OT: PawnStars, Pickers, StorageWars

[GemParty]

Years ago History Channel, was my dad watching old WW1 documentaries. Now antiques, selling, picking, yuuuuup is the rage. Do you pick or attend auctions? Are you a junker or tag sale person? Do you collect anything yourself?What do you think of this recent tv trend?

 

[specialisthusky]

Yuuuuuuuup. Love all three shows. I find american pickers the most interesting.

 

[61cygni]

I don't collect very much, don't attend auctions. I don't mind taking a look at tag sales every now and then.

As far as the TV trend goes, all these shows seem to try and make it look easy and more interesting than it really is. I'm guessing that there are far more boring, dreary days of looking at worthless items, and it would be really hard for an amateur to profit. But if you can have fun doing it, sounds good. Like gambling, if you think of it as paying for entertainment.

 

[Waquoit]

You can have Kim Kardashian et al. I'll take Brandi from Storage Wars.

 

[zyron]

I don't collect very much, don't attend auctions. I don't mind taking a look at tag sales every now and then.

As far as the TV trend goes, all these shows seem to try and make it look easy and more interesting than it really is. I'm guessing that there are far more boring, dreary days of looking at worthless items, and it would be really hard for an amateur to profit. But if you can have fun doing it, sounds good. Like gambling, if you think of it as paying for entertainment.

My brother has been doing storage auctions for over 10 years and it is a lot of work. I have been to a bunch and helped him clean out many of his units. Most of it is garbage and you have 1 day to clean it out otherwise you have to start paying rent. If your dump charges then you have to pay to get rid of the crap.

They are almost always disgusting too. You can make money if you know what you are doing but it is not as easy as it looks on TV.

 

[Dann]

YYYYYUUUUUUPPPPPPP. i'm more of a jarod and brandi fan, my crew refers to her as the hot storage nope lol. what a lucky guy that jarod is.

i have been 2 several auction local over the years. quick story on my first(this was right around the time that show was getting going and ppl really found out about this stuff):

It was the summer of my senior year up in Springfield. A couple guys we knew had a lease change and were moving houses and put their stuff in a local storage unit. One of the 2 guys ended up not returning that year to school and the other was a poor college kid and they didn't pay the bills, the one kid never returned and the other kid just didn't care. We knew which place/which unit etc because one of my roommates had helped the guys move the stuff. They loaded a huge 10-20(if I remember correctly) unit with 2 couches, an lg tv, kitchen table and a ton of other stuff. Probably 2k+ all together value wise if you were looking from a bus perspective. At the door the last thing they stuffed in was 2 beds. We were looking to fill our new house up with stuff and knew what was in there. So we went. Besides the crew of 4 of us that went I would say there was less than 15 ppl there for 5 units that were up for bid. we were the outsiders for sure and the ppl basically ignored us, looking back at it I laugh watching these shows. They almost went out of there way to make sure we were last to see the units. We watched 2 units go for cheap(less than $50) and one go for over 1k, it was loaded with art stuff (big art scene in west mass north of Springfield). Then my buddies unit was next. They had pre cut the lock which is different from what they show on tv so we were worried that some 1 might have already gone thru the unit or something but we went for it. When the auction guy opened the door all you could see was 2 mattresses standing tall leaning up against what we knew was a dresser but everyone else just assumed it was packed with crap because the mattresses weren’t anything great. There was a $25 bid and then it went up to $50 in $5 bids. Then my buddy Jim said $75. Everyone kind of looked at us like wtf. We got it for $75 as everyone backed off and thought we were the stupid new guys that would fail quick and so we didn't even bother going to watch the other 2 units. We scored evern better then we hoped to! Turns out the two guys went back after the original packing and stuffed more into the locked. We landed a 2nd tv (a vizio), a lot of textbooks (which we sold to the book store), a some more furniture. We also scored a $300 roor which we knew the kid owned but didn't think he would have ever put away in storage. It was sweet! We made just over $200 on the books and so the unit was paid for and we had put a lot of furniture plus those 2 tvs and other stuff in our house for nothing. That’s college good luck! Talk about a college house on the cheap lol.

if only my future wife had

 

[suzyq]

Years ago History Channel, was my dad watching old WW1 documentaries. Now antiques, selling, picking, yuuuuup is the rage. Do you pick or attend auctions? Are you a junker or tag sale person? Do you collect anything yourself?What do you think of this recent tv trend?

I hate most of what is currently on TV save for the brilliant AMC, HBO and Showtime stuff. Plus I love Modern Family. My DVR is full of these shows...all...of...them. My husband loves them. I grew up poor, I'm not so fascinated by junk I guess. I will admit that it's amazing what people will pay for some of this stuff.

 

[Deepelm]

You can have Kim Kardashian et al. I'll take Brandi from Storage Wars.

Ding ding. She has quite the bod.

 

[Kitaman]

What they don't reveal is the people who are losing some of their life possessions/collections. I'm not saying that is wrong or the storage place should use alternatives, it is a breached contract. But its that 'hidden' element where I find hard it hard to enjoy the show(s). Prospering on others misfortunes who may have become unemployed or other personal catastrophe and couldn't keep up with the fees.

Now have an auction on confiscated drug dealer property or Wall St/Corp imprisoned execs possessions, I'll be the first to watch.

 

[cohenzone]

Interesting thread. I have a very close relative who produces shows for several cable networks (did some of the WWII stuff on History), and is now doing some"reality" shows , among other stuff. None of the "collector" shows though.

 

[GemParty]

One thing I never figure out is what makes a person walk away from thousands of dollars in a unit? If your on hard times and you have StarWars figures, art, antiques, etc. don't u just sell your stuff? How do you walk away from it? Death? Prison? I've seen Ton n Allen find motorcycles, atvs, rare guns, even a small boat. Why is this stuff left, or do u just miss a couple payments and it's owned by the storage place?

 

[Dann]

one of the more common things is now most storage type units can be paid by a credit card plan that is auto charged. when ppl change cards or any type of $ issue messes with the card on file at the storage place the payment doesn't happen. ppl forget to put a new card on file or just cant pay.

 

[zyron]

One thing I never figure out is what makes a person walk away from thousands of dollars in a unit? If your on hard times and you have StarWars figures, art, antiques, etc. don't u just sell your stuff? How do you walk away from it? Death? Prison? I've seen Ton n Allen find motorcycles, atvs, rare guns, even a small boat. Why is this stuff left, or do u just miss a couple payments and it's owned by the storage place?

When you miss your payment the storage unit puts their own lock on along with your lock so you can't get in. When you miss (I think) 3 months the storage place has to put an ad in the paper announcing the auction. You then have until the auction starts to pay to get your stuff back. Then they take off their lock, cut yours and the auction begins.

I was at a couple auctions where the person paid right before the auction and kept their stuff.

 

[RichZ]

I grew tired of pickers pretty quickly, but the storage unit auction shows are pretty interesting for the moment. SW is OK, except I don't like them tallying up the stuff based on the the guy who bought the unit's quick estimates. In a lot of cases, I'm familiar with the value of the stuff, and they are always on the high side. Way past it in many cases. Darrel is the worst, and Dave isn't much better. I kind of like Barry, who appears to be in it entirely as a hobby, as he arrives in a different custom and or classic car every episode, and loses money on almost every episode.

Storage Hunters (The one with Ton and Allen) is the best of the bunch because they actually take the stuff out and sell it to come up with a value.

But there's now 4 separate storage unit auction shows on. Don't think the market's big enough to support all three.

As far as anything else on the tube (other than MCBB) worth watching. Justified is the best show on the tube, and will be starting a new season on January 17th.

 

[alexd]

....we need a hoops game to discuss, ASAP!!!

 

[UConner]

These shows are basically "Antiques Road Show" on steroids. But they are fun to watch because of the interesting stuff that shows up. Deadliest Catch was fun for the first season but then it just was so repetitive. On the other hand, two certain things about Brandi never get old....

 

[~*Jen*~]

Years ago History Channel, was my dad watching old WW1 documentaries. Now antiques, selling, picking, yuuuuup is the rage. Do you pick or attend auctions? Are you a junker or tag sale person? Do you collect anything yourself?What do you think of this recent tv trend?

Hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it, hate it! Did I mention I hate it? LOL. Seriously, my TiVo is FULL of that junk because my husband watches ALL of them--and then some. They all rate a big, fat yawn from me.

I've never been big into reality TV, I guess. If there are any shows I watch, it's on a rare occasion--not enough to consider recording. I usually keep the TV off during the day but my toddler figured out how to turn it on so I end up keeping PBS on until I can't stand that crap anymore.

 

[zyron]

Storage Hunters (The one with Ton and Allen) is the best of the bunch because they actually take the stuff out and sell it to come up with a value.

The only problem is Storage Hunters and Auction Hunters are both fake. My brother was asked a couple months ago if we would like to be one of the people who stand around in Auction Hunters when they came to CT. He was told he was not allowed to bid if he was. Since that is how he makes his living he obviously didn't do it.

 

[Husky Dynasty]

I remember the good old days when the History Channel was dedicated to "history..."

 

[61cygni]

They could do a History Channel documentary on the history of the History Channel...

But seriously, did they run out of history or something? Aliens and Nostradamus seem to be their bread and butter.

 

[NHUConnfan]

I have to admit I just love Storage Wars. That show is pure reality TV gold. All the drama - and the characters they have are just quite amazing.

As Barry said once: "Bridge is like sex. If you don't have a good partner, you better have a good hand."

 

[temery]

I watch Pawn Stars when I want to see people get ripped off. I watch Pickers when I want to see two guys say something is worth far more than they eventually get. And I watch Storage Wars when I want to see scripted reality.

I watch all three.

There was a show on for a short time called Dirty Money that I really liked. Two brothers in New York picked items, repurposed a few, and then sold them at a flee market.


http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/dirty-money-full-steam-ahead-videos/

Years ago History Channel, was my dad watching old WW1 documentaries. Now antiques, selling, picking, yuuuuup is the rage. Do you pick or attend auctions? Are you a junker or tag sale person? Do you collect anything yourself?What do you think of this recent tv trend?

 

[Dann]

The only problem is Storage Hunters and Auction Hunters are both fake. My brother was asked a couple months ago if we would like to be one of the people who stand around in Auction Hunters when they came to CT. He was told he was not allowed to bid if he was. Since that is how he makes his living he obviously didn't do it.

cool info. its clear that SH is fake and just bs. AH on the other hand is interesting becuase they show basically what ppl call "loaded lockers"- lots of cool stuff. its been posted around the internet but for those who don't know ton and his buddy allan were former actors, i forget what shows(csi or lv??). i read before that they show fake auctions then load lockers. the reason i still watch that everonce in a while is becuase its such cool stuff on the show. but its clearly not real the more you watch. SW is the one i watch, its drama etc but it shows the ups and downs and how they work for business and swap...

 

[GemParty]

The Dirty Money, carpenter brother is a Genius! He could make a turd and a piece of wood into $500.

 

[Waquoit]

As Barry said once: "Bridge is like sex. If you don't have a good partner, you better have a good hand."

That line gets big laughs at the setback league down the old watering hole.