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

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.

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.