What's new

Why I hate "American Pickers"

How do you feel about American Pickers and their effect on the prices of "antiques"

  • Definitely blowing prices up.

  • I can't tell the difference


Results are only viewable after voting.
I like Pawn Stars. But I think that the prices started getting jacked all the way back to Antiques Roadshow. Since the Roadshow only shows the extremely rare, very valuable item, and not the 1000s of items that are passed up at each location, people started thinking that they had that one, rare, item. Pawn Stars commonly has fakes, old but not valuable items, things like that.

Also, even though Pawn Stars is staged, people on it commonly say things like "I saw someone online asking 1500 for this!" when offered a couple hundred bucks for something. I think that's something that happens in real life, people will research an item online and find the most overpriced asking price and think its the items value, instead of digging a little deeper and seeing what the item is actually selling for.
 
I think a lot of you are making good points. I feel that people are looking for too much margin in their sales. If the past couple of decades in retail hasn't taught us anything it's lower margin higher volume that makes the bucks. My examples are not all barbering or shaving related. I used to buy old hatchets and axes at flea markets. As recently as a couple of years ago I could get a decent (if a little rusty) antique hatchet at a decent price that was a better tool than anything I could buy new in the same price range. Maybe 15$ - 20$ at the absolute highest. Now, short of the ones with cracked eyes, or chips in the blade I can't get one for less than $50.00 I see the same stuff not selling month after month at the flea market but this doesn't deter them...
 
Ebay has effected prices. I went to a garage sale the other day and almost fell over when I saw the prices she had on everything. She said she went to Ebay and looked every thing up. I wanted to tell her, (but didn't), that her garage sale was not Ebay. There is a reason you can get better prices for things on Ebay. The chance that a collector in Ohio is looking for an item that you are saling on the Bay is pretty good. That collector may pay $100 for an item he needs to complete a collection. The chance that the collector will happen to stop by your garage sale and see an item he has been looking for and want to pay $100 is not very good. Also, she looked up prices on current Ebay listings (not completed Ebay sales). Looking at completed sales gives you a much truer picture of what things go for. Any fool can put an item for sale on Ebay and ask $100 for it, but if you look at completed listing you would find that they sale for around $20.
 
In my opinion ebay killed pawn shops. Most of the ones I have visited in the past decade have turned over everything possible on the internet leaving only used movies, tools that are too heavy to ship and cheap musical instruments.
 
I saw Chumlee on "Top Gear", and he isn't the dolt they portray him as on "Pawn Stars". He was knowlegable, well spoken...completly out of his "Pawn Stars" character. I was amused when he was asked "what do you drive?". His response was " a Range Rover and a Maserati". I gotta get my own reality show!
 
I saw Chumlee on "Top Gear", and he isn't the dolt they portray him as on "Pawn Stars". He was knowlegable, well spoken...completly out of his "Pawn Stars" character. I was amused when he was asked "what do you drive?". His response was " a Range Rover and a Maserati". I gotta get my own reality show!

I have always thought that Chumlee was just acting dumb. You can tell that he is actually pretty smart.
 
I have always thought that Chumlee was just acting dumb. You can tell that he is actually pretty smart.

He showed that quite well on an episode when someone brought in a pair of those Nike Mag shoes from Back to the Future II. He was talking about sneakers and their value. It was the smartest he has sounded yet on the show.
 
I saw Chumlee on "Top Gear", and he isn't the dolt they portray him as on "Pawn Stars". He was knowlegable, well spoken...completly out of his "Pawn Stars" character. I was amused when he was asked "what do you drive?". His response was " a Range Rover and a Maserati". I gotta get my own reality show!

I am willing to bet the Maserati part was a joke. There is no way they get paid that kind of money for a show on the History channel......no way.
 
I am willing to bet the Maserati part was a joke. There is no way they get paid that kind of money for a show on the History channel......no way.

I wouldn't doubt it, really. One of the higher level managers at my job drives a Maserati GT S on the weekends, a 2011 I believe. He makes a nice salary for the area, around $200K a year if I recall correctly, but you can buy that car for $100K. Many of the folks you see around town driving brand new S-Class Mercedes paid more for their car and make less than him a year.

Maintenance and upkeep on a Maserati is another story, but the point is that he still owns and drives one :lol:

Pawn Stars is one of the most popular shows on TV, or atleast it used to be. Not out of the question that those guys are/were being compensated very well.
 
I'm sure some people try to get into the business because of these shows, but I don't think it's easy to make money doing this. I think Pawn Stars and Pickers make more from the TV show then they do from their business. I don't have the numbers but that's my hunch.
The part that's missing from both shows is where they actually SELL the stuff that they've bought.

AP shows on each segment something like: Item Picked $20 / Item Valued $60 / Profit $40 ... but that means nothing unless they actually can put that Item in a customer's hands and take some cash for it.

The only time I ever saw them actually sell anything was when they put a stuffed elephant's head into Jack White's recording studio ... I'm not sure if they made any money on that one or not, but it was a heck of a good episode.

Both shows would benefit if they delved into the OTHER side of the business ... not just the buying part of the process.
 
http://www.etsy.com/listing/77917616/vintage-dewitt-steri-tool-barber-shop

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BARBER-SHOP...315&pid=100011&prg=1005&rk=2&sd=150896930107&



Prime example. I have been watching this nitwit trying to sell these things for $165.00 for a little while now. I'd buy all three remaining for $50.00 (ten more than I payed for mine) plus the shipping just to secure three at once. Hell, I'd even go $200.00 for the lot. Again, because it's hard to get more than one at a time. Nope, he/she is just going to sit there and wait. Hell, it could take more than a year to sell them at that price if ever..but people get these prices in their heads. I'd rather turn a $20.00 profit per item tomorrow than a $200.00 profit a year from now. I suspect this person might have overpayed at an estate auction to have had four at a time..those tricky auctioneers.
 
I wouldn't doubt it, really. One of the higher level managers at my job drives a Maserati GT S on the weekends, a 2011 I believe. He makes a nice salary for the area, around $200K a year if I recall correctly, but you can buy that car for $100K. Many of the folks you see around town driving brand new S-Class Mercedes paid more for their car and make less than him a year.

Maintenance and upkeep on a Maserati is another story, but the point is that he still owns and drives one :lol:

Pawn Stars is one of the most popular shows on TV, or atleast it used to be. Not out of the question that those guys are/were being compensated very well.

Personally, I highly doubt a non family employee, at a family owned Pawn Show makes anywhere near $200 grand a year (or even half that). It is possible, like you said though, that the car costs more than his yearly salary. I guess with the ultra cheap housing prices in Vegas, it might leave money left for other stuff....like fast cars.
 
Personally, I highly doubt a non family employee, at a family owned Pawn Show makes anywhere near $200 grand a year (or even half that). It is possible, like you said though, that the car costs more than his yearly salary. I guess with the ultra cheap housing prices in Vegas, it might leave money left for other stuff....like fast cars.
Chumlee makes $25,000.00 an episode and they produce 25 episodes a season.
http://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-celebrities/austin-chumlee-russell-net-worth/
 
Last edited:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/77917616/vintage-dewitt-steri-tool-barber-shop

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BARBER-SHOP...315&pid=100011&prg=1005&rk=2&sd=150896930107&



Prime example. I have been watching this nitwit trying to sell these things for $165.00 for a little while now. I'd buy all three remaining for $50.00 (ten more than I payed for mine) plus the shipping just to secure three at once. Hell, I'd even go $200.00 for the lot. Again, because it's hard to get more than one at a time. Nope, he/she is just going to sit there and wait. Hell, it could take more than a year to sell them at that price if ever..but people get these prices in their heads. I'd rather turn a $20.00 profit per item tomorrow than a $200.00 profit a year from now. I suspect this person might have overpayed at an estate auction to have had four at a time..those tricky auctioneers.

Its not just antiques. I've got an wireless Logitch keyboard that I'm fond of. The receiver burned out on it, and I needed a specific model number range for replacement. So, I'm pretty much the perfect customer you could want if your selling these receivers, but even so, there's a limit to what I'm going to pay. So I go through and email all the "buy it now" sellers on ebay with a model number I need, offering 20$ for the receiver they have (which is about 5$ more than what the receivers usually sell for at auction), and I didnt get a response out of any of them. These aren't sought after items, some of them had been running the same ad for the same receiver literally for like 2-3 years, yet they wont take less money than they're asking. Anyway, I found one for like 11$, so it worked out fine. But I was shocked at the total lack of common sense of the sellers. They didn't even counter offer or anything.
 
Prices have gone up from what I'm seeing and those veterans of antique/estates sale regulars are telling me when I bump into them. One estate sale I went to the lady wanted $40 for a plain white cup and black brush. It was interesting to hear people's comments as I was looking around. "This is higher than retail" or "$5 for a coffee cup!" As a previous poster said the market will correct it as I saw many people leave empty handed and whisper under their breath of this company. Also many old timers complain everyone is an " expert" now that it's on tv.
 
Top Bottom