpikeTV) are a lot like the storage wars crew, except more about the items in the lockers and the way the two partners, Allen and Ton work together and sell their items. Since it's on Spike, there's a lot of IN YOUR FACE type of fist pounding and attitude. Also again, accusations of locker re-enactments, scripting, and seeding, so who knows. It is strange how they only ever film and show them finding boys toys, like hovercrafts, ATVs, radio controlled planes, and NASA swag. But it's tempered with Allen and Ton having real knowledge and skill at their game, including a great segment of them melting down junk silver jewelry into silver bars to resell. So who knows? Apparently 80% of storage lockers are busts, and we only see the good stuff, so take everything on the locker shows with a grain of salt.  New Stuff Storage Wars Texas has started, which can be seen after new episodes of regular Storage Wars. We're kinda at a consensus that it's okay, but lacks a certain something that we watch the regular Storage Wars for...   Oddities(Fridays on Discovery) is another really fun show. Even if the buyers and sellers are complete plants, the amount of good natured Addams Family weirdness is enough to keep you interested. Auction Kings(Tuesdays on Discovery) is kinda neat. Since the people are just straight up selling their items to the public, you're rooting for them to make a lot of money. No mentions of overhead, and meat on the bone, etc.  Cajun Pawn Stars starts soon. We don't really have any idea what this is supposed to be, aside from a pawn shop in the south that apparently will deal in ANYTHING, including wacky things like livestock, oh boy!  Rounding out the list of shows are some that I don't really know much about/haven't myself watched much of:  Dirty Money (Fridays at 9 on Discovery), dumpster diving for cash. Hardcore Pawn (Tuesdays at 9 on TruTV), more pawn shop shenanigans Picker Sisters (Tuesdays at 10pm on Lifetime), pickers who turn their picks into interior decor. I'll probably end up watching this one...
Loving Life Partner fucked around with this message at Jan 5, 2012 around 15:07 |
| # ? Aug 21, 2011 02:33 |
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| # ? May 25, 2013 14:38 |
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Very nice. I particularly like your "lifecycle of an antique" timeline to connect them all.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 02:50 |
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I watched about 10 minutes of Picker Sisters once. It was all them flirting with some old man so he sells for cheap/gives them stuff because they're hot girls. They knew it too. I didn't like them purposely taking advantage of people.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 03:38 |
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American Restoration is the only one of these shows I can really stand. So long as the kids and GRRRR KOWBOY GRRRR aren't on camera. Or Pawn Star Rick doesn't bring anyone else from his show along when he picks up/drops off stuff 
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 04:21 |
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Yeeeeeeeeeeep!
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 08:39 |
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I love pawn stars just for the fact that all of the guys in the pawn shop just love givin everyone a hard loving. I understand that they're running a business and everything, but when something is valued at 60,000 dollars and you offer the guy 5 grand you are clearly loving him. American Pickers is also the best thing. Two openly gay men blazing across America trying not to look gay. Also they always mention that one of them is married, but have never shown his wife. The do seem to be genuinely interested in what they do and are very knowledgeable. Untrustable fucked around with this message at Aug 21, 2011 around 11:17 |
| # ? Aug 21, 2011 11:15 |
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Untrustable posted:but when something is valued at 60,000 dollars and you offer the guy 5 grand you are clearly loving him. The customer does not have to accept the price. Business is business.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 11:19 |
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Its just the brashness of the loving. It just seems lovely to offer such a low price for something appraised so high. Its like assuming the customer isn't worthy of a good offer.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 11:37 |
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A lot of the times the expert says "At auction this could potentially bring in X", but that means that it goes to auction, it has the right crowd there and maybe a little bid war breaks out, and the the auction house takes 10-35% of that anyway. Rick doesn't deal in potentials at all, and yeah, the customer is always free to walk. A pawn shop is for money now, not the best place to go to get top dollar.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 15:56 |
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Untrustable posted:Its just the brashness of the loving. It just seems lovely to offer such a low price for something appraised so high. Its like assuming the customer isn't worthy of a good offer. Appraisals really don't mean anything. It's all about what people will actually pay for it. Plus most of the things he buys don't have a big market (outside of the guns). So it's a lot of time and work to find a buyer for those items. And obviously the seller wasn't willing to do that work, or they wouldn't be in a pawn shop looking for fast cash.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 16:02 |
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Untrustable posted:Its just the brashness of the loving. It just seems lovely to offer such a low price for something appraised so high. Its like assuming the customer isn't worthy of a good offer. If you watch enough of the show you eventually hear them talk about the kind of margins the business actually runs on in terms of buying/selling. It's around 20-25%. Whatever they're offering isn't a total loving so much as it is "we need to make X% back on this thing to stay in business." Whenever the experts say something would make *blah* at auction, you have to factor in whatever it costs to make it presentable, the fees the auction house takes just for the item being listed, the percentage the auction house takes if it does sell (it can be a lot), the fact that it might not sell or sell for considerably less than what the expert said, shipping it, the space it takes up while you wait for the right auction, etc. I'm sure there's hidden costs I'm not even thinking of, and after that they still have to make that 25% back on their initial layout for it to be worthwhile. Not to mention all that liquid cash being tied up in something for however long. I don't think Rick actually does the auction thing anyway, maybe someone who has read his book can say something more about that but I suspect when he picks up a big ticket item he has buyers in mind already.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 16:35 |
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IRQ posted:I don't think Rick actually does the auction thing anyway, maybe someone who has read his book can say something more about that but I suspect when he picks up a big ticket item he has buyers in mind already. From what I recall he usually has someone in mind for a big purchase, which dictates his interest in it, but he does occasionally let stuff go to auction if it's worth it.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 17:07 |
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Liar posted:Appraisals really don't mean anything. It's all about what people will actually pay for it. Plus most of the things he buys don't have a big market (outside of the guns). So it's a lot of time and work to find a buyer for those items. And obviously the seller wasn't willing to do that work, or they wouldn't be in a pawn shop looking for fast cash. Don't forget that what you see on Pawn Stars is staged to hell and back. The "negotiations" are already agreed upon long before the actual shooting begins, because under Nevada state law, a pawn is a private transaction.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 18:00 |
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Liar posted:Appraisals really don't mean anything. It's all about what people will actually pay for it. Plus most of the things he buys don't have a big market (outside of the guns). So it's a lot of time and work to find a buyer for those items. And obviously the seller wasn't willing to do that work, or they wouldn't be in a pawn shop looking for fast cash. Plus you're killing him, it's going to take up space in his shop.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 18:06 |
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Grin and Tonic posted:From what I recall he usually has someone in mind for a big purchase, which dictates his interest in it, but he does occasionally let stuff go to auction if it's worth it. I know Rick Dale does. There's an episode where he makes some good cash selling a couple things he restored. But auction fees can go up to 30% of what you make, so it can be risky. If Rick Harris bought an item that was appraised at like $10k for $6k and brought it to auction, even if it sold for what it was appraised for he might only be walking away with $1k profit.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 18:28 |
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Timby posted:Don't forget that what you see on Pawn Stars is staged to hell and back. The "negotiations" are already agreed upon long before the actual shooting begins, because under Nevada state law, a pawn is a private transaction. I want to know if History gives them an allowance each episode.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 18:33 |
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I like American Pickers a lot, and it seems like they are a little more fair than the Pawn Stars guys at least- I remember one episode where something sold for a lot more than they expected and they went back to the guy who sold it to them and gave him a big chunk of the cash. Are Mike and Frank really gay? Not that I care if they are, but I really never got that impression.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 18:39 |
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I don't think so, it's just fun to imagine
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 18:59 |
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HappilyDeranged posted:I like American Pickers a lot, and it seems like they are a little more fair than the Pawn Stars guys at least- I remember one episode where something sold for a lot more than they expected and they went back to the guy who sold it to them and gave him a big chunk of the cash. Are Mike and Frank really gay? Not that I care if they are, but I really never got that impression. Mike's been involved with the same woman for years. Franky however has not been in a relationship as far as I know. I only know about Mike because it was talked about on another board. These guys are like Bert and Ernie; they have a great bromance, leave it at that.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 19:07 |
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There was an article a few weeks ago in the Tennessean about Mike Wolf and how he has opened up a second antiques store in Nashville that will feature heavily in the upcoming season of American Pickers. Here is the article, he sounds like a genuinely nice guy. http://www.tennessean.com/article/2...table-Nashville
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 19:21 |
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Liar posted:Mike's been involved with the same woman for years. Franky however has not been in a relationship as far as I know. I only know about Mike because it was talked about on another board. These guys are like Bert and Ernie; they have a great bromance, leave it at that. Plus there's a guy that posted in the old thread occasionally that's known one of these guys for a few years, so every time this 'are they actually gay?' thing (which is silly in and of itself anyway) comes up it's probably pretty awkward. Even if they were, Pickers is cool to watch without speculating over the sexual orientations of the men involved. (More of a general comment because I see this come up in different places, nothing against HappilyDeranged.) Also my goodness Hardcore Pawn is really uncomfortable to watch, but I can't ever look away.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 19:30 |
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catsuit judo posted:Also my goodness Hardcore Pawn is really uncomfortable to watch, but I can't ever look away. It's easily the best of these type of shows. TruTV has become my guilty pleasure over the last few weeks. I loving love these repo and tow shows.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 19:34 |
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HappilyDeranged posted:I like American Pickers a lot, and it seems like they are a little more fair than the Pawn Stars guys at least- I remember one episode where something sold for a lot more than they expected and they went back to the guy who sold it to them and gave him a big chunk of the cash. Are Mike and Frank really gay? Not that I care if they are, but I really never got that impression. I said this several times in the old thread, but I've known Mike since 2005, and he is most certainly not gay. Dude's had a live-in girlfriend for years, and he's one of the biggest horndogs I've ever met. He really is exactly what you see on TV: A goofy, ridiculously enthusiastic guy who absolutely loves old poo poo. I've only met Frank a few times in passing, but he's a pretty affable guy, too. Don't really know him well, though.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 19:43 |
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I don't watch Pawn Stars that often, but at least they break with the usual tradition and show them loving up from time to time. Like when the guy got burned on the Gibson mandolin. I used to work at a pawn shop and a guy who'd been working there for about ten years paid $2k for a fake Rolex. He ended up owning it.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 19:48 |
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Timby posted:I said this several times in the old thread, but I've known Mike since 2005, and he is most certainly not gay. Dude's had a live-in girlfriend for years, and he's one of the biggest horndogs I've ever met. He really is exactly what you see on TV: A goofy, ridiculously enthusiastic guy who absolutely loves old poo poo. How well do you know him, would he be up for some goon Q&A ?
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 20:56 |
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Mister Kingdom posted:I don't watch Pawn Stars that often, but at least they break with the usual tradition and show them loving up from time to time. Like when the guy got burned on the Gibson mandolin. That was entirely staged.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 20:57 |
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In the last thread someone mentioned about the NASA stuff Auction Hunters found in a locker, and it lead back to a space geek message board. The guy who appraised their items and bought them posted on there saying he got a call out of the blue asking if he could look at some stuff and maybe buy it if interested. He mentioned what went on was mostly real, but the short 15 minute clip we saw was done over a few days, and he did actually buy the stuff. The guy showed more photos of his house and it was stuffed with NASA collectibles. His wife was a huge space nerd, who had a twin sister. The twins went out horse riding, and his wife died falling off a horse, and he ended up marrying his twin sister and they are still space nerds. Weird.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 21:07 |
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Rhyno posted:That was entirely staged. Yeah, they needed to remind us Chum is an idiot to fit in with the narrative that they're letting him do some deals which I'm sure is also completely fake.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 21:09 |
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Untrustable posted:I understand that they're running a business and everything, but when something is valued at 60,000 dollars and you offer the guy 5 grand you are clearly loving him. Except that has never happened  The shop pays less than market price sure, no need to exaggerate. I have never seen someone being offered 5k worth 60k. Something that is 12k might get a low initial offer of 4 or 5 but he ends up paying maybe 60% of the valued amount. Pretty good for the customer that needs to sell something fast, get cash, and not have to advertise or pay more auction fees and HOPE it makes a profit. It has been said in the other thread as well, but how could it possibly be considered ripping someone off if the customer walks into your store, wants you to buy something right then, and he offers you an amount he would be willing to give. Rick could say "I will pay you $10 for your $500 item" and it is in now way ripping the customer off as long as he knows the actual value. The customer drove to the shop and asked for money, if he wants more money, go somewhere else. Does anyone remember the car dealer show set in Las Vegas on A&E, The Car Genie or something. That show seemed like people got hosed to me but the more I thought about it, I changed my mind. That was a hell of a show.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 21:10 |
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HappilyDeranged posted:I like American Pickers a lot, and it seems like they are a little more fair than the Pawn Stars guys at least- I remember one episode where something sold for a lot more than they expected and they went back to the guy who sold it to them and gave him a big chunk of the cash. Well, it strikes me as the sort of business that is defined by longterm relationships between buyers and sellers, rather than short-term gains. There are only so many guys with sprawling junkyards full of genuinely valuable curios and collectibles.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 21:21 |
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Usually I find international spin-offs of shows to be total garbage, but Canadian Pickers is another great Pickers show. The formula is of course identical to the American version, with extra politeness and Tim Hortons references. It probably doesn't air in the US but if you enjoy the American version and can watch this one, it is certainly at least as good.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 22:29 |
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catsuit judo posted:Plus there's a guy that posted in the old thread occasionally that's known one of these guys for a few years, so every time this 'are they actually gay?' thing (which is silly in and of itself anyway) comes up it's probably pretty awkward. Oh, I was only asking because Untrustable said they were openly gay and I was surprised because I really never picked up on any romantic vibes between them or anything. I'd never even thought about it before, and of course it doesn't really make any difference.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 22:37 |
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Timby posted:Don't forget that what you see on Pawn Stars is staged to hell and back. The "negotiations" are already agreed upon long before the actual shooting begins, because under Nevada state law, a pawn is a private transaction. They're private but not secret. Yes, you have the right to keep your transaction between you and the pawn broker but if you want to waive that right in order to appear on national television you are welcome to do so.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 22:48 |
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Storage Wars is my JAM. That being said when watching a marathon and you slowly realise the locker seeding stuff, its like finding out Santa doesnt exist or discovering that Dave Hester doesnt always wear his black get-up (if he does or doesnt, do not tell me). Still though, the arrival of Mark and the willingness to go deeper in "backstory" and antagonists this season is GREAT.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 23:10 |
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Here's my big question about Storage Wars/Auction Hunters...well, not so much about the shows themselves but about storage unit auctioning as a whole. I know that they are auctioned off because whoever owned them didn't pay the rent for a few months (I think laws vary by state, but generally it's a few months of not paying before you get notices that continued failure to pay will result in the contents being auctioned off.) So why don't these people just empty out their units when they get that notice? Or at least go in there and get the thousands of dollars worth of the good stuff and just leave the crappy press-board furniture. Yeah, I know 80-90% of units are like that, and we only see the pay-offs, but why are they any pay-offs at all? Who is sitting at home, thinking to themselves, "Hmmm...spend a day emptying out my unit for the thousands of dollars of stuff inside, or be lazy and not...welp, lazy wins!" They only explanation I can think of is that a lot of units belong to people who died and who's family didn't know they had a unit, or are in prison and can't pay or empty them out.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 23:12 |
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I have a friend who has a lot of collectible stuff in storage. The place he uses has these auctions every month and maybe a couple of people would show up. Now he say the number of people has tripled since these shows have aired. It is good to see them come up with stuff worth less than what they paid occasionally. Most shows on Discovery/History/etc rarely show the company failing. Like Mega Movers. Just once, I'd like to see them drop a big-rear end house.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 23:17 |
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The Pawn Stars are doing a live appearance in my city in a couple of weeks at the Hastings Racecourse in Vancouver. Tickets are $20 which gets you a photo op and the chance to sell them your stuff. I can't imagine anyone paying for the privilege of selling them stuff when we have our own pawn shops that don't charge a $20 cover, but I'm tempted to bring a copy of Rick's autobiography for him to sign and then ask how much he would buy it for.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 23:21 |
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Ton and Allen (Auction Hunters) have such great chemistry. The episode on right now has them finding an antique lie-detector and using it to see who's been stealing sandwiches from their office fridge. Counterpoint, I saw an episode of Storage Wars this weekend where Jarrod dropped a bunch of crates on Brandi without apologizing. He's such an rear end.
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| # ? Aug 21, 2011 23:54 |
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WouldDesk posted:
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| # ? Aug 22, 2011 00:10 |
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| # ? May 25, 2013 14:38 |
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jscolon2.0 posted:Ton and Allen (Auction Hunters) have such great chemistry. The episode on right now has them finding an antique lie-detector and using it to see who's been stealing sandwiches from their office fridge. Auction Hunters really is the best show. You just have to go in knowing that it isn't the Allen & Ton Reality Show Power Hour and they fully admit at the start that only the cool stuff is shown with all that pesky actual work sped up, edited out, or just plain old never filmed. DrBouvenstein posted:So why don't these people just empty out their units when they get that notice? Or at least go in there and get the thousands of dollars worth of the good stuff and just leave the crappy press-board furniture. Yeah, I know 80-90% of units are like that, and we only see the pay-offs, but why are they any pay-offs at all? Who is sitting at home, thinking to themselves, Alot of reasons. The first, and biggest, is that most aren't 1000+ dollar units. A vast majority are filled with what is literally an iota above being called trash. To continue on with the Auction Hunter talk, they usually explain that 90% of their rooms only get them 10% of their profit and they're very wary of randomly buying rooms without an item they know is going to pay for the room because they don't want to pay for the privilege of taking out someone's trash. Even in the case of the 10% that make them 90% of the profit, most of the profit only comes when you take all of the small 50-100 dollar items that people would just assume are worthless/junk/old and sell them. It's only a scant few rooms that have tangible "holy crap" items, and then death/jail/not having the money/not caring/forgetting that you bought a storage facility for all your garage crap probably covers it. Garbo fucked around with this message at Aug 22, 2011 around 00:28 |
| # ? Aug 22, 2011 00:21 |
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