The show is completely fake. This was obvious from the beginning if you just think it through for a few minutes.

Are they good businessmen? Yes. They figured out how to get paid to make a TV show.

The two guys don’t drive across the country in the van. Think about it, what you see is a helicopter shot of the van being driven down the highway. You don’t see them in the van, except in close-ups. Do you think they are driving all around the country with a helicopter following them? Of course not. Also it is obvious when they pull into a driveway that there is a chase vehicle filming then. Would they take 2 vans, and a film crew and all of the support, and drive around the country? No. And there obviously is a film crew already on the site when they get there. Every person on any of these shows has to have a mike strapped to them, usually it’s in the backside of their pants which you can often spot if you are looking. How do you think those got on there in advance to them walking up to the door? The stars fly to where the next segment is to be filmed. They do so scenes in the van. Then the visit to the place is done, it has all been staged in advance. There is a giant film crew there with trailers, vans, makeup, etc, that you don’t see on camera.

They have already decided in advance what items will be bought and what the price will be. The “finding” of things and the negotiations are all set in advance. Sometimes things are planted in there for them to buy.

Even if they were driving around to get stuff for their store, most of the time it makes no sense. They buy three or four things and shove them in the van, worth maybe a few thousand with a few hundred dollars profit. And they are in some state 1000 miles away from Iowa. The gas money and mileage would eat it all up. It makes no sense.

If they were really into filling their store and selling antiques, then when they make those visits to people who have inherited a picker’s massive stash and they want to sell it all off, why do they buy 2 things? Why wouldn’t you assess the whole thing, offer them $100,000, or $500,000, or whatever, then send in a semi and take it all away and sell for profit?

Danielle does not “work in the office”, and she does not sit there all day calling around to set up their picks. The show has “people” to do this. Danielle is a friend of Mike’s that he asked to come do the show for fun. Her real life gig is as a burlesque dancer. If you watch the way the show is cut and the way the scenes flow when they are talking on the phone, you can see how fake it is.

I could go on, but this stuff is all out there on the intertubes.

The one thing that is real at least are the people with the stuff (mostly). That’s what keeps it interesting. But the ones they had early on were the best, like mole man.

Sure, yes, no problem. In fact, I have watched the show from the very beginning! All that stuff you said is fine and I get entertained, but overall, it is still fake in all the ways I pointed out. I always figured from day one it wasn't real in the sense that it is the two of them driving around and getting stuff for their store, it just didn't make sense to buy 2 things and load them in a van and also from the beginning the idea of a helicopter following them kind of cracked me up. The phone calls between them and home base are so obviously staged it gets a bit annoying. Its fake in that sense, but as I said, the people they go visit are real. Some of the collections are amazing. I tend to FF a lot of it these days, mainly because it is getting kind of repetitive and there isn't much new anymore. There are only so many oil cans, signs, toy cars, and motorcycle headlights I can take.

I still remember when I lost my reality show cherry many years ago, I looked it up, its been 20 years! You may remember one of the early "reality" shows called Junkyard Wars, which I used to love. They had two teams and they were tasked to make different stuff every week using only stuff they scavenged from a big junkyard. I thought it was great how creative they had to be to find that stuff and make something that works. Then, one day they had to make a hovercraft. They had everything they needed to make a hovercraft, but there was a dilemma. For the hovercraft to be able to work, it had to have the right skirt to go around it. Where would they find a skirt for their hovercraft? WHERE? I mean, what are the odds that there will be a damn hovercraft skirt tossed into this junkyard??? Then, one of them walks up to an old washing machine, and opens up the lid, and there inside was a .... hovercraft skirt!! WOW! What luck!

That was the day when the light bulb appeared above my head. Ahh, I get it...fake. They PUT that skirt in there for the show! Duh. Its fake. All the reality shows are fake one way or the other.

They do usually skip the pinballs. The most recent one was that guy who had all the robots. I believe he also had a Pinbot in the background that skimmed by. That would have been a lot cooler than those goofy robots he had.

Wait, now you’re telling me MOVIES aren’t real either?

That last episode with the guy with the huge long building, holy shit. Mike called it the Olympic gold medal of man caves. What a space.