You can't be an expert on everything.

How many times have we seen them wade through a garage full of crap, see a little piece of something, and say "Hey, that's a kickstand mount for a '36 Indian, wanna sell that?" Cars, bikes, motorcycles and signs are their forte.

We visited their Nashville store last year, very cool.

Side note - Danielle from American Pickers lives/lived in Chicago for a while. Ran into her playing pinball at Logan Arcade a couple years ago.. then I ran into her again picking apples in Gary of all places.

Just watched the episode last night and looks like they bought a few items from you. Man I can't believe all the schematics you have collected over the years.

If you pay for cable you can log in and watch it here: https://www.history.com/shows/american-pickers/season-20/episode-10

Good episode, I would love to hear any behind the scenes stories that you are able to share.

Ha!

Im not sure why those guys wanted the Home version of Evel Knievel and not a full version of Captain Fantastic? They didnt even get the head. BTW mikepin your place looks really cool and you have some really neat stuff in there. Wish I could just walk through and look at all that stuff.

Because they were only interested in "making a coffee table."

I loved the haggling throughout the episode. Way to stick to your $2k on the bumper car, Mike!

Pretty cool episode. Thanks for sharing. I never watch TV but had to tune in to see this.

Side note, that Cadillac is worth a fortune. They valued it at 90k but honestly I talked to a very very large automobile collectors I have bought from and I was told there is a lot more to the story than you saw on camera. Interesting. I'm assuming there car is basically name your price to a large caddy collector.

Very cool episode. Great selection of parts and schematics!

I agree with all of this. I attended Expo for many many years and had always seen the super busy and grumpy side of Mike, but once I got to know him and spent some time at his place and had a meal with him I realized that he is indeed a very generous and nice person. I, too, am glad to call him a good friend.

All that aside, I didn’t end up catching his episode of pickers. I’ll have to look it up sometime soon.

Great episode Mike, nice job!! I thought you were very fair with them price wise, did they buy other stuff that we didn't see on the show? I think if you want to sell out then it's going to take several auctions to make it all go away, you got your work cut out for you for sure.

John

I just watched the episode also. Thanks for posting about this you have a treasure trove of pinball history!

Great show Mike, liked how you stuck to your price on the
Bumper car. Please tell us the rest of the story (behind the
Scenes stuff)

Shoot. Can't find it. My on demand only shows to season 19

Same guy who wouldn’t give a slight deal on a couple old pinball ads at the Ohio show sells the Evel home box for $100? LOL.

Also: ridiculous collection.

My on demand lists it as season 18... First aired date is 5/27/2019

Enjoy.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x79l3i7

rd

Now your going to have everyone and their Mother e-mailing you for stuff.

Oh man, it’s going to be a lot harder to get rid of all that stuff then it was to acquire it all. There’s so much great stuff there. It would take a couple auctions to do it justice

Very cool episode mikepin , The amount of stuff you have is impressive. Anyone else think the Playland Arcade sign is as awesome as I do? That German Kiss backglass was cool! Thanks for sharing and thanks rotordave for sharing the link!

My wife and I really enjoyed the episode and seeing the collection of pinball and jukebox stuff. It was overwhelming.

I was very surprised to see them bypass captain fantastic to look at evil keneivel (sp). Seems odd to me, but maybe you had told them it was NFS.

So do you take requests for schematics and such? I got very excited by the stack of backglasses because I’ve got two machines now that need them. I’m aslso looking for a schematic to a United pitch and bat machine.

Thanks,
Dave

Frank’s definitely a KISS fan, I saw him in the front row at the KISS concert in Moline earlier this year.

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That was the status quo after they bought out the wms inventory.... he never setup a store

No surprise at all. As stated before, they are not pinball guys. They are KISS people and motorcycle/Evel Knievel people hence buying a KISS backglass as a wall hanging and hence not caring about the Captain Fantastic and instead focusing on the home version EK to make a coffee table out of it.

Nice. I had the chance to vist mikes plave a few years ago on the way back from Allentown. Still looks the same, lol. Found a pf I wanted, he said 'there is a better one over there'. Gave me a good price too. And that was upstairs where its a mess. He knew where everything was and great to talk to.

For all those that want a barn find, here's your chance. He said he'd like to sell it all. Get a few of you together and do it.

Great collection. Wow! I especially liked your carnival games and that Jackrabbit cabinet that was used to help get to the Evel Knievel. Zaccaria arcades have such cool artwork.

Nice episode.

I unfortunately missed it the night it premiered. For anyone else in the same boat or can't get it on demand, just discovered it repeats again tomorrow (6/6) at 1pm PT. My DVR is set.

I'm sorry, but i think the thinner and older guy is extremely creepy. He makes it very difficult for me to watch the show. Also, I hate when people have to get a better deal when they absolutely know that they are getting a great deal. He very rarely doe not come back with a lower offer when given a price ...

Doesn’t work anymore

Amazing, a home version w/o a head? Of all the stuff that was there? Oh yeah, in another episode w/a lot of non functioning pins they got an Ali and Charlies Angels. Of them all, they got 2 lousy games. Brilliant. And if that guy is a KISS fan, he buys the newer crap. Try and bundle here and you'll be asked to leave quickly. You guys are right, they don't know s**t about pinball.

I just watched this episode (it's up on ThePirateBay) and wow did I ever get the strong impression that Rich and his mom's partner had a massive gulf between them. I felt really bad for Rich, you could feel his despair as he discussed his father-in-law, who I'm assuming showed more affection to the cars than to Rich.

Mike's place was amazing but dang how are you going to get rid of all that stuff and make it to florida any time soon??
Can't believe they just used the Hercules to rest their arms.

My DVR just picked up one of those American Pickers recycle shows called Gaming Gold and it shows Mike’s place. Not sure if all of the original show is in there, but it shows the headless EK and Kiss backglasses. Looks like it’s running again on History channel midnight Sunday/Monday if you want to try to grab it. It’s labeled S18:E140.

There are excerpts from other shows. Another guy with pinball machines, once again all the focus is on a working EK that he sold for $1200 bundled with an old mechanical pin. The robot collector guy excerpt is from a fairly recent show I remember seeing, he has a nice collection of pinballs as well, which are never discussed.

Hello All

I have sort of been between cable and satellite for a while so I missed the episode. Hopefully it will be on streaming somewhere.

I too visited the store in Nashville and unfortunately, I did not have the same great experience as some others here. Specifically detoured on way back from FL for work to goto the store. Upon arriving saw some neat items but what I was able to see was VERY high priced expensive stuff. Motorcycle, large radio exterior radio sign if I recall correctly. There were things in the store for a few thousand if you had that kind of change but if you were in the few hundred range I don’t recall much being there save for some beer koozies and t-shirts. Not what I detoured to goto Nashville for. Sorry for the downer but just my mileage

Watched it last night. It was mostly recycled stuff, wasn’t thrilled with the facts and the overpriced junk, also the constant ridiculous idea to turn an EK body into a coffee table.
modified Pinball coffee tables are always abominations and unholy. Just use a freaking cocktail game

The store is interesting, at best.....its the rest of the building as the Marathon Auto Company, that most people like. The hands on ability to turn Giant Drill Presses and Lathes can win a few tool head adults, and
exposure to young ones to touch. I cant think of another place like this, as most machinery is behind ropes for damage and liability concerns.

My favorite show by far.
I remember that episode. Very nice.
Wish they showed more arcades and pins episodes but they don't do much of those unfortunately.

I believed that when this new show was about to start (Vintage Hunters something) it was going to be much cooler cause they had a lot of arcades and pins during the promotion but at the end it was nothing like American pickers.

I went back and watched this episode. Given this was filmed over 2 years ago I don’t think the prices for the Kiss and EK items were out of line. Actually, the EK playfield and cab for $100 was a bargain. $400 for a original glass might have been a tad high. If you haven’t watched it’s worth spending a few minutes and fast forwarding through the other picks.

Myself and my friend Don who has a huge collection were on the Canadian version called Canadian Pickers about 7 years ago. They got a few good deals!

Where can one find the episode if they don’t live in Canada?

It was the HOME VERSION so Robbie and Frank bought a boat anchor / wall hangar.

Ahhhh.....my bad. Mikepin got the better end of that deal. I retract my original statement. Good eye Ballypin.

Mike did ok on the deal.
Most sellers to the pickers get a Day Rate for appearing on the show as well. But, not on reruns, first air only. $452

That’s it $452! Does he get lunch?

No catering or craft service.

Did you ask for it? I do know many that got it. Pickers and other shows. BUT...I wonder if it's a state by state thing?
I've worked for many a Reality show thru Scripps Network. The Bill in Day rates ads up quickly. I know I charge a shitload for a 10.