Is anyone else addicted to American Pickers and waiting for them to pick trains?

The reason that trains are never on these shows is that the values of trains are too well publicized. It is a collectables hobby for specialists and has a huge infrastructure to support itself.  There are two magazines, yearly price guides and thousands of EBay sales at any given time. The trains are treated as a commodity with agreed upon prices nearly to the point that the only time anyone "makes out like a bandit" is when the other party makes a mistake, doesn't know what they have or really wants to unload the stuff.

The things these shows want are flashy one offs for kitchy restaurant decor or other nostalgia or unusual items. Things with weird pedigrees.  Not really things that many people can methodically collect.

I don't think these guys care if they sell any of the stuff they buy.  They've made their money when the show airs on the History Channel.  Same goes for Pawn Stars.  My wife and I stopped by the shop during a recent trip to Vegas and lots of items featured on the show were still in the shop.  I do find Pawn Stars more entertaining.  Like the old man, what a tightwad, at least on the show.

I've read on another thread where Jim P. has a sign in his neat mostly completed train room with 2 rail and 3 rail layouts that says "I built this while you were watching television".

 

How has TV affected your RR construction?

I watch it to see all the stuff people have out there.  I have seen trains and they just pass them over.  I asked on facebook about the trains and all they said was that the trains were nice. 

 

I know some people in Tennessee who have a re-sale business and have been contacted by the show.  In order to be on the show one must shut down their business and give pickers exclusive use of the property. This business was not interested as the show does not guarantee the pickers will find anything and they did not want to miss any other sales.

Ok definitly a great pick!!!

During a repeat of a Storage wars episode last night there was a bidding war because of a very valuable train set.  LOL  It was a G scale scale starter set   Theyput the value at 2000 on the show  I wouldn't pay 100 for it

I happened to see that as well...looked like a cheap/junk LifeLife HO set to me. You couldn't even pay me to take it! 

That's true, Tom.

 

But, I have to admit that I watch enough to know who Danielle is!  

 

Jim

Watching the show,  it seems they buy broken,beat-up,faded,signs that look like just junk to me.  is there a serious market for this stuff ?  what am i missing here ?

One mans' junk...

 

Rusty

 

You would be surprised at what people will buy, and what they will pass up.  People collect all sorts of strange things (like trains  ), and people have been passionate about automobiles and all things related, and advertising, especially old advertising can be very artistic, and people still admire beautiful things, even when they are old, beaten-up, faded and rusty (the things, not the people  ).

 

Andy

Most people who are not into toy trains think their box of rusty, broken, common production trains are worth allot because they are old and have the Lionel name on them. I've never seen a decent deal at an estate or garage sale I've actually had two people give me boxes of this stuff. There they sit, in the corner of my basement. What I'll do with them I have no idea.

Nuts, just when thought I'd become a valuable collectable!

 

Rusty

I think Mike and Frank would of been interested in toy trains back in the sixties and seventies. By the time the eighties rolled in toy trains already started to get the reputation for being worth alot of money.

Pickers make their money by buying low and selling high, especially folks who travel the way Mike and Frank do.  

The problem with things like toy trains is that everyone thinks they own a high end collectable and demand Mint prices for junk, sometimes it's more like trash. The people they would have to sell to, namely us usally know the product and know where to get it at a good price. So it is hard to make up the cost of gas, tolls, hotels and French toast. Even our dealers try to get product as low as possible in order to keep the lights on.

 

If the guy who buys the old gas station sign could go to a place like the OGR web site and find it and just about every place that carries them then Frank and Mike would not touch them with a ten foot poll.

 

In fact, I bet when a Picker goes on a trip they already have in mind what they are looking for and who would buy it.

In the most recent show they looked right at two or three Lionel engines (example: a Dryefus) and completly ignored them.

Heavens! 

 

How dare "reality" television personalities not have the same enthusiasm that we have for model trains!  What is this world coming to?

 

Rusty

I gave up on Mike & Frank a long time ago. They were looking over an estate talking to the daughter. She asked if anyone would be interested in toy trains. Mike & Frank told her that toy trains are dead as they looked upon an entire wall of Buddy L

THEY DID WHAAAAT! How dare them pass on a lode of Buddy L. I would love to have some Buddy L, well not really I don't have enough space for my O-Gauge.

 But I know a bunch of people who would, like aaa, you know that club that collects them. Oh that's right I never really heard of such a club either.

I guess if you wont Buddy L to be worth alot of money you wuld have to do the same thing we need to do with all our toy trains and that is let a bunch of young kids play the **** out of them. In that way the ones that are left will be sought after by thoes kids when they are adults looking to fill their basements with toys.

 

quote:

it seems they buy broken,beat-up,faded,signs that look like just junk to me.

I've got a five foot long porcelain REA sign they'll never get their hands on.

How did such a simple question turn into an amazing thread with such a wide range of sub threads.  Keep this going!!!!

All this talk of American Pickers and not a single mention of Danielle?

Danielle is the main reason I watch the show.

This week Frank bought one of the Marx stations where the track went into space molded in the front.  He paid $10   so much for no trains

 

Regardless of the trains, I find American Pickers a mostly entertaining show. Mike is very much into motorcycles and bicycles and Frank loves his auto and motor oil can collectibles. Beats other reality shows where shouting at  each other is the norm.

We watch "pickers" pretty much a few hours a week.  We also watch Antiques Roadshow, Pwn Stars and American Restorations.  Mean time we get a chance to see Storage Wars and Auction Hunters.

 

Once in a great while you see a train, model or real, on one of these shows.  A few weeks ago, someone brought on a Blue Comet and their   appraisers pegged it pretty high.  Just tonight the Pickers found a Marx tin union startion and looked at it burt rejected it.  Just last week American Restorations rebuilt a full scale motor car.  Was kind of a "hokie" one, equipped with a Ford flathead V8, but still was an interesting project.

 

Paul Fischer

It's Staged, It's Staged, It's Staged! One of our own here is a Editor on one of the shows mentioned above. It is entertainment only. I rencently drove by "Rick's" new place downtown (American Restoration) and it is setup as a museum and gift shop. The "rocket slide" that they supposedly made for a customer is permenantly fixed on the property! I drive by the Harrison's Pawn shop (Never been in there and have no plans to) and the line forms in the morning. None of them are even there as they are busy doing personal appearances and selling their images. I have seen Rick Harrison at Red Rock a few times doing the VIP thing at concerts.

Your probably right Charlie. Before  they pawned their idea to history channel they were just another pawn shop etc.. As for staged for American pickers they visited a friend who owns a local marina, he had to sign privacy and confidentiality paperwork from the producers of the show. That said isn't every tv show staged nothing new there. I agree with Paul Antiques Road show is the orginal & imported from Britian the best if you like that stuff.

"Is anyone else addicted to American Pickers and waiting for them to pick trains?"

 

Hopefully not.

You got your wish!

I just heard next week's all new episode will have a train on it they picked.  The show preview clip has an appraiser saying it's worth $30K.  Yes, you heard right...The clip was rather quick, but that's what I heard.  "The train" looked like standard gauge passenger set, but again, I only got a quick glimpse.

LOL

 

Saw the same promo last night. They looked like very large gold colored passenger cars set out on a table, and the (appraiser?) was holding one of them. His smile went from ear to ear. But, was the show for Pickers or one of those goofy storage war episodes?

I didn't have the patience to read all the previous posts so I'll just offer my opinion here.

 

Like most of all these types of shows, it was pretty good in the beginning. It's gotten a bit repetitive though and now when I watch it it's really only because nothing else better is on. Pawn Stars is actually a bit better IMO but they're headed in the same direction.

 

One reality show I truly never tire of is Storage Wars on A&E. Yes I know a lot of it is scripted but I still love it somehow. There was one episode where Dave Hester finds a bunch of train items in a locker which prompts him to pull out old photo albums of him and his trains when he was a boy.

Last year an episode aired showing those two clowns picking an estate. The daughter asked those Bozo's about her father's Buddy L trains displayed covering an entire wall. Their response." There's no market for toy trains these days. People stopped collecting toy trains years ago"

Last night they pushed a Lionel box set out of the way to spend $65 on a broken model car with missing pieces. As mentioned on earlier threads, they're probably just not knowlegable about trains.

 

Gilly

I rather like that they don't start a rush of people turning into train experts and further destroying the collector market.

I am delighted that the two happy pickers, Mike and Frank, have no interest in electric trains.  Makes buying "pre-owned" trains just a little bit easier. Spent enough time in the past explaining that price guides are not gospel and not everything is "mint" or will sell for many thousands on an auction site.

 

In terms of their business and the show, they are correct, "trains are dead' for them, but not for us, thank goodness

 

Ed Boyle

I'll watch the show occasionally if nothing better is on tv.  The price haggling is both interesting and amusing to me.  I'm surprised at some of the things they "pick" and even more surprised at the prices they claim they can get for them... ex: that rotton old completely rusted Colonel Sanders sign they bought.    It's kind of hard to believe these so-called "experts" think there's no market for toy trains, yet someone is certain to buy a rusty old sign that no one can even read.)  Maybe they need to expand their customer demographics a little?

I love the American Pickers shows - if nothing else, it shows everyone opportunities await in this great country!

the new show in august includes a standard guage 2 tone  brown "state" set[i think],and ithink an appraiser was looking at it and saying something about"30 grand". staged or not ,it was a clean looking set,hopfully not a reproduction.-jim

I can appreciate others' appreciation for this show and its relations as their choice of entertainment but I roll my eyes when viewers think it's 'real' or a true reflection of anything like the experience it represents.  I have some connection to part of the television world, and as others have noted, every one of these shows is scripted. The items, the personalities, the interactions are all chosen for dramatic effect.