American Pickers (2010–…): Season 1, Episode 3 - White Castle on the Farm - full transcript

MIKE: Oh my god, look at that.

The guy's got a white
castle in his yard.

FRANK: A haha look
at that! That's awesome.

MIKE: I was thinking
five hundred bucks.

WILL EYE: Oh yea huh.

FRANK: Looks like he
ate too much of the fudge.

MIKE: I don't need to
have a crappy day with you

directing the crappy day.

I can have one all by myself.

FRANK: It's crap.

[♪]



MIKE: I'm Mike Wolfe.

FRANK: And I'm Frank Fritz.

MIKE: And we're pickers.

FRANK: We travel the back
roads of America looking

for rusty gold.

We're looking for amazing
things buried in people's

garages and barns.

MIKE: What most people see
as junk - we see as dollar signs.

FRANK: We'll buy anything
we think we can make a buck on.

[♪]

MIKE: Each item we
pick, has a history all its

own... And the people
we meet, well, they're a

breed all their own... We
make a living telling the

history of America -
one piece at a time.



[♪]

[♪]

MIKE: This is one of
those ass chilling, soul

crushing picker days where
it's like you know what?

This is what separates
the men from the boys.

This is what builds character.

We're gonna go out
and find something today.

I can feel it in my bones.

MIKE: I'd like to maybe hit
some rural areas, you know,

and just and just, I don't
know, do some door knocking.

FRANK: You know me. Bummer.

My expectations aren't
that high on us finding

stuff in the, in the rain here.

MIKE: Seriously Franky,
it does not have me down.

I mean if nothing else
it's made me a little bit

more aggressive, man.

MIKE: All of a sudden we
come across this sign that

says Pickaway County...
Is that perfect or what?

FRANK: Maybe we can go
do some picking in Pickaway.

[♪]

MIKE: Yeah it's looking good.

A little bit out of the city.

[♪]

Oh my god, look at that.

That guy's got a
White Castle in his yard.

FRANK: Ah-hahaha. Look
at that. That's awesome.

MIKE: Out of nowhere
we see a White Castle.

A White Castle is on
somebody's farm in the

middle of nowhere.

MIKE: It was a hamburger
building smack dab in the

middle of somebody's farm.

I'm like am I seeing things?

FRANK: This place
is looking intriguing.

There is lots of buildings.

I like the setup.

I don't know what
were gonna find.

MIKE: Hey. How ya doing?

WILL-I: Okay.

MIKE: Hey I'm Mike.

WILL-I: I'm Will-I Green.

MIKE: Hi. Nice to meet ya.

FRANK: I'm Frank.

FRANK: We could see he
had a bunch of outbuildings, a

little blacksmith shop,
this and that so obviously

he had something
going on, you know?

MIKE: It looked more
like a museum though.

FRANK: Kinda, yeah. It
looked like a museum but, you

know, we've had some luck
stopping at places like that.

MIKE: We buy stuff. We
buy anything from old signs,

old bicycles, anything old.

WILL-I: We got some bicycles.

MIKE: Do ya? Some old ones?

WILL-I: Oh yeah.

MIKE: Okay. Hey. I
would love to look at those.

WILL-I: Well I'll get a
coat and we'll come out.

MIKE: How does one go
about acquiring a White

Castle building?

How do you get into
something like that?

WILL-I: The White Castle
company in the Columbus

paper offered it for sale
so I called up White Castle.

They moved it on a Sunday
morning at four o'clock in

the morning.

The roof leaks bad on it
so we just leave it sat there.

MIKE: Okay.

[♪]

MIKE: The White Castle
has got to be for me tops on

the most unusual thing
in somebody's yard.

WILL-I: The rest of these
buildings we moved ourselves.

We moved that blacksmiths
shop first and that church

came three miles and
we moved the store.

FRANK: Wow.

MIKE: I don't think I've
ever met anybody that's

collected buildings.

MIKE: This guy has a
blacksmith shop, he had a

train station, he had
a church, he had a gas

station and a general store.

WILL-I: This whole store
started in eighteen seventy-five.

It ran till nineteen eighty.

MIKE: The best thing
about the general store to me

with Will-I was that he used
to shop there back in the 40s.

I mean this was like a
memory from his childhood

that he actually owned now.

He can walk in the door and
see the counter, see some

of the signage, all that stuff
from when he was a child.

I mean that's fascinating.

MIKE: The display counters
and everything were here

but you had to fill it
with merchandise?

WILL-I: Yeah, yeah.

MIKE: Him and his wife
did an amazing job because

they said that the counter
and stuff was there but

none of the merchandise
was in there, the products.

All that stuff they bought
to make it look that way.

MIKE: This is just incredible.

Can we look around
a little bit, just kind of

fish around through stuff?

[♪]

MIKE: This guy
had this stuff forever.

Like Franky always says,
this didn't happen overnight.

MIKE: What about
something like this?

WILL-I: I guess I'm
getting older and I'd

probably take
thirty-five dollars.

MIKE: He was at the point
where he, you know, he was

starting to be like
you know what?

I think I might want to
sell some of this stuff

and that's a big step
for a collector to make.

That's huge and we were
just there at the right time.

WILL-I: Treat
yourself to the best.

FRANK: See how that was
on a building and then they

painted around it.

See the paint on it?

MIKE: The porcelain's
all chipped out here but it's

still a neat piece.

FRANK: Yeah.

WILL-I: Fifty dollars.

MIKE: I'll do that. Let me
ask you this, since we've got

a good rapport going here
with each other, you know,

we've got some
cash exchanging...

FRANK: Here is comes...

MIKE: Would you do, would
you do two hundred bucks

on this old cigarette machine?

WILL-I: How about two fifty?

MIKE: All right I'll
take it for two fifty.

MIKE: I bought the
cigarette machine because

I like the colours,
I like the shape.

I like that it was not
really deep. It was thin.

It's not gonna take up a
lot of room but really, you

know, I mean where are you
gonna find something like that.

It was so unusual, there
are so many people that

collect tobacco related
items - this is vending

machine, this is tobacco,
I knew I would have a

customer for it.

MIKE: That place
is hard to leave.

FRANK: Yeah there's
a lot of stuff in there.

WILL-I: This is
the old gas station.

MIKE: This is Frank's
heaven. He loves oil cans.

FRANK: I love oil cans.

I'm not supposed to
buy them but I love them.

MIKE: I was like,
oh lord, here we go.

Frank's gonna buy an oil can.

FRANK: Yep it's leaking.
These are five quart cans.

MIKE: Does it matter?

Are they worth more
with oil in them or no?

Does it matter?

FRANK: No. Most people
want them without the oil in it

because then they,
eventually they all start leaking.

FRANK: I know my oil
cans very well and I'm getting

pretty fussy about what I buy.

The stuff he had in there,
general line common stuff.

If he had something
really killer, it would be

leaking oil in the back
of our truck right now.

WILL-I: This old nineteen
fifty-one Desota, I paid

three hundred and
twenty-five dollars.

MIKE: Man, it just looks
like it's gonna eat you

alive coming down the road.

WILL-I: You put a battery
in it and when you turn

the key over,
she'll take right off.

[♪]

MIKE: He was into man
antiques. I love man antiques.

I mean I don't want to
look at carnival glass.

I don't want to look
at flowery vases.

WILL-I: All kinds of tongs
back here, blacksmith tongs.

MIKE: He had really
cool dirty rad stuff.

[♪]

MIKE: So you got a whole
bucket of these fence post pieces.

What would you want for these?

WILL-I: The bucket or one?

MIKE: The bucket.

WILL-I: Fifty dollars.

MIKE: We have a fence
guy. He loves anything fence.

I can buy, I can bring
him a little piece of a fence

and he's gonna go
oh I gotta have that.

That's old, you know?

MIKE: I'll pop on
these fence pieces.

WILL-I: What about this
sign here? Wanna buy that?

Thirty, thirty-five
dollars you can have it.

FRANK: Let's see.
That's kind of like the stuff I

like because it's not,
it's rusty. It's not mint.

FRANK: A reason we
buy signs that are rusty is

because every single
person that starts off in

collecting, I don't care
what you collect, starts

off with lower brand stuff
and then they build their

collections up and get
into the bigger stuff and

the better stuff.

WILL-I: And the
price is cheaper.

FRANK: Everybody has
bought that stuff, so that

stuff sells quick.

WILL-I: Okay. Push it this way.

MIKE: Oh wow.

[♪]

FRANK: When he opened
up that big building, it was

just like wow.

This guy's got some space here.

WILL-I: There's
thirty-five vehicles in here.

FRANK: Wow.

FRANK: I've never been
to a place that had that

many carriages.

You know, I don't know
that much about carriages.

[♪]

WILL-I: This is a horse
drawn ambulance.

This here brought
thirty-six thousand.

MIKE: Wow.

FRANK: And you sold that?

WILL-I: I sold it.

[ringing bell]

MIKE: That's awesome.

MIKE: It was like he got
into something, he pursued

it, he was really
passionate about it and he

just, he just kicked
it out of the park.

FRANK: Wow.

MIKE: Man, that is some
spooky looking stuff, man.

MIKE: I saw those hearses.

It's fascinating to me
sometimes of things that

people do collect.

MIKE: Do you think
it's possible that any of

these, like do you think
that could be haunted?

WILL-I: No. I don't
believe in haunted ghosts.

MIKE: You don't believe in that?

WILL-I: No.

FRANK: I'm with
you. I don't either.

WILL-I: If we repainted
it back white, it would

probably bring
twenty-five thousand.

FRANK: These we could
never afford or transport.

MIKE: These are scaring me man.

What's up with that
picture? Would you sell that?

I'd have to climb
through the Viking.

WILL-I: Yeah that's all right.

Climb up on old
Vike there and get it.

MIKE: The subject matter
was killer, the colours

were bright, brilliant still.

It was still in the
original frame.

WILL I: A hundred dollars.

MIKE: Yeah this is neat.

FRANK: Mike has a little
bit keener eye than I do

and hopefully it's (MIKE:
it's rubbing off on you)..

Some of it rubs off on me.

That's that goal.

MIKE: You know it
was, it was a great piece.

[♪]

WILL-I: Right this way.

You wanted to see
these pinball machines.

FRANK: Yeah.

FRANK: You know we
came upon these pinball

machines and it
was just amazing.

Is there anything that Will I
doesn't have in his collection?

FRANK: Those are uh mid fifties.

WILL-I: Yeah
that's what I thought.

FRANK: Cause they're
dime. This is post time.

It looks like possibly a
horseracing one which

does have some
collectability to it.

The jungle king, hmm you know?

So much like that.

If these were to have
like a car or a motorcycle.

MIKE: Yeah it's all
about subject, isn't it?

FRANK: It's all about
subject or if it had a

famous actor, Gun Smoke
or something like that.

FRANK: The subject
matter was a dropalot or

something and then
another one Jungle Joe.

Just didn't do it, you know?

Didn't have enough stuff.

FRANK: Have you ever
been inside one of these?

WILL-I: Yeah.

FRANK: They have like
about six hundred and

fifty contactors.

They're all points.

FRANK: Never ever want
to buy a pinball machine that

doesn't work, especially
one that's in a farm building.

FRANK: One cellinoid for the
flipper, that'd cost you a hun.

FRANK: You just would
never ever want to get

into a venture like that.
You'd want to buy one new.

FRANK: But thank you for
showing us. Appreciate it.

WILL-I: Okay.

WILL-I: The bikes are over
there in that railroad depot.

The railroad depot is the
hardest building to move.

Had five men, thirty-five days.

We moved it a hundred
miles, yeah to move that.

FRANK: That's a commitment.

WILL-I: I like this
girl's bike here.

MIKE: It's called a colour flow.

WILL-I: Here's a swing springer.

MIKE: That's Columbia.
This is a Columbia.

It's a Columbia
springer front end.

WILL-I: Okay. You
know your bikes.

WILL-I: Mike, I was really
impressed with the bicycles.

He actually knows more
than I knew about 'em.

I know which ones are the
better ones but he had all

kinds of answers on them bikes.

MIKE: Well this is what
they call a Firestone

super cruiser.

If you notice the tank on
the bike goes actually out

past the head tube here.

This would be pre World War Two.

There's so many girls bikes.

I mean every girl took
really good care of her

bike and the boys just
beat the heck out of them.

MIKE: Bicycles have
dropped off incredibly.

I mean back in the late
eighties, early nineties

some of that stuff he
had was crazy money.

That thing would have been
seven, eight hundred dollars.

Now it's like a hundred bucks.

FRANK: They're neat though.

MIKE: There's a lot of
things that have changed,

the internet has moved
a lot of things that used to

be really rare - now
they are not so rare.

The economy is hurting
really bad right now.

I mean we have to really
dissect what we're gonna

drop our money into
because we've got to flip

it right away.

We don't want to open a museum.

This stuff is inventory to us.

MIKE: Didn't you say
you had a wood room?

MIKE: When we were
about to leave the train depot,

that's when I saw it.

MIKE: Hey-this old soda
fountain piece right here,

what can you tell me about this?

MIKE: It didn't really do
much for me until I kinda dusted

it off and I saw the whole
top of the thing was copper.

It just had a great look to it.

It was made of wood,
galvanized metal, it was a

self contained unit.

WILL-I: You can make your
own banana splits and you

can make me a soda.

FRANK: Yeah.

MIKE: Hey, we could
open up for business Franky.

MIKE: [♪]

MIKE: It's a neat
piece, I like it.

MIKE: It wasn't a space saver
but it wasn't real big either.

MIKE: Most soda
fountains are huge.

I mean they're like
twenty feet long.

I mean this thing is like
self contained. It's small.

MIKE: I mean to me it
looks like it's real early

like nineteen ten,
nineteen twenty.

MIKE: Somebody if they
wanted to use it in their

basement if they wanted
to do a soda fountain down

there, if they had it in
their antique shop, in a

restaurant - this would
be an amazing piece.

[♪]

WILL-I: I got that in
St. Charles Illinois and I

think I paid two
hundred and fifty dollars.

And I guess I am getting
older and I'd probably

take two hundred
and fifty for it today.

MIKE: Its pretty neat.

It looks like it is
pretty heavy too.

WILL-I: I think it is.

MIKE: When Frankie and
I are on the road, we have

to be conscience
of what we're buying.

MIKE: I don't even know how
we would get this out of here.

MIKE: But this could
be a sweet deal.

Two hundred and fifty
bucks, that's what he paid

twenty years ago for it
and that's what he wants.

I'll lay that down.

MIKE: Frank, are
you up for this?

FRANK: Oh I'm moving it?

[♪]

FRANK: Just like that...

MIKE: Okay.

FRANK: Okay I
got it. I got it. I got it.

MIKE: We both got it
'cause I don't think I got it.

I don't totally have it.

FRANK: Now you're
cooking with gas.

WILL-I: I think you
come this way a little bit.

Hold her there.

MIKE: Do you understand
how cool this is?

FRANK: I know how cool it is.

MIKE: I mean it's like it's
got all the original pieces.

FRANK: Oh it's cool.

MIKE: I mean this is,
oh my god, it's amazing.

FRANK: It's cool.

MIKE: We're known for
buying unusual things.

We have clients that are,
they're calling us all the

time 'cause they know
we're on the road, they

know we're on the hunt.

They're like what'd
you guys dig up?

What are you finding?
What's going on?

So now we can go dude,
are you sitting down?

Soda fountain. What?

You know, I mean
people, they love that stuff.

MIKE: Take it back down
then real quick or do something.

FRANK: No, that's fine.

MIKE: Oh the whole
bottom of it fell out.

FRANK: It did?

MIKE: Yeah.

FRANK: Okay.

MIKE: The whole
bottom of it's gone. Ah...

FRANK: I got her. I got her.

[♪]

MIKE: Man, it sucks
that the bottom fell out.

FRANK: Well it's just
a display piece anyway.

I don't know if people are
gonna - if people wanna

use it, they can
rebuild the bottom.

MIKE: Yeah that's true.

[♪]

Danielle is gonna freak out
when she has to clean all this up.

MIKE: I mean we don't
want her cleaning it totally up.

A lot of people when
they see that they want to

clean it themselves.

FRANK: Right. You know,
everybody takes a before

and after picture.

That's what people like to do.

[♪]

FRANK: Come on back.

MIKE: Oh! Oh! We're fine.

MIKE: You getting this?

FRANK: Don't drop it.

FRANK: There we
go. That's in. It's in.

MIKE: To me it was an
honour to look through his

stuff and to meet him because,
you know, he did spend his

life collecting that stuff
but not so much collecting it.

He spent his life
displaying it and sharing

his dream with other people.

FRANK: We bought a few
things from him, we didn't

even take a, make a dent,
you know what I mean?

FRANK: These
signs were a hundred.

MIKE: That's fifty.

FRANK: That's fifty. That's
one twenty-five. One thirty.

One fifty. This is
easy. One seventy-five.

MIKE: Okay. Two
hundred and fifty.

FRANK: He's at eight fifty.

MIKE: I'm at eight
hundred and fifty bucks.

FRANK: I'm at four fifty.

MIKE: All right.

FRANK: That wasn't a bad day.

WILL-I: No, it wasn't.

MIKE: It's bringing things
to market really for us.

I mean we're just like
anybody else in business.

You know, we've got to go out
though and find our merchandise.

Things that are odd,
things that are different,

things that are somewhat
even bizarre to a lot of people.

I mean those are
what stands out.

FRANK: And that's the way
you can make some money.

[♪]

FRANK: Another back
breaker that you're buying.

Push her on up.

WILL-I: My wife
says I got too many.

FRANK: Too many paintings?

[♪]

MIKE: It's cool the way
that... it looks like a...

FRANK: Shield.

MIKE: Yeah, the
shield. It looks neat.

FRANK: Like a security shield.

MIKE: Ok, so we got that...

[♪]

FRANK: What can I say?

We had a great time.

I thank you ever so
much for your gracious

hospitality and coming on
out and selling us some stuff.

We had a good day.

FRANK: You know, this guy
spent years and years and

years of collecting this
stuff and then he let us

look through it.

We could go to twenty,
thirty different stops and

maybe not see all
that stuff in one place.

We have things that happen
that come, amazing things

that happen sometimes
out of the blue that you're

like wow, the only reason
that happened was because

it rained today.

[♪]

DANIELLE: Out further?

FRANK: Out further. To
the very end. Drop it. Okay.

FRANK: When you go to
look at stuff, you want to

search out things that
you know about and that's

where you feel the
most comfortable.

Buying a soda fountain,
we're not that comfortable.

We don't buy those every day.

MIKE: Team work.

FRANK: When we get into
areas that we don't know

about, you know, we
have certain individuals that

are a little bit more
expertise than us so we

called in Kenny.

FRANK: We need money
for this because of our backs

because this wasn't fun.

MIKE: Both of us have
known Kenny for a long

time and I think he does
a really good job of giving

us a base number, a
good jumping off point.

MIKE: I thought if this was
polished up, it would pop.

KENNY: I mean
this is just too neat.

MIKE: He collects old
soda pop stuff, gas pumps,

advertising, jukeboxes -
he's gonna let us know how

much cash this thing is worth.

KENNY: The containers,
they should be porcelain.

MIKE: Yeah they're
porcelain. They are.

These are all porcelain.

KENNY: So be careful with
them when you pull them

out, yeah that you
don't bust them.

FRANK: Don't bust those, okay.

KENNY: But you're
real fortunate that these

pieces are all here yet,
all the containers and the

same way with all
these faces and that.

MIKE: I mean this thing's early.

I don't know, I'm guessing
early nineteen hundreds.

KENNY: I would think so.

MIKE: You know,
like in the teens.

KENNY: Uh teens or twenties.

MIKE: Yeah.

KENNY: Oh yeah.

MIKE: That's ex,
that's no extra charge.

FRANK: Looks like
he ate too much fudge.

MIKE: I'm not gonna get
crazy on cleaning every

little thing on this but I
thought if we could get

this copper popping.

FRANK: Just so people can see.

MIKE: Yeah they'd be like whoa.

MIKE: When we clean it
just enough for somebody

to see that copper
there and it's so dirty and

stuff, it still looks like
it came out of the barn.

Well they're getting that
same feeling cleaning that

piece going wow.

You know, this is
undiscovered to me.

This, I'm bringing out the
potential with that piece

and that's what's cool for them.

MIKE: What are you thinking?

I was thinking five
hundred bucks.

KENNY: Five hundred bucks?

MIKE: Yeah.

[♪]

MIKE: What are you thinking?

I was thinking five
hundred bucks.

KENNY: Five hundred bucks?

MIKE: Yeah.

FRANK: I think
easy more than that.

KENNY: I'm thinking
fifteen hundred.

FRANK: If it was cleaned
up, I'm thinking at least,

at least a grand.

MIKE: All right.

FRANK: Looks like we
bought a pretty decent

piece and we're very happy.

MIKE: Hey thanks man. Seriously.

KENNY: You're welcome.

FRANK: Hey thanks
buddy. Good to see ya.

MIKE: Hey and back at ya too.

If you get something
that's more in our

category, call us and
we'll help you out too.

MIKE: You know, we
all kind of work together a

little bit because like
Frank said you can't know

everything about
everything and I think

that's how, you know, one
hand washes the other with us.

KENNY: Bring a trailer.

MIKE: Thanks Kenny.

KENNY: We'll see you guys.

FRANK: Thanks Kenny.

KENNY: All right thanks.

[♪]

MIKE: Jump out and take a look.

FRANK: All right.

[♪]

MIKE: Nobody was home.

FRANK: Probably out to lunch.

FRANK: Make a right here.

[♪]

MIKE: We're scrappers.

We don't get a
regular paycheque.

If we don't buy and sell stuff,
we're not making any money.

[♪]

MIKE: Nothing there.

[♪]

FRANK: We buy...

MAN1: No that's all right.

Thanks guys. Thanks.

FRANK: Okay. All righty.

MIKE: We didn't know
if you had anything.

MAN2: Uh I got nothing.

MIKE: I think one of
the most difficult things

about being a
picker is rejection.

I don't care how
hardcore you are.

FRANK: A lot of people, as
soon as they open the door

they're like no, no, no
and you're like hey I was

just won - no.

So then you're
like okay I'm sorry.

MAN3: You kind
of interrupted me.

FRANK: Better time
to come back or?

MAN3: You are disturbing me.

MIKE: Okay. Well.

FRANK: All right.

I don't think we're
gonna get a call back.

MIKE: Well it hasn't been
a real good day picking.

So far the only thing I've
bought is a piece of pie and

that was good but, you
know, that don't pay the bills.

FRANK: That's right.

MIKE: Picking is an
emotional rollercoaster.

There's highs and lows, man.

I mean we could be out for
weeks at a time and come

back with next to nothing
in our van or we can make

that stop where there's a
huge honey hole and boom,

that makes it all worthwhile.

[♪]

MIKE: This is one
of Danielle's leads.

We wouldn't normally go to
a house where they say we

have a lot of antiques.

But if they say hey
come dig around, we don't

know what's there. We'll do it.

MIKE: Hey, you
Linda? My name's Mike.

This is Frank, from
Antique Archeology.

Can we come in?

LINDA: Yeah, sure.

MIKE: Yeah Franky.

JAMES: Come on in.

JAMES: Uh this house was
built in eighteen eighty-nine.

LINDA: Everything here
is old and it was like this

when we moved in.

All the furniture was
here, pictures of people,

families we don't even
know who they are.

MIKE: They're actually
living in someone else's

world right now,
someone else's furnishings,

someone else's
relatives on the wall.

MIKE: So you guys didn't
have to bring anything?

JAMES: This was all here.

FRANK: Everything
was here huh? Wow.

JAMES: When we first
got here and came in and

looked at all the
stuff, the closets in the

basement, all the
furniture that was here,

we were like wow.

This is uh this stuff's
gotta be worth a fortune.

MIKE: Can we kind of
cruise around a little bit?

LINDA: Sure.

LINDA: Over there
is an old trunk.

MIKE: Yeah I saw
that humpback trunk.

FRANK: Pump organ.

MIKE: Oh old glassware.

LINDA: Behind you the hats.

FRANK: Hat rack?
Hey that's neat.

That's uh something you
don't see every day either.

[♪]

FRANK: I like your
clock. It's beautiful.

MIKE: That says
something right there.

FRANK: Thirteen dollars
and twenty-two cents

clearance sale
and made in India.

[♪]

FRANK: They're intricate,
they're made to look good.

They're mantel clocks.

They look great but when
you pick it up and turn it around

and it runs off a battery,
you know it's reproduction.

FRANK: So anyway, you
know, the deeper we got in

the house and everything
you could tell there was a

lot of reproduction stuff.

FRANK: Problem with
these is most people never

played them that much
and then they deteriorated.

MIKE: As with all
antiques, Victorian

furniture is also
being reproduced.

The quality's a lot poorer.

MIKE: Oh the hinges
are broken on it?

MIKE: And you know what?

The good stuff's
always gonna be good.

It's not about quantity,
it's about quality.

FRANK: Got a table
like this at home.

MIKE: It's been made
with old products to look old.

FRANK: Right.

FRANK: You know what that is?

That's just a condiment
tray you know.

MIKE: Yeah it's got a loose leg.

MIKE: I don't think it
has a lot of age to it.

JAMES: No.

FRANK: These come from pans.

Mike: Oh these are pan handles?

FRANK: Pan handles, wherever.

MIKE: It was
twenty-nine ninety-nine.

Now it's down to
nine eighty-nine.

FRANK: Nine ninety-nine.

It was probably
fifty percent off that.

JAMES: You know,
it's a reality check.

I thought we had some
stuff that was a little

more valuable but.

LINDA: I think that a
lot of the items here are

valuable um but they
weren't interested in

those particular items.

MIKE: All right what
else, what else you got?

LINDA: You know I
remember some old toys.

FRANK: Okay, yeah. Let's
take a look at those toys.

LINDA: That's old.

FRANK: Tin toys are
a great investment.

They're so many different
variations of tin toys.

They're great collectibles.

FRANK: Yeah. These are uh
these are reproductions here.

That's a reproduction of a, yeah
that's a, that's a reproduction.

This is a reproduction here.

LINDA: I bought those
at an antique sale.

FRANK: Yeah well I hope you
didn't pay a whole lot for 'em.

LINDA: Actually I did.

FRANK: Yeah this
was a common one.

This was made by Ives
Company and the real ones

were made back in
the nineteen thirties.

FRANK: It's unfortunate
if she paid a lot of money

for 'em, you know, I
didn't try to be rude.

I'm just trying to tell
her what she had.

FRANK: You can tell
by the castings and stuff.

Uh these were rough and stuff.

Old toys are real smooth.

Plus it's got a screw and
the ones that were made

were riveted.

Now some of these old
banks were screwed in but

you'll tell you can
see how rough it is.

LINDA: Doesn't
it look old though?

FRANK: No.

LINDA: I was so disappointed.

Uh I had bought them
from an antique dealer and I

thought that they were
worth something, you know?

I wasn't very happy to
find out that they weren't.

FRANK: These are sold
at most uh, you know,

novelty, novelty shops,
hobby lobbies, a place like that.

Maybe a twenty
dollar, twenty-five dollar.

MIKE: You're all right Linda.

FRANK: Yeah. Anything else?

LINDA: Uh we have
more in the basement.

FRANK: Any? Okay.

FRANK: So they're giving
us an opportunity to go

down in the basement.

They said a lot of the
stuff that was in the

basement came with the
house so we're excited still.

MIKE: But they've said
that about everything though.

FRANK: I got ya. I know.

[♪]

MIKE: I saw an old
bicycle over here.

Made in England.

[♪]

FRANK: Army bed.

MIKE: That must be
missing a hat or something.

It's got a hole on
top of his head.

FRANK: Mike?

MIKE: Frank?

FRANK: Are you finding anything?

MIKE: I don't know.
It's a little bit sketch.

MIKE: Right now we're
working and we're not

making any money.

FRANK: Ten four.

JAMES: I don't know. Is this?

MIKE: No, I don't
think that's old.

FRANK: How about
this thing here?

MAN: Ten. Give me ten bucks.

FRANK: I'll give
you ten dollars.

MIKE: All right, cool.
We found something.

FRANK: I found something.

MIKE: All right.

FRANK: I bought a lamp
for my girlfriend and the only

reason I bought it for
her is I've got one at home

and she wants mine.

MIKE: All right, Frank.
You wanna head back up?

FRANK: Yeah, let's head back up.

FRANK: Linda, James,
thank you so much.

MIKE: See ya later. Thank you.

MIKE: You know what?

It wasn't James
and Linda's fault.

They had no idea what they had.

FRANK: What should
have been done is Danielle

should have done a
little bit more investigation

work and not put us
in that type of situation.

MIKE: It basically cost
us a day and a day on the

road is, is a lot.

It's expensive.

That's really something
we're gonna need to talk

to Danielle about.

[phone ringing]

DANIELLE: Hello?

MIKE: Danielle?

DANIELLE: Yeah?

MIKE: I left Linda's house.

DANIELLE: Oh. Was it awesome?

MIKE: No, it wasn't.

DANIELLE: Oh no!

MIKE: Yeah. It was bad.

DANIELLE: All
right. Well talk to me.

MIKE: They're very nice people.

We but we just spent.

FRANK: It was crap!

MIKE: I can't make money.

I can't function without
you doing your job better.

DANIELLE: I don't know
what to tell you dude.

I'm doing exactly what
you asked me to do.

Sometimes you're gonna
have a really crappy day.

MIKE: I know, I know
but listen, listen to me.

I know about crappy
days but see the thing is

you're sending me
into crappy days. Okay?

I don't need to have
a crappy day with you

directing the crappy day.

I can have one all by myself.

MIKE: Here's the leads
we got from Danielle.

I think we should call
some of these people on

our own and just kinda see.

FRANK: Let's just
kinda go through them.

MIKE: What they've got,
you know, and dissect them

ourselves.

FRANK: I hear ya.

[♪]

MIKE: Hey this is Mike
Wolfe with Antique Archeology.

[dial tone]

FRANK: Hello is Susan there?

MIKE: The reason I was
calling is because I am

looking over some notes here.

FRANK: Susan?

[dial tone]

MIKE: Tell me about maybe
like the top two or three items.

[dial tone]

FRANK: You there?

MIKE: You said here you
had listed an old doll stroller?

FRANK: Hello?

MIKE: Let me see.

FRANK: The guy's
putting me on hold here so.

MIKE: They're not,
you don't even have it.

They hung up then.

FRANK: Hello?

WOMAN2: Yes? Hello?

FRANK: Okay hey. This is
Frank from Antique Archeology.

Can you hear me?

MIKE: You got an old sign?

WOMAN1: I've never
seen it myself. Never seen it.

FRANK: We could
stop in and see her.

MIKE: Yeah. I think I'd
rather have my appendix out.

[♪]

FRANK: You don't have any
metal signs or anything do you?

MAN: Um no.

MIKE: What about the
Flintstone statuettes?

MAN: Um not sure
what you're talking about.

FRANK: You know
we're, we're possibly.

Is that something
you would sell?

MAN: No.

MIKE: Even if we drove
up there with a pocketful of

money and a chainsaw and
we couldn't come home with it?

MAN: No.

FRANK: Okay thanks, thank you.

MAN: We'll talk to you soon.
Thank you so much. Bu-bye.

FRANK: That didn't
sound very good.

MIKE: Sounds like
we're on our own again.

[♪]

FRANK: All three of us
are going to have to sit down

and find a happy medium to
what we think a good pick is.

DANIELLE: Well the guys
got back and we had an

interesting conversation.

FRANK: Here we are.

MIKE: All right.

Hey, I wanted to start out
by saying, you know, we

were pretty pumped when
we went to Linda's house.

I mean we walked
up. It was a killer place.

FRANK: Killer house.

MIKE: And they,
she was so sweet.

As we got into it, I mean
Frank looked over at me

and he goes I'm
gonna kill Danielle.

FRANK: You didn't ask
enough questions, you know?

MIKE: For example when
she was talking about all this

stuff, well could you have
her go pick the item up

and look at it and tell
you about it in detail

'cause at the bottom of it
it's gonna say, you know,

nine ninety-nine, three
ninety-nine on sale.

You know, I mean I can't
tell how many things we

turned over and there
was a price tag on it.

FRANK: The price tag was on it.

Remember she, I think she
said she had a big toy collection.

Well her toy collection
turned out to be two

little repop toys.

DANIELLE: When she
talked to me, it sounded like

she, she knew she had
some cool stuff but she didn't

know the value.

To me it sounded like
the perfect fit and I'll dig

more next time.

MIKE: That's,
that's the end of it.

FRANK: Bottom line.

MIKE: And um.

DANIELLE: And you guys are
my boys. I'll take care of you.

You know I'm gonna send
you out on the best leads

I can possibly find.

FRANK: Right.

[♪]

MIKE: This is one of
Danielle's leads and she's

sending us to a warehouse
that's supposed to be

eight hundred and eighty
thousand square feet, okay?

FRANK: This lead from
Danielle is a place that

we probably usually
would not go into.

MIKE: She's a little bit
off her game lately and

that's putting us off our game.

JUDY: Hi.

MIKE: Hey. You Judy?

JUDY: Yes I am.

MIKE: I'm Mike. This is Frank.

JUDY: Hi Mike. Nice to
meet you. Hi Frank. Welcome.

JUDY: When Maury and I
decided to get married, we

were trying to figure out
where to live and he said

where would you like to live?

And I said 'oh, the
factory, this would make a

wonderful apartment.

We could do wonders in here'.

So we moved in and
it's just been wonderful.

MIKE: These people live
in a factory, I've never seen

anything like this before -
how the heck do they heat it.

JUDY: Okay and
this is our living room.

FRANK: Okay.

JUDY: Maury and I have
known each other since

nineteen seventy-four.

His sister was a friend of
mine, and Grace introduced

us to each other at
an antique auction.

We were both single so
we got together and he had

collected antiques for
forty years and put them

up in the warehouse and
he comes to this box and he

said here's my antique
silver collection and I

said I didn't know
you collected silver.

I collected silver but
I sold it when I got

divorced 'cause I needed money.

We had an auction and
so he said open the box and

he had bought my
entire silver collection.

MIKE: That's, that's so random.

FRANK: Yeah, you got it back.

JUDY: Yeah and I said the
best thing I got was Maury.

MIKE: We get to know
people, hear their stories

and then we get
to know their stuff.

JUDY: The artwork for
a lot of the illustrations

was done by Maude Humphrey
who was the most famous

illustrator at the turn of
the century and she was

the mother of Humphrey
Bogart, the actor and he

was the model for
a lot of her work.

JUDY: This was uh my
great grandmother's chest that

she brought from Norway when
she came in eighteen eighty.

MIKE: Okay.

JUDY: Now this lamp
here is an interesting story.

MIKE: Judy is super
cool-very accommodating.

She's got a great place,
but we're hoping that she

brings us into some
place that's for sale.

JUDY: I collect original
World War One posters.

These are the moshe plates
that were up in the warehouse.

These are food related posters.

FRANK: That's great.

FRANK: All the stuff that
we'd seen so far is NFS.

In our world, that
is Not For Sale.

MIKE: I'm thinking oh my
god Danielle, not again.

We cannot afford to
lose proper picking time.

JUDY: Okay. Let's
go to the general store.

FRANK: Thank you.

Yeah you've got some
amazing things here.

I see some things that
quite a, you know, not

quite a few but things
that I've had, bought and

sold over the days, over the
years, you know, that you have

here in your, in your uh
museum I guess or general store.

FRANK: If we don't find
something to buy soon,

we've wasted our time.

And time is money.

[♪]

FRANK: Judy said hey,
let's go up to the third floor.

FRANK: It's up there. It's
dusty, dirty and cluttery and

you don't know what
you got up there?

JUDY: That's right.

FRANK: That's what we like.

MIKE: When we
got to the third floor...

everything was for sale.

[♪]

MIKE: Whoa.

FRANK: Wow.

MIKE: You do have some space.

MIKE: There was so
much stuff up there.

I mean you really couldn't
see everything because it

was all stacked in wooden boxes.

It was clutter everywhere.

[♪]

MIKE: To have this much
stuff, I mean how do you

keep your mind
wrapped around that?

I mean do you even know
like what's in this room here?

JUDY: No.

MIKE: No?

JUDY: Uh uh.

[♪]

MIKE: What are
you finding Franky?

JUDY: Oh a Pepsi
cooler. I forgot about that.

FRANK: I was looking at
the bottom 'cause most all

of them rust out.

This one ain't too
bad, you know?

FRANK: Pepsi stuff,
soda stuff is so collectible.

That's just great stuff
to buy. It's sellable.

FRANK: Judy, is that
something that would be for sale?

JUDY: Sure.

FRANK: What would
something like that run?

JUDY: Twenty bucks?

FRANK: Twenty dollars?
That'd be fine. I'll take that.

JUDY: Okay. All righty.

MIKE: Frank broke the ice!

JUDY: Yay!

FRANK: I got a good price on it.

I was just super excited.

[♪]

FRANK: How much on
something like this one?

JUDY: Five, five
bucks? Ten bucks.

FRANK: It's kinda cool.

JUDY: Five bucks?

FRANK: Five
dollars. We're there.

FRANK: Judy, what about
this old lamp over here?

JUDY: Yeah.

FRANK: That's kind
of a neat looking thing.

JUDY: Twenty-five bucks?

FRANK: How about twenty?

JUDY: Twenty. Got a deal.

MIKE: Man, Frank's
busting me out here.

I have to find something to buy.

MIKE: This is cool,
this old Kodak camera.

Yeah it's a Polaroid.

And then that pops out.

JUDY: Ooh that is.

MIKE: Yeah so that's
really neat and it's cool

'cause it's got
the original case.

Would you do fifteen?

JUDY: Yeah.

MIKE: Okay.

MIKE: The reason I buy
old cameras is because I love

how mechanical they are and
they look great up on a shelf.

They're a great decorator piece.

MIKE: I mean I really can
use this for my business

and my warehouse so do
you have any idea what you'd

want for one of these?

JUDY: Fifty bucks?

MIKE: I'll pop on that. I think
it's really neat, you know?

JUDY: You just
beat Frank. [laughs]

MIKE: I just beat Frank out?

[♪]

MIKE: So this is the?

JUDY: This is fourth
floor, which is really

loaded with stuff.

MIKE: Wow.

MIKE: I'm constantly
looking around a room.

I'm constantly searching.

I have what I call
the primary search.

When I walk in, I'm
scanning that room for

anything big that I
can see that's killer.

MIKE: Whoa. Here's a cool sign.

Is that something
you'd consider selling?

JUDY: Yeah. Well never
do anything with it again.

Seventy-five dollars?

MIKE: Yeah. It is, it is
neat. I mean it's, it's wild.

It's in the original box.

What I like about is I
mean the truck's really

cool and the colour's neat too.

I'll buy this. I like
it. It's really neat.

MIKE: She saw that
Frank and I really liked a lot

of the stuff and she
said to me a couple times,

she's like wow you guys
are buying kind of a lot

of the junky stuff, you
know, stuff that I thought

you weren't, wouldn't
even normally buy.

[♪]

MIKE: You have some really
rad looking garbage cans.

JUDY: Oh yeah.

FRANK: Oh yeah.

MIKE: Love those.

JUDY: Five bucks?

MIKE: All right.
Well okay let me um.

FRANK: We'll take them all.

JUDY: Oh look at this
old exercise machine.

It's called a Vidomaster.

There was a time
when vibrators were big.

FRANK: I think they still are.

MIKE: I think they still are.

FRANK: I was gonna
say I think they still are.

JUDY: A different
kind of vibrator.

[laughter]

FRANK: What are you talking
about Judy? Mike, hold up.

MIKE: What?

FRANK: How's your back?

MIKE: I don't know. I mean it's.

FRANK: Get it up on the thing.

All right, that's good.
I'm missing some stuff.

MIKE: All right.

FRANK: Whoa.

MIKE: That's a cool lamp.

JUDY: Ooh is that different.

MIKE: Yeah. It's got
like, what are those?

Fish? Is this something
you'd sell Judy?

JUDY: Ooh I don't
know. That's pretty cool.

MIKE: I know. It is cool.

JUDY: Is it iron?

MIKE: It's iron. You know
what? To be honest with ya.

JUDY: I'd like to keep it.

MIKE: I was gonna say
this totally looks like you.

This, I mean all the stuff you
were showing me in your house.

MIKE: She was just so
sweet, you know, and I

mean usually if we find
something and we can't buy

it we were kinda bummed
but you know what?

FRANK: Not there.

MIKE: That wasn't
the case with this.

JUDY: Ooh I didn't expect
me to have a treasure hunt.

FRANK: Hey Judy, looks
like some fishing line and.

JUDY: Five bucks?

FRANK: I think it's worth
more than that to me.

How's ten dollars?

JUDY: Ten's good.

FRANK: She shot us
some prices and she shot us

some actually some pretty
low prices and we were

like I can't give you that
so we gave her more than

she wanted for quite a
few of the things and I think

she's more than happy with
the experience she had with us.

JUDY: You can have it
for a dollar if you want it.

FRANK: How about five dollars?

Hey Judy, what about
these clocks over here?

JUDY: Five bucks
for both of them?

FRANK: No, no, no. I
mean no I can't do that.

How's twenty-five
bucks for both of them?

JUDY: Good deal.

FRANK: And you throw
in that little sign up there.

JUDY: Oh sure.

FRANK: I try to treat
people with utmost respect

- you catch more flies with
honey than you do vinegar.

JUDY: Um twenty bucks?

MIKE: I'd do fifty
bucks on this.

JUDY: Okay. Sounds good.

MIKE: Okay.

MIKE: I like to buy single
chairs because they can

actually be a focal
point in a room.

You can get a gold gilded chair.

You can get a modern chair.

You can buy an
old Masonic throne.

All of a sudden boom,
your eye's captured there.

MIKE: What are uh,
what are these things?

JUDY: All this stuff
here was from the shrine.

Maury's been a shriner for
many, many years and they

owned a big hotel here
in town called the Faust

hotel and that's where
they had their shrine

ceremonies and they had
a stage and these things

were up on the stage.

MIKE: Can I stand one
of these up to look at it?

JUDY: Sure.

MIKE: These are cool.

[♪]

MIKE: I uh scratched
over into the corner and I

started looking at those,
you know, they're like big

metal boxes and
I separated them.

FRANK: They're unusual.

You don't find that stuff
and that's what we do.

MIKE: Is this
something you'd sell?

JUDY: Uh we can't sell,
shriners are not allowed

to sell shrine stuff.

Um yeah so we couldn't sell it.

MIKE: Let me ask you this.

What about if I actually
uh if I made a donation to

the shriners?

JUDY: That's a wonderful idea.

MIKE: You know what I mean?

I donate two hundred
bucks to the shriners for these

two so a hundred a piece.

JUDY: That's, that's wonderful.

MIKE: We have contacts
with prop rental houses.

They're gonna snap that
stuff up in a heartbeat.

JUDY: This is so much fun.

Why don't you guys
come back sometime?

Let me give you
my business card.

FRANK: That lady was phenomenal.

She showed us around.

She had cookies for us.

She made coffee.

I mean she was, she was
my grandmother, almost.

I mean she was just,
she was amazing.

FRANK: Judy, how
much is that table?

JUDY: Uh ten bucks.

FRANK: I'll take it.

MIKE: Frank, quit buying stuff.

FRANK: All right. All right.

The more stuff we started
buying the more I was thinking

- you know what Danielle
did do good on this one.

[♪]

FRANK: Oh!

MIKE: Whoa! There it goes!

FRANK: Wow.

MIKE: You know
what? Let's roll it up.

FRANK: No, no,
no, let's do it my way.

[♪]

MIKE: What do you
think of this idea?

Taking some of
this small stuff...

FRANK: I'm taking all my
stuff and putting it in there.

MIKE: Ok, good.

[♪]

FRANK: Careful with that.

I think it's a railroad
lamp, wouldn't you say?

MIKE: It is. It's cool.

FRANK: I mean they
were just neat, you know?

[♪]

FRANK: How much
did you pay for this?

MIKE: Fifty bucks.

FRANK: Good. Give me
thirty bucks for my chiropractor.

Get in there and I'll
push it in, weakling.

FRANK: Here, let me do
everything. Okay I got it.

MIKE: Last piece.

[♪]

MIKE: Let's get
the heck out of here.

I'm tired man.

FRANK: All right. Let's hit it.

MIKE: Danielle thought
out of the box on this one.

She did this all on her own.

I mean were a little reluctant
to go there, you know?

It sounded a little bit
goofy when we first.

FRANK: It started, and
it started off slow too.

MIKE: Yeah it
started off real slow.

FRANK: Real slow.

MIKE: But you know what?

I mean we got some
great stuff there and I think

it's a place we can pick two
or three more times, man.

MIKE: It was a huge
success and maybe, maybe

we were a little
hard on Danielle.

I don't know.

We should probably buy
her a present or something.

FRANK: What are you thinking?

MIKE: I'm thinking I don't want
to spend over twenty bucks.

FRANK: That's ten a piece.

I can go that far.

[♪]

MIKE: We uh looking for
something for a girl that

works with us.

FRANK: This could be it
'cause it says fifty percent off.

MIKE: Yeah.

FRANK: That could
be in our range.

MIKE: That looks like the kind
of day she was having Franky.

FRANK: No I'm not, I'm not.

MIKE: So basically it's a
gift for Danielle because

we are feeling guilty.

MIKE: Look at this Franky.

FRANK: I'm back on the,
I'm back over at the fifty

percent off lane here.

WOMAN: Bubble baths.

How about a bubble bath?

MIKE: She does
take a lot of baths.

FRANK: She does?

MIKE: Yeah she told me
she's like always taking a bath.

WOMAN: See the picture in there?

It looks like they're dancing
in the bubble bath bottle.

MIKE: Oh yeah
look at that Franky.

FRANK: Oh that is neat.

All you're doing is paying
for the bottle though.

It's probably four dollars
for the stuff and it's got

a cool bottle with a label.

MIKE: Just remember
Frank, this isn't a pick. Okay?

We're buying
something for Danielle.

FRANK: I'm halfway there.

Lets look around,
I'm halfway there.

MIKE: Ooh here you
go. This could be for her

and her husband.

It's called Lickety Split.
Lemon drop bourbon.

Oh this is lamp oil.

FRANK: Yeah it's lamp oil.

MIKE: You know what?

Let's just get the bubble bath
and get the hell out of here.

We won't have to get
her anything for Christmas,

Valentine's day, her
birthday or anything. This is it.

FRANK: This is a one year deal?

MIKE: This is it.

Yeah she has to use a teaspoon.

FRANK: And she don't
have to take a bath every day.

MIKE: Basically, you
know, I feel really relieved

about the whole thing now
because now we have full

on uh license to bust
her chops all the time.

WOMAN: Okay, there
you go. I hope it works.

MIKE: All right. Thank you
so much. We appreciate it.

WOMAN: Here's your change.

MIKE: Yeah. Thank you.

WOMAN: Thank you.

FRANK: Can we get a receipt?

WOMAN: Oh sure.

MIKE: What's up?

FRANK: Gonna write this
off. An employee purchase.

MIKE: Yeah.

[♪]

DANIELLE: When they're
gone, I'm thinking about

all the irritating
things that they do.

[♪]

MIKE: Hi mom, we're home.

FRANK: Hi mom, we're home.

MIKE: We picked one last thing.

It was really Frank's idea.

DANIELLE: Shut the [bleep] up!

Are you serious?

Why'd you buy me something for?

MIKE: Because we felt bad
that we were talking smack

about you after the whole deal.

Seriously we did. Here
I'll hold it. You open it.

I think you'll really
like it. Oh yeah.

DANIELLE: Oh!

Oh that's so cool!

Look at that.

YYou guys are awesome.

FRANK: We circled after
circle after circle to get that.

MIKE: Cuddle huddle.

DANIELLE: You're so sweet.

MIKE: We appreciate
everything you do.

FRANK: No we really do.

MIKE: We really do.

FRANK: We wanted to
let you to know that we

sometimes come off
but it's tough out there on

the road and the only
person we got to bitch at

besides each other is you.

DANIELLE: Oh I know.

DANIELLE: They're like
my brothers and husbands.

That's really weird.