Why not just watch Antiques Roadshow? It’s real, there’s lots of variety, the people aren’t competing so there’s no cheesy affected drama, and they aren’t actually selling their stuff so there’s no tragedies.
My take on Pawn Stars was, “It’s like Antiques Roadshow only people get screwed.”
“Hardcore Pawn” is a totally different animal. A appears that to many people, pawning an Xbox over and over is a lifestyle. It’s interesting, but hard to watch.
You just stated exactly why these shows get better ratings than Roadshow.
According to a web site called “Celebrity Worth” (I think…if you google Dave Hester you get it is as one of the options) Hester is worth $3 million, Brandi is worth $900k and the old guy is worth $9 million. More proof that everything on the internet is true.
Barry comes from money, so I believe his 9 mil worth (if true) would have been true with or without the show. He’s that crazy guy who is there for the thrill and hoping to find unique antiques.
The rest of them? I’m curious how those worths were determined. Having $900k in insured inventory != $900k in true net worth.
As for the show, lately it has felt a little more staged. When it first started, you would have episodes where they didn’t engage with an appraiser at all. They would just bring in a guy who potentially wanted to buy their stuff and you would see the price negotiation right there and then. That felt pretty real to me. But the things they’re finding now… “Oh, hey, here is a locker with $48 worth of garbage. Man, we’re screwed. Wait, here is a weird bag with a $4k bike in it”. Who the hell packs a $4k bike prototype in with their old laundry?
Jared said something interesting on the last episode that I think they need to focus more on. He said “lately we’re making more money off of the bulk lockers and less from the one-cool-piece items”. That’s what the business is. It’s not pearl diving, it’s reselling.
Yeah, maybe it’s changed more recently, but in the first couple of seasons at least, there were definitely times when they’d get a 100% garbage locker, or one with lots of uninteresting knick-knacks and clothes that just broke even.
In any case, alhough it’s clear that Hester always wanted to be the “star”, the reasons to watch the show are, in order:
- Barry
- Cheap drama of unveiling lockers
- Brandi and Jarrod fighting
- Everything else.
From what I have read Barry owned a wholesale produce company for many years, sold it and has plenty of money. He was always an antique hunter and apparently the show was conceived by the shows producer who happened to be a friend of barry. I have heard the rumors about Brandi being a stripper and Jared being her manager but when asked on twitter she denied it.
I can deal with what looks like expensive items that are planted. My guess is that the “stars” know that some of the lockers they are bidding on have planted items but they dont know which lockers have them and they dont know how much they are actually worth so I believe that they are bidding on lockers of unkown worth.
The part of the show that always pisses me off is the value they give the other items that they take out of the lockers. Dave especially. The value he gives to the junk he finds is ridiculous.
I wouldn’t mind one episode where they actually showed (followed) what the buyers do with the crap that they got from a locker. You know, how it went into their stores or how they sold it to make money. I know Brandi and Jarrod use e-bay and craigslist and that Dave had his own store.
They show all of them going to “specialists” but usually Barry is the only one to agree to a quick sale, the others just walk away with the item.
Brandi and Jarrod have a store, too, they show them unloading and doing valuations there occasionally, and they’ve shown a couple episodes where they were doing renovations to expand it.
I never understood what Darryl “Wow Factor” did with his stuff, maybe flea markets? But he’s barely even on the show, so it hardly matters.
Darryl is a swap mee/flea market guy although he has a website now where you can buy his stuff. I am pretty sure that its he second job. IIRC hes a bus driver or some other civil servant.
…and Dave lost his store or was forced to sell to pay his creditors.
Wow, you follow them on twitter?
We got a superfan here, boys.
I’ve enjoyed watching this show just because Barry seems like he enjoys what he’s doing while the rest seem like miserable bastards out to screw the other bidders as much as try to make any money. Have to admit, I’m a little conflicted about the morality of what they’re doing too, just because of personal experiences. My dad had a storage locker that was sold off that I never knew he even had until a few months after he died. I would have at least liked to have known what was in it.
That “celebrity worth” site actually gives bio’s for some of them. It mentions that info on Barry. The stuff on Brandi and Jarrod I have read about but never seen verified.
As mentioned above I do think it takes several months and many attempts by the owner to contact the renter before they can sell off the unit.
I recently went through dealing with my dad’s death and emptying the house and property. I was amazed how many people I talked to who own homes and yet pay to keep stuff in storage. One of his neighbors told me that he probably paid over $2k a year to store furniture from his in-laws estate. You know, stuff they just couldn’t get around to parting with. Nice Italian stuff that they had brought back from a trip but that didn’t really look appropriate in your average house.
The storage business is huge now.
Superfan is a stretch but I do follow them on twitter, it’s actually funny to see Darryl and Dave insult each other over twitter during the broadacast of new episodes.
I like Barry. I seem to recall that there was an episode where they went through Darryl’s house and he had some high end artwork there. Dali maybe Picasso too. He was hanging on to those things for now.