I used to work for a large architectural salvage shop right after college, and met a lot of pickers. Minus the effects of being a tv personality, it’s not a particularly lucrative field. Even when you pick up that $800 pin for $200, you’ve likely spent $100 on gas/car insurance/maintenance/travel/etc. And then you either have to be prepared to house it in your store for potentially months, or sell it at a price to an antique store that allows them to profit after holding on to it for months (paying all their overhead). Just because a knowledgeable buyer would purchase the item for the higher amount doesn’t mean a buyer will come into your business any time soon. And my experience was all pre-EBay, Craigslist etc, which makes it harder now to buy stuff at a cheap price.

Obviously the show is interesting so participants want to make a deal to be featured. That lets the guys be choosy about what they take. Outside of that spotlight, I’m guessing pickers today make profits by taking full lots off of ppl’s hands and doing all the work of sorting through it.