American Pickers is a delightful show if you like collecting antiques, vintage items, or anything else. If you like spending your free time at antique dealers and flea shops, or even if you don’t, you’ll love riding along with Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz as they travel through the great Midwest and other parts of the US searching for antiques and collectibles. Picker is the modern term applied to anyone who searches for antiques and collectibles and sells them to other dealers or individuals.
Barns, buildings, warehouses—you name it—are the places you’ll find these two meticulously picking through piles of items to find something of value. They meet all sorts of mostly friendly characters who have collected or inherited what appears to be junk to the non-initiated. Well that’s not a term you can associate with Mike and Frank. Their depth of knowledge on antiques seems endless and at times amazes this reviewer.
Sometimes they’re just winging it as they travel, keeping their eyes peeled for anything by the roadside that indicates there might be hidden treasure on the property. It might be an old building with hubcaps on it, a bunch of old VW’s parked by the roadside or a vintage sign barely sticking out from a grassy patch by the side of an old barn. Their eyes light up when they spot any telltale sign like that for they know this may be the property of a collector or a hoarder willing to sell something.
Of course sometimes they know exactly where to go, guided by Danielle Colby-Cushman who runs the office of their business, Antique Archaeology, back in Iowa. Danielle works the phone and the internet and comes up with prize locations for them to visit. She also finds appraisers when Mike and Frank come across something that’s beyond they’re area of expertise, and buyers for previously acquired items.
There’s always playful friendly banter between the boys and Danielle. They like to give Danielle a hard time but the young attractive brunette with decorative tattoos gives back as good as she gets.
The boys who have known each other since grade school treat all of the people they meet on the road with respect and never try to take advantage of anyone. That doesn’t mean there’s not plenty of good old fashion negotiating that goes on before they reach agreement on buying anything.
The people they meet along the way can be as interesting as the collectibles. Sharing stories of how they became collectors, they reveal something about themselves in the process.
The Mercedes van Mike and Frank travel in has hauled back a vast array of items from a giant boot to old gas pumps, to circus memorabilia, to a stuffed miniature pony. You never know what treasures they’ll come across. In the process the viewer learns about many items that they never knew existed and gets a short history to boot.
Occasionally during the segment a screen pops up summarizing what they’ve paid for items and what they are worth at resale. We also get a clip thrown in now and then where Frank and Mike discuss what their strategy was while negotiating for a particular piece.
A recent segment had Mike and Frank slightly moving out of their realm into decorating as they go on special assignment eagerly collecting pieces for William Shatner’s house including a millstone which Bill specifically requested. Bill, his wife and the boys get together at the end to review their handiwork before beaming away to other picks.
American Pickers airs on the History channel at 9 pm.
