Larry (IL) said:
I hate to burst your bubble, but ALL of the reality shows are fixed to make them exciting and watchable. Watch pickers really pick would be quite boring and if you want to see how boring a pawn shop really is, just stop in one and spend an hour........ that is REAL reality. Remember how exciting metal detecting appeared on TV? The next thing you are going to tell us is there really is no Santa...........
Larry, Pickers or Pawn Stores ain't showing hours of dull footage that they filmed to get the gems. That is what editing is for. You go to a dud barn and you just edit that out. Just because 95% of the job is boring don't necessarily mean 5% they show ain't the real deal.
So in other words, you're telling me that somehow Pawn Stars opened a store 20 some years ago and didn't make any money on anything good, just waiting for the day a TV producer would come along and give them a TV contract? Come on now, you ever been to Vegas? There is a good reason why that store is open 24 hours a day. And the kind of knowledge that guy and the old man (not the son of the son, I don't think he knows much) have on that show don't come scripted. He's been well known for years as knowing his stuff when it comes to art, history, and other such things. That's the very reason why they got noticed and got a show. That store already had a reputation before a TV show came along.
Same deal with American Pickers. Your really think those two guys started a business years ago and faked everything just so they could one day get a TV contract? Again, both of them know their stuff and their very business is antiques, so one would think then that of course they do indeed find antiques, buy them, and re-sell them. Makes perfect sense to me. I know a guy who does that in fact to some extent. Only he hits garage sales and such, yet even he has his stories of great finds. Amazes me.
My point is that it's already obvious that you can make a living doing those things or buying storage lockers, so why the need to spike lockers? Those producers got greedy, that's why, and probably have now ended up killing the goose that laid the golden egg. The only way I see that show surviving now is if they put a disclaimer at the beginning saying they admit they (the show producers) salted lockers and apologize for doing something so unnecessary, and that they now pay independent security to insure no such things will ever happen again. I doubt they'll do that, and for that reason I doubt that show will be on much longer.
And, sure, in broad terms I have no doubt most reality shows are faked. But let's not forget cops, the first 48 (great show), Alaskan Troopers, and a few others of that type. You telling me those shows are rigged too? That I ain't buying, even if I do think shows like Lizard Lick Towing and many others are total bunk. Or what about Parking Wars? Again, I doubt that's faked. Yet, I'm sure much of the footage ends up on the cutting room floor because it's as boring as watching paint dry.
Think of it this way...On these forums you see some great finds posted, don't you? Sure, but we all know that a lot of times we go out and don't find anything good. In other words, all that jazz ends up on the cutting room floor.
On the other hand, one of my neighbors recently bought a storage locker. I dropped by while he was unloading his pickup truck. Guess what was sitting in the middle of the garage? Yep, you guessed it...An black antique safe that he was trying to figure out if he should destroy or have opened professionally so he could re-sell it. He later had the safe opened by a pro and it did have a few old guns in it but they weren't worth much. Point being there is reality to buying storage lockers and legit people making money at it...