auction hunters - storage wars - american pickers - pawn stars - shipping wars - american restoration - hardcore pawn - auction kings - storage hunters

storage wars forever.

why do the dudes on auction hunters consistently score sweeter finds than the zany characters on storage wars?

(a quick google search will result in several message boards where people proclaim both are "fake")

btw i have seen the first six on this list but have yet to watch hardcore pawn, auction kings, or storage hunters.

ampick

there was some npr segment I heard about this whose thesis was that these shows provide viewers who are dealing with financial issues or are reading constantly about financial issues with a sense that their objects are worth something

itd be cool if they found some humans who were being trafficked in one of the lockers and then they all bid on them

the yin to the hoarding shows yang

xpost

its just a formula that works and is copied is all that is my thesis

the moleman episode of american pickers is completely insane that is probably the only ep of any of these worth seeking out and watching

I haven't seen any of these shows. Half-watched an episode of Antiques Roadshow last week.

I did have one coup. Found a copy of "Lucky Fights It Through" for $1, sold it for $750. Unfortunately my car needed about $600 worth of work done right then.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Wednesday, September 1, 2004 9:16 PM (7 years ago)

itd be cool if they found some humans who were being trafficked in one of the lockers and then they all bid on them

― lag∞n, Monday, February 13, 2012 11:42 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ master @ work

the moleman episode of american pickers is completely insane that is probably the only ep of any of these worth seeking out and watching

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Monday, February 13, 2012 6:44 PM (1 minute ago)

what is the moleman????

do they find one?

he is this tiny guy who has dug a series of tunnels underground supported by random wood/discarded doorframes/whatever and decorated all the rooms with items and memorabilia he has collected, should be on 'flix

the tunnels just go deeper and deeper and the whole thing feels all silence of the lambs, but end up in extremely brightly lit rooms filled with color and wonder and things to pick

does it turn out it was all a dream

wow i will look out for that

i just saw the episode w/ the dude who lives in an old police station/jail that is crammed full of stuff he cant let go of

i met a dude at a garage sale once who sold me 3,000 LPs for $400.

i didnt come anywhere near breaking even on it but it was a lot of fun

Storage Hunters is interesting to say the least. Such a low down version of Storage Wars

oddities maybe

a new show called Comic Book Men premiered after yesterday's The Walking Dead. it also follows the auction formula for a good portion of the show

have gotten sucked into storage wars. love/hate the characters in the appropriate/expected ways. one beef with it though is when they tally up at the end. how much they "make" off this shit assumes they sell the shit. you know most if not all sits on the shelf of whatever thrift store for the next decade.

american pickers can suck it. they ride around the countryside rippin off rubes.

some of these others i haven't heard of or seen.

moleman was p /nuts, the pickers tho after watching half an ep i despise them

have gotten sucked into storage wars. love/hate the characters in the appropriate/expected ways. one beef with it though is when they tally up at the end. how much they "make" off this shit assumes they sell the shit. you know most if not all sits on the shelf of whatever thrift store for the next decade.

THIS

instead of otm on this thread we should say YEPPPPPPPPPPPP

I saw american restoration on hotel room cable this weekend and was sorely disappointed. It seems like they took an hour long show, tossed out all the interesting stuff about how the work was done and retained the financial transactions and the reveal. Incredibly boring stuff, when it might actually be quite good.

8 hours in paint, every damn time.

otm-- that drives me crazy

also whenever they repaint something different from what it was originally he has reliably terrible taste

and he doesnt even consult the client!!

instead of otm on this thread we should say YEPPPPPPPPPPPP

Quite right.

Thanks to my sweets I have been sucked into the Storage Wars vortex. Best damn documentary about OC life ever.

Feel like American Pickers is of a different sort than the rest of these, definite Antiques Roadshow descendant. Just two goofy guys wandering around the Midwest buying useless stuff. Their approximations of how much they make off each pick are pretty lol, esp. when it's an item you know something about and they're wildly overvaluing it.

The adversarial shows (pawn, storage wars, etc.) are a bummer.

Oddities is too weird and gross, but I love the possibly-autistic hot mortician-goth who's been in several episodes

http://streetbonersandtvcarnage.com/blog/dear-street-carnage-i-beat-up-that-dude-from-the-show-oddities/

No one has ever deserved a beating more than that dude.

Thanks to my sweets I have been sucked into the Storage Wars vortex. Best damn documentary about OC life ever.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, February 14, 2012 12:21 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is a great show to watch with a gf for some reason

My sister got me to watch Hardcore Pawn (set in Detroit), and it was the most fucking depressing thing I've ever seen in my life. I wish there was a way to crosspost this to the hockey thread, but as somebody who used to be a Darren McCarty fan it is sad to see him see him end up working in a pawn shop. It was like a real life version of The Wrestler.

I saw the first season of Storage Wars. Went down easy. They did a brilliant job eliding over the economic realities driving the show.

also the fact that it takes place during wartime

Do you mean that the SoCal fleet is out? Or was that a joke?

I meant that the lockers are a related microcosm of the foreclosure crisis.

storage wartime

Oh, I get it: joke hiding in plain sight!

i "lived" in one of those storage places in OC for a week or so :/

did anyone buy you

I have a big crush on Barry from Storage Wars

wkiw Barry

god i can only imagine how annoying it would be to spend time wiht him irl

Voted for the only show that features Danielle, the burlesque dancer.

he reminds me a lot of old school socal dudes my dad used to hang with xp

did anyone else see the episode where at the very end barry goes "time to drive back to my house after a long hard day at work" and then there's a crane shot of his jaguar rolling up to this mcmansion, and then you see him walking up the front steps only to be greeted by a woman all play-acting "who are you and what are you doing on my property!?!" followed by him running back to his car and speeding away all "lol u guys thats not really my house hahahaha" then the credits roll???

so weird

yeah s1ocki dont get yr take, i would def kiw barry for at least an afternoon

i can just tell he's high-maintenance irl

like he would take forever to get out of the coffee shop or wtv

he has some cool rides

the Stabbin' Cabin!

http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyjz4pEsRo1qids8so1_400.png

these shows provide viewers who are dealing with financial issues or are reading constantly about financial issues with a sense that their objects are worth something

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Monday, February 13, 2012 8:42 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

think this is a big part of it. makes you think that valuable stuff is just lying around everywhere and that you don't even have to be very clever, knowledgeable or hard-working to take advantage of it. hell, there's probably a couple grand just lying around in a box in the basement! i think such things when i watch it, and have heard similar talk from others.

conversely, ive heard 2nd and 3rd hand accounts from ppl irl that these shows are totally inflating the prices people are bidding on shit

also, storage wars is fake not trying to blow anyone's mind here

the shit they find inside units in storage wars seems 10x more real than what they come across on auction hunters

the bidding is all rigged or w/e according someone I know who once read a blog

suspect that a lot of the cool shit they find in SW is planted, and they often wildly overstate the resale value of the more ordinary stuff they find, but it still provokes those get rich quick thoughts...

roadshow is the queen of this litter. would vote for that were it an option.

and yeah, barry OTM. <3 barry. everyone else on storage wars is insufferable. it's the best show out of the options here, but that doesn't mean i like it.

i've watched a bunch of pickers eps, too, and i don't object to those guys the way some do. sure, they're trying to buy low, sell high, but the people they're buying from seem to know that and often have weirdly inflated ideas regarding the value of most of their crap.

haven't seen the rest, except for a couple episodes of the pawn shows, which i can't abide.

otm i think the dudes on pickers are kind of lame but i don't get the feeling they cheat anyone, at least on camera

the ep i saw the other nite some kid offered to take $10 for a coca-cola clock and the dude was like "hey kid, i'm gonna sell this for $120-- how about i give you $70?"

my objection to them is how lame they are

of that they are guilty as sin

Pawn Stars

barry owns, but i gotta go with pawn stars. i dig the combination of colorful cast and factoids about old pieces of junk

auction hunters is the only one that has all of the essential elements:

• thrill of the hunt/despair at a room that turns out to be a bust
• going head-to-head in a bidding war
• cool and unique items/treasures/the stories and history behind them
• bringing in experts in certain items
• "badass" "boys toys" stuff
• haggling over a sale
• dollar signs on the screen/look at this sweet profit

is there one abt estate sales

which is the one where they shoot guns in slomo in every ep

There was one about a woman who organizes estate/yard sales for people.

sounds crazy

Pawn Stars is the worst because of the extra-goofy cast of characters and the 'expert' buddies in every field known to mankind.

Cash & Cari -
http://www.hgtv.com/cash-cari/show/index.html

she's kind of WS of shame material

tango & cash & cari

which is the one where they shoot guns in slomo in every ep

― puff puff post (uh oh I'm having a fantasy), Tuesday, February 14, 2012 1:08 PM (32 seconds ago)

auction hunters iirc

What milo z said. But that makes it the best. It's like a comfortable sitcom.

lol. I have the same Dick Tracy thermos that Cari of Cash & Cari turns around in her hand at :10 in the video on that site. Pretty sure it is worthless.

but yeah, Storage Wars >>

(I would also put Brandi from Storage Wars at the forefront of my personal WS of shame).

no shame

jennifer from shipping wars imo
http://i.imgur.com/UExC7.jpg

only familiar with auction hunters and storage wars, to both of which i have been briefly addicted. the argt. for why the former seem to only find interesting stuff is that they do this all the time and the tv show covers their 5% most interesting finds, whether you believe this, enhh

barry from storage wars took up the storage bidding thing at the behest of the show's producer apparently

barry needs his own spin-off

Kickin' It With Barry

this is actually my father's job. Is it like UK antique shows where they paint this nice ideal of antiques and auctions when in reality antique dealers are pretty much scum drunks?

Yeah, Barry is apparently independently wealthy (he ran a food distributor?), and only is on the lookout for stuff he can personally collect. Allegedly, everything else he buys he donates to charity.

One thing I don't get on this show is why you almost never see anyone else outside of the core "stars" bidding.

thats prob just basic reality-tv-editing-room-floor stuff

i wonder if someone could do a gut-punch type reality show (like intervention or hoarders) abt ppl who abandon these storage units

I have only seen pawn stars but I love it.

Which should I watch next.

i would say storage wars is the least like pawn stars

but go for auction hunters or american pickers for "neat stuff"

K, thank u

There was a Southern low-budget version of this sort of thing on Turner South a few years ago called "Junkin'" featuring an aspiring standup comedian and a, I dunno, a Zooey Deschanel wannabe I guess. It was pretty bad.

xpost That's the thing, these aren't all "abandoned." Right? I think storage facilities are pretty hardcore, in the sense that once you miss a payment they don't give you much of a chance and immediately put stuff up for auction. That said, I would be curious to know to whom this crap belongs.

yeah sometimes its a business that goes bankrupt but the sad fact is that a lot of times its people who are deciding to eat or pay rent instead of pay the storage locker bill that month.

this episode of This American Life aired before any of these shows were on the air, and among others, features a guy who grew up w/ drug addict parents and had to watch a lot of his childhood possessions get bid on by strangers:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/399/contents-unknown?act=1

...and now he makes a living bidding on other people's abandoned storage lockers DO YOU SEE?

You forgot Pawn Queens.

xpost to myself: lol when the guy kind of gets hopeful at finding an unopened bottle of charles shaw wine in a locker

My Mom likes to watch these shows and now she'll rummage through her house asking me what I think certain things are worth! It was kind of funny at first but after sorting through five boxes of comics taken down from the attic which I know nothing about, looking up other shit I know nothing about, I told her I don't know anything about antiques!!!

the place I have stuff stored lets u go 3 months I think before the pickers swarm

lagoon what would be the most tv-worthy item in your storage locker

well theres a tv in there haw haw

You forgot Pawn Queens.

― svend

good call. that's a big one

Oddities is way better than all these. Giant gallstones, Amy Sedaris, Genesis P-Orridge, Victorian hair sculptures, skull collections...

Also, no Cash in the Attic on this poll? I guess only American TV counts, huh?

Pawn Stars is my favorite on the list... the Old Man and Chumlee really make it something *extra special*

also the Kount - he always seems so stoked to work on any fucking project they give him. They wheel in any ol peice of shit and he's like "Oh man we're gonna make this POP!! Its gonna look AWESOME!!"

He obviously really loves his job, its refreshing.

I voted Pawn Stars but just as easily could've gone with American Pickers.

Really, it's the "history unearthed" and "everyday junk of yesteryear and tge value it somehow contains in contrast to the present's ephemerility" that facinates me. Or something.

The next series will totally be called "Estate Sale"

i'm watching storage wars now and if you watch it w/ the understanding that its one actual pro and three weirdos who got talked in to faking it to be on a reality tv show its way funnier

ha since my last post i watched maybe the single fakest episode of this show i have yet seen - three units full of total junk except for i. a professional magic trick ii. an antique telescope iii. a miniature track car worth several thousand dollars

i'm still not sure i buy your version tho - who's the actual pro, hester?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjBfRWRe9Ag

re: ppl who abandon storage units, had an interesting talk with a co-worker about this. Some years back, his mom got out of a bad marriage in California. Put her part of the household in an inexpensive storage unit there and headed to Arkansas. Paid like $30 a month for it or something. One month, the check bounces. It was a tiny hiccup in her account and she never noticed. Things rolled on. The storage people never told her. A year later she inquires about getting her stuff. They had auctioned it off a year earlier without telling her. She had zero recourse. What a racket! Worse than the impound lot!

What about a show like "Hey, That's My Shit!" and they show up at one of the stores in Hester's empire of stores full of worthless shit and make a scene

every episode starts with a guy watching Storage Wars, btw

xposts

My wife lost a lot of her possessions in similar fashion when her previous relationship ended, he'd put a lot of (both of their) stuff in storage while they were sorting out moving out of their house, didn't keep up the payments, gone. She still watches the show so I guess she's over it now, well it was 9 years ago. Occasionally she'll think she still has an LP she used to have and I have to tell her no we don't have that :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAomVYXQGb0

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

i watched a few episodes of oddities and holy shit that dude is annoying

Watched a couple eps of Storage Wars today. I hate the Yuuuuuuuuup! guy already.

And I like the guy who buys the shit storage rooms nobody wants. I can't remember his name.

barry, and yeah, he's the best thing about the show

Yep, Barry. Watching another in which he just rolled up in some ridic truck with a crazy person he's calling his "good luck charm". He's great.

s1ocki's right: he'd be a pain in the ass to kick it with

also i need more occasions wirl where its appropriate to say "YUUUUUUUP!"

like when they call out my coffee order to let me know its ready:

"YUUUUUUP!"

NOOOOOOOOOPE!

Watched a couple episodes of Storage Wars this morning (these shows are perfect for drinking coffee and lazing around on weekend mornings, IMO). I want to strangle the YUUUUUUUUUP guy. He's such a tool.

Jeff's idea on how to succeed at storage wars: find out where the auctions are and rob the buyers on the way to the storage facility.

Also, Brandi needs to divorce her idiot husband who doesn't listen to her and then gets angry and defensive when it turns out she was right.

Yeah she is way outta his league, maybe he's a nice guy when not on television.

everyone is a moron on that show, its the only reason worth watching it

as opposed to all the other shows which are only worth watching for cool/rare stuff

I think the Storage Wars people are going to break into Dave's house at night and beat him to death with socks full of soap.

i was thinking the other day that the storage wars guys and the auction hunters guys are covering so much of the same ground in so. cal that they have to run in to each other at some point. they should get it over with and do a crossover episode.

I thought about that too. Would be cool to have a crossover of any two storage shows iirc. Also would be cool to visit storage auctions when in Cali just to witness an episode in progress.

---

I've been taping reruns of Storage Wars Texas and I guess there is new ones coming too (definitely not as good as the original). There's a guy named Doc that is a poor man's Barry.

I kind of like how former Dallas Cowboys player Roy Williams' life takes an unexpected turn when two fat storage locker cowboys come to his house to have his autograph verified. Roy's been added to the theme sequence this week. Also, we can now watch how well a rookie does in the storage locker business should we ever decide to visit some auctions ourselves.

did anyone see the LIVE episode of auction hunters? such a terrible idea.

http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2012/12/storage-wars-sued-dave-hester-show-faked

In a suit that is sure to cause ripples through the show and the network, Hester charges:

Producers staged entire units and enlisted the cooperation of owners of storage facilities to do so.
The show pays for storage lockers for “weaker” cast members as part of the manipulation
The show plants items in lockers after having them appraised weeks in advance
The show obtains items to be placed in the units from a business regularly featured on air

In addition, Hester charges that interviews with cast members are scripted and scenes of biding are faked to the extent that there are no auctions taking place while cast members and members of the public are shown bidding.

I must now look to the Tour de France for honesty in competition.

shocked

I watched a Storage Wars martathon the other weekend for the first time - I find these 'revelations' reassuring.

yeah not exactly a surprise

in another part of the article he says that around season 2 the network said they had to use locks provided by the network to secure the lockers they just bought (which the network would then open and stick stuff in there before they shot the "going through the locker" scenes)

lol

when Hester would examine a locker he bought, “production staff would prod him to ‘check out’ certain boxes or direct him to unload his unit in such a way that he would be certain to ‘discover’ particular items that Defendants clearly knew had been planted in the unit.”

Wonder if they said things like "NOOOOOOOOOOOOPE" to him if he went the wrong way.

the only thing I'm surprised about is that the salting was allegedly done without the cast members' knowledge.

part of me wonders if he just got his knickers in a knot because other people's lockers were getting salted with better stuff than his

i love this so much.

I can't stop watching Duck Dynasty.

Sorry - I don't know where else to admit that.

otm

i assumed all these things were a given but now i doubt them because the source is butthurt hester

my thread on Dave Hester and Trey Songz suing each other over the use of the catchphrase YUUUUUUUUP is lost to the sandbox so you'll just have to trust me that that happened.

I remember that thread.

smdh

I want to eat a pancake breakfast with Barry Weiss and figure out how to become him

Hester's character stopped even having an apparent interest in making a profit, so I'm not surprised. I just want to watch Barry all day anyway.

this is devastating news

yeah s1ocki dont get yr take, i would def kiw barry for at least an afternoon

― ⚓ (gr8080), Tuesday, February 14, 2012 11:47 AM (9 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i can just tell he's high-maintenance irl

― the jazz zinger (s1ocki), Tuesday, February 14, 2012 11:48 AM (9 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

like he would take forever to get out of the coffee shop or wtv

― the jazz zinger (s1ocki), Tuesday, February 14, 2012 11:48 AM (9 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^have come around to this take on barry

Wandering around a Toys R Us in Waco today and spotted this:

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/25056_10151151406976596_1278996371_n.jpg

It was on the same shelf as the Jersey Shore trivia game. These are actual consumer products.

I saw my first episode of Storage Hunters the other night. Then today I walked through the park. Then I realised:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouPPVBBOODI

He's a wren

Nine years later, I raise a glass to WmC's shoutout to Junkin' With Val and Dave. An old buddy showed me an episode of that recently (the titular Dave has posted them all on YouTube) and it is SUCH a time capsule of circa 2004 chill southern hipsters and their relationship to thrift stores and flea markets. Also amazing in that they basically know nothing about any of the stuff they're looking at, and are really just goofing around, clearly amazed at their luck to get paid for this.

American Pickers used to drive me crazy with the idea that these dopes were driving seemingly hundreds of miles to root through a treasure trove barn and leave with like, two things.

Pawn Stars meanwhile has ascended to Shark Tank level of hotel-TV ubiquity; there are a million episodes and it's broadcast in like six-hour blocks, so it just plays and plays, one segment rolling into the next, "I'll just hang on until they come back and put a pricetag on this complete set of Jurassic Park POGs for which this dummy is expecting $750,000," etc. It seems that later episodes kinda phased out all the interpersonal drama and antics among the cast, which probably helps make it more bite-sized and binge-able. Apparently in its heyday it was the #2 rated reality show, behind Jersey Shore. Hopefully future history textbooks get comfortable using it as a shorthand for American culture circa 2010, like talking about the 50s via Leave it to Beaver.

'Queen of the Blues' Koko Taylor's prized possessions — including a Grammy — sold at Chicago flea market

Wowwwwww.