$14,000 NES on the show "Storage Wars".

[VG_Maniac]

I haven't posted here in over a year, but I saw this on the show "Storage Wars" the other day, and I just had to come here and make a topic about it. For those not familiar with the show, it's where a bunch of pickers bid on storage units that have owners that failed to pay the rent on time and lost ownership of all their stored items. If they win the bidding, all the stuff in the storage unit belongs to them, and they try to resell everything for a profit.

So I was watching an episode yesterday, and this guy finds a dirty looking NES system in the storage unit he won the bidding on. He calls his partner over and is like, "Look! It's a model-001!! These things go for $14,000 on the internet! This is it! This is the big one everybody wants!"

I just busted up laughing at what an idiot this guy was (unless his ignorance was just part of the show). So he took it to an "expert", some guy who was working at a game store who than told him it wasn't worth near that much (obviously). He plugged it in to test it and it wouldn't even power on. The guy who found it than said that definitely saw one sell on Ebay for $14,000, and the game clerk told him it must have been a "special" NES like a first production run system that was never opened. I couldn't even imagine one of those fetching $1,000, let alone $14,000.

[chrisbid]

our economy is in such tatters, that we celebrate garbage pickers by giving them televisions shows

[maxlords]

our economy is in such tatters, that we celebrate garbage pickers by giving them televisions shows

This.

[jonebone]

I just busted up laughing at what an idiot this guy was (unless his ignorance was just part of the show). So he took it to an "expert", some guy who was working at a game store who than told him it wasn't worth near that much (obviously). He plugged it in to test it and it wouldn't even power on. The guy who found it than said that definitely saw one sell on Ebay for $14,000, and the game clerk told him it must have been a "special" NES like a first production run system that was never opened. I couldn't even imagine one of those fetching $1,000, let alone $14,000.

I think they were referencing the NES console that sold with SE for around $14k maybe a year ago? The way it was listed, it could have appeared that a normal system bundle sold for that amount. Only the collectors would realize the CIB SE was virtually all of the price.

[soloman]

I'd say it's better celebrating frugality and turning junk into treasure than a show about obnoxious, vain rich kids who do nothing but tan, party, fight, and fuck.

[Ro-J]

I'll admit it, I love those auction shows, and I saw that episode. The guy actually said it was worth $13,000 (not $14,000) in the episode which was a definitely clue that he was referencing the Stadium Events auction. And as someone said above me, he thought that auction was for the system not the game. Thankfully at the end the "expert" told him that at most it was worth $10.

And I thought the guys are American Pickers were bad when they claimed a boxed 2600 (4 switcher) was worth $250.

[OldSkoolBrian]

I watch those shows.. Sometime they don't know what the hell they are talking about.. I watched one show and they opened a box and on the top there were boxed nes games and they didn't even bother to look through it..

[Emperor Megas]

I'd say it's better celebrating frugality and turning junk into treasure than a show about obnoxious, vain rich kids who do nothing but tan, party, fight, and fuck.

Seriously!

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

And I thought the guys are American Pickers were bad when they claimed a boxed 2600 (4 switcher) was worth $250.

I don't recall the American Pickers guys ever coming across a 2600, but there was an episode of Auction Kings (another storage lot show) where that happened and they called it at that price.

Regardless of the accuracy of any of the prices cited, I love all of these shows and I can't get enough of them when they're good.

[Ro-J]

I don't recall the American Pickers guys ever coming across a 2600, but there was an episode of Auction Kings (another storage lot show) where that happened and they called it at that price.

Regardless of the accuracy of any of the prices cited, I love all of these shows and I can't get enough of them when they're good.

You're right, it was definitely a storage lot show. Now that I've looked it up I'm sure it was Auction Hunters, the show on Spike. I believe Auction Kings is about an auction house.....and yeah, I also can't get enough of these shows.

I wonder how many people watch these shows, see the ridiculous video game "appraisals" and think they're sitting on a gold mine in the attic?

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

You're right, it was definitely a storage lot show. Now that I've looked it up I'm sure it was Auction Hunters, the show on Spike. I believe Auction Kings is about an auction house.....and yeah, I also can't get enough of these shows.

I wonder how many people watch these shows, see the ridiculous video game "appraisals" and think they're sitting on a gold mine in the attic?

Right right: Auction HUNTERS.

So damned many of them.

[Kitsune Sniper]

It's people like them that make finding cheap games in the wild much more difficult.

[Aussie2B]

I actually really like Storage Wars. Captures the thrill of the hunt well. Dumb mistake about an NES or not, these guys know more about appraising things than any of us. We just have our one, tiny specific niche. These guys need to be fairly savvy about the whole gamut of items. Show any of us a piece of furniture, jewelry, art, clothing, an appliance, etc. and good luck with knowing its value. They could just as well say that something else on the show is worth $13,000 that's really worth $20 and all of us would say "Wow, great find", while on some other forum there's a bunch of people going "lol, I can't believe they're that stupid." The important part is that the mistake is corrected on the show, so we don't have the masses thinking their old video game systems are worth thousands. Like how Pawn Stars made people think the Virtual Boy is worth more than it is (although that's not remotely as extreme of an example). Although there was an episode of Storage Wars where they said a boxed SNES was worth $200 and then never another word on it. But who knows, maybe they really could get $200 for it in their shop from some sucker.

[Rickstilwell1]

One time I posted an ad on craigslist saying I would take any broken NES systems for $10 so I could repair them and sell them for $20 just like the local store does, and some dummy said "those are worth way more than that, go scam elsewhere" I'm assuming it was because of that Stadium Events auction. I replied back correcting him saying "if you know anything about game collecting, you should know that the local store sells NES systems for $20 and the Stadium Events game is what was worth $13,000." He never replied back again as I'm sure he had nothing else to say. When people learn they are wrong they tend to be embarassed, shut up and go away.

[Tupin]

You would think that if you were so excited about finding one of them, you would have done research on that auction, or even checked eBay.

I love that the guy that came to the store just to show that the guy was wrong was right. The look on his face was priceless.

[Baloo]

Storage Wars is one of the worst shows to ever grace television. It's so staged and way too dramatic.

[spongerob]

I once saw on Antiques Roadshow someone claiming an Atari 7800 was worth around 400 bucks, and games could run you 100-150 dolllars since it's such a collector's item, and so old and rare.

And don't get me started on Pawn Stars.

All of these shows are ridiculously full of shit and ignorant. But no one cares, because the sheep continue to watch. They've been caught lying and deceiving their viewers, yet people continue to watch. Why? It's all entertainment, and that's the cop out excuse. It's all real, and portrayed as such and they've gotten snippy when questioned....yet when they're caught spinning their web of horse shit, suddenly it's just all entertainment and we need to relax. Uh huh, right.

My GF works at a storage facility and routinely auctions off the junk sitting in storage. She has never once come across anything worth even a 10th of that. People aren't stupid enough to consistently leave expensive, rare items in storage. I wouldn't be surprised if they tracked down cheap rare stuff, and planted it there for the theatrics of creating a TV show.

For whoever said our economy is in such tatters we give garbage pickers TV shows, I agree to a point, and I also think that TV is in such a stagnant, creative-dead state that we'll take mundane, everyday occupations and activities and make shitty TV shows out of them.

I'm just gonna create a show called Shit Takers. It's people just taking routine dumps, but there's drama and twists and absolutely no subtly about it.

[Tupin]

I stopped watching Pawn Stars when they did this:



That and the pinball machine that they could maybe sell for $600-800 in perfect condition on a good day that they bought for $1000, put $2000 in repair into, and are trying to sell for $5000.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

All of these shows are ridiculously full of shit and ignorant. But no one cares, because the sheep continue to watch. They've been caught lying and deceiving their viewers, yet people continue to watch. Why? It's all entertainment, and that's the cop out excuse. It's all real, and portrayed as such and they've gotten snippy when questioned....yet when they're caught spinning their web of horse shit, suddenly it's just all entertainment and we need to relax. Uh huh, right.

News flash, reality TV is about as real as a wooden nickel.

Still, with full knowledge of the potential for staged scenarios and inflated estimated pricing when there's nothing else on, I find them very entertaining to watch.

[JSoup]

Oh, that show. I used to do the exact same thing, those idiots make it seem like it's crazy dramatic and highly difficult work. In actuality, it's a simple matter of walking in to the office of a local storage facility, saying "You have any delinquent units? Yes? Instead of going through all the trouble of moving everything out and selling the shit two weekends a month for pennies, how about I give you $300 and do all that myself?" and then picking through all the crap you just got. People tend to store crap they wish to keep but no longer have room for and what that is depends greatly on the size of the storage facility. The places I used to frequent would normally yield a few hundred dollars worth of furniture.