12/20/10 - Watch Tonights 'American Pickers' on History Channel

[diskoboy]

9PM eastern, 8 central.

Tonight, Mike & Frank go picking at a New Hampshire couples home, who collect arcade games.

I saw a very nice Pac-Man cab, in the commercial for the episode, but they seem to be concerned about some old Italian trunk they find.

[Robocop2]

It's probably full of SMB/Duck Hunt carts

[diskoboy]

It was a huge let down. He had a Donkey Kong Jr. and a Pac-Man cabaret - the rest were old electromechanical arcade games. The guy had a ton of pinball playfields, though.. I thought I saw a few Williams System 11 tables, in there.

Another guy they visited had the Pac-Man upright, which was converted to a Pac-Man Plus.

Somebody needs to tell Mike and Frank that they can fetch a good bit of $$$ for old arcade games and pins. They've bought 2 through the entire series, and they weren't really good ones, either. They even passed on a Bally KISS table one guy wanted $300 for!

[megasdkirby]

I fell asleep halfway during the show...what was in the trunk anyway?

[diskoboy]

I fell asleep halfway during the show...what was in the trunk anyway?

I haven't a clue... I, myself, became uninterested, and started watching some show on History Channel about the rise of the 3rd Reich from the German perspective.

[InsaneDavid]

Duh, well we bought for [insert [I]price A] and I can sell it for price B which = price A x2].

FOR EVERY ITEM, EVERY TIME. I swear, I saw an episode over the weekend where they bought something for $76 and said they could probably get $152 for it.

[tubeway]

I hate that show. I can't help but believe that the segments we don't see on TV are them ripping off old ladies, snapping up heirlooms and antique jewelry for pennies on the dollar.

Every time they go, "We got it for X, we can sell it for X, here's X profit" it never takes into account the time and money to clean it up, advertise or list it, pay their office chick to find a buyer, or the devaluation or just time it takes sitting in whatever storage facility they have before it's sold. I swear they make the process seem as simple as a "Score Totaling" screen at the end of a video game level where they just toss all this shit into a bin and money comes pouring out.

[Lerxstnj]

I fell asleep halfway during the show...what was in the trunk anyway?

a small model gondola and a blender.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Duh, well we bought for [insert [I]price A] and I can sell it for price B which = price A x2].

FOR EVERY ITEM, EVERY TIME. I swear, I saw an episode over the weekend where they bought something for $76 and said they could probably get $152 for it.

There's one episode where Frank buys a classic car for more than what its worth.

Typically they make good picks, but there's the odd item out where they don't stand to make a huge profit.

[Greg2600]

I hate that show. I can't help but believe that the segments we don't see on TV are them ripping off old ladies, snapping up heirlooms and antique jewelry for pennies on the dollar.

Every time they go, "We got it for X, we can sell it for X, here's X profit" it never takes into account the time and money to clean it up, advertise or list it, pay their office chick to find a buyer, or the devaluation or just time it takes sitting in whatever storage facility they have before it's sold. I swear they make the process seem as simple as a "Score Totaling" screen at the end of a video game level where they just toss all this shit into a bin and money comes pouring out.
Well I love that show. Those two plus the girl Danielle are hilarious, and the crap they find is very interesting. As for ripping people off, a couple eps ago, they visited a downtrodden amusement park in PA, Bushkill. The owner was trying to rebuild and reopen the park after hurricane damage. They found some old painted banners from the 40's or 50's and paid like $200. They had them appraised and later sold them for $10,000, which shocked them! They then drove back to Bushkill, and handed the guy half the money, $5,000.

Oh, and the calculations on the screen are mainly for show purposes. You forget that they often drive hundreds of miles to get to these people's houses. They have the client list. If an old lady wanted to sell something, who would she sell it to? Most of the time, they are forced to deal with insane pack rats, who they are nearly having to strangle to get them to sell anything at all. Not to mention that Frank (short fat guy) is an Eagle Scout. Those are good guys. They are not the kind of pack rats or rip off artists you find at flea markets, or on ebay, and unfortunately populate this hobby quite a bit. I'm pointing at the sealed game selling nutcases.

As for their lack of interest in video games, there are a couple easy reasons. First, most games, particularly arcade games we know, are not old enough to spike their interest. Their interested in antiques, especially the ones with very little electronics. The electronic stuff means its more money and time and maybe near impossible to fix. They don't have the expertise and probably don't know anybody. Modern arcade games are also pretty big and heavy and would take up a lot of room in their truck. Room they need for other things. And lastly, the fact is the classic arcade market is not a very fruitful one at all. Unless the machine is very rare, they can still be had pretty easily from all kinds of outlets who have them in storage.

[Collector_Gaming]

Well I love that show. Those two plus the girl Danielle are hilarious, and the crap they find is very interesting. As for ripping people off, a couple eps ago, they visited a downtrodden amusement park in PA, Bushkill. The owner was trying to rebuild and reopen the park after hurricane damage. They found some old painted banners from the 40's or 50's and paid like $200. They had them appraised and later sold them for $10,000, which shocked them! They then drove back to Bushkill, and handed the guy half the money, $5,000.

Oh, and the calculations on the screen are mainly for show purposes. You forget that they often drive hundreds of miles to get to these people's houses. They have the client list. If an old lady wanted to sell something, who would she sell it to? Most of the time, they are forced to deal with insane pack rats, who they are nearly having to strangle to get them to sell anything at all. Not to mention that Frank (short fat guy) is an Eagle Scout. Those are good guys. They are not the kind of pack rats or rip off artists you find at flea markets, or on ebay, and unfortunately populate this hobby quite a bit. I'm pointing at the sealed game selling nutcases.

As for their lack of interest in video games, there are a couple easy reasons. First, most games, particularly arcade games we know, are not old enough to spike their interest. Their interested in antiques, especially the ones with very little electronics. The electronic stuff means its more money and time and maybe near impossible to fix. They don't have the expertise and probably don't know anybody. Modern arcade games are also pretty big and heavy and would take up a lot of room in their truck. Room they need for other things. And lastly, the fact is the classic arcade market is not a very fruitful one at all. Unless the machine is very rare, they can still be had pretty easily from all kinds of outlets who have them in storage.

couldn't have said it better myself.

they do hint you on the process from start to finish in the show

As far as "hey we are going clear across the country to find this. We are hoping for a big score to pay for the gas we used to get here"
and then when they score big they let their lovely assistant know about it in which she starts cataloging it in their database and starts contacting clients if any that might be interested in buying this item.
and some of the items take awhile to sell and you see that.
Like for instance remember the first episode they had that giant 2 sided advertising statue that moved its arm. Even in episodes today you still see that sitting at their facility.
Cleaning products up. They mention in a few of the episodes that all they really usually do is just dust it off and call it good. or if its mechanical and broken they try to fix it so its working. not restore 100% but just to get it working again. because they find their customers wanting to do what they wanna do with the items whether that is fully restore said items or leave them as is to tell a story with age. You gotta remember antiques tell stories
as far as advertising it. I bet they have a website (i haven't taken the time to look) that has a list of all the stuff they carry. So basically whatever their domain costs them.
The rest is probably word of mouth, craigslist, local classifieds. ect ect ect
they even mentioned they sell some stuff on ebay from time to time just to move stuff for a quick buck.
The money they output in their buisness i think really is

Gas
Vehicle repairs (cause the van breaks down and it was shown in a ep)
Purchasing said items
The facility they own (property tax, water/electricity/heating ect ect)
Repairs or maintaining that they make to that facility
Food costs for when they are on the road
Laundry for when they are on the road (or atleast i hope so lol)
Hotel costs (once again on the road)
and if they have a website
and to pay for danielles services
and ebay auction fees
and every once in awhile they say they do flea markets too so the fee for that too.
and if they buy a car they gotta get it towed
and if they buy a broken mechanical item they need to pay for it to get fixed

the profit they get from the bought items pays for all that.
It doesn't make them a shit ton of money and they show that it doesn't
its basically a business they established from something they love doing and that is going out and treasure hunting through "junk" people have

they aren't going around and going "hey look at me i made a million dollars out of this stuff and i am driving fancy cars and living in expensive houses and such"

i mean frank even says in the show he lives in a apartment somewhere near by their facility when they are not on the road

as far as the video game cabinets go

i was with everyone on that one

i was ready to jump through the tv going "GUYS PAC MAN CABINETS IN THAT CONDITION GO FOR INSANE MONEY!!!! BUY IT BUY IT NOW!!!!" lol

[cyberfluxor]

I've seen American Pickers a few times and have found it okay. The items they find can be very interesting, there's just an excess of personality and a bargaining war that appears so scripted at times.

Aside from that, I agree with above with how they just have no desire to pour money into electronic games unless it's something really admired by the masses (ie. Pac-Man, Galaga, Donkey Kong, Ms. Pac-Man) and worth the hauling space. Pawn Stars is more appropriate because the setting is of a store front rather than a warehouse of antique collectibles for resale. I spotted the OP's mentioned episode and the commercial, however I was distracted during the run-time and missed that particular segment. Unless they could get it for cheap and in great condition I can easily see them passing it up, it's just not worth the big bucks for the work and effort even if it sells quickly as there are more valuable pieces they may find to occupy that cargo space.