American Pickers (2010–…): Season 1, Episode 4 - Invisible Pump - full transcript

MIKE: Mega pick!

FRANK: Oh wow.

This is overwhelming.

MIKE: What would you think
about somebody making you

an offer on everything?

There it is Frankie.

This is what they call
a visible gas pump.

ED: It's very rare.

MIKE: I got cash, I'd
do six bills right now.

I'm getting a workout Frankie.

FRANK: Are those
bicycles over there for sale?



ROSIE: If you got the
money, honey, I got the time.

MIKE: Wow.

You're like the third girl that
said that to Frank already.

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

if we think we can
make a buck on it.



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: Slow down
man. You're cooking.

FRANK: Yeah, let me
put it on cruise control.

Fifty-five, stay alive.

FRANK: We're out driving
around Northeast Iowa

freestyling.

MIKE: If we don't find a
big pick, we're not even

gonna have enough
money to put gas in the tank.

MIKE: Burning some diesel,
heading down the road,

kickin' it and trying to
find some back road relics.

Are you ignoring me?

FRANK: No, I'm trying to drive.

Driving is concentration.

MIKE: Oh, all right.

FRANK: Your life is in my hands.

MIKE: I never
thought of it that way.

FRANK: There you go.

MIKE: God bless you.

MIKE: There's a place way
back in those trees over there.

FRANK: Let's just
roll a little bit further.

FRANK: I'm confident
something will happen today

'cause there's a
lot of good area.

MIKE: Oh look at this place.

Oh my god. Whoa!

FRANK: Yeah I'm stopping.

MIKE: Stop! Stop,
stop, stop, stop.

FRANK: We're definitely
stopping at this spot.

MIKE: Mega pick!

From the road it looked smoking.

FRANK: And we
were like oh here it is.

Here it is.

MIKE: My tongue frickin'
dropped out of my mouth

and slapped me in the forehead.

FRANK: I mean here it is.

MIKE: I'm like
this is it, this is it.

The mother load.

MIKE: Do you think
anybody lives here?

MIKE: There's so
much stuff here it's like a

field day just trying
to get to the front door.

We're hoping this guy's here

so we can check this place out.

MIKE: Hey.

Hey, how ya doing?

My name's Mike.

This is Frank.

FRANK: We were just
driving by and we seen

your collection
of stuff out here.

MIKE: Yeah, we
saw all the rusty gold.

LYLE: Is that what you call it?

MIKE: Yeah.

FRANK: Yeah, looks like
you got all kinds of stuff.

LYLE: Most people call it junk.

MIKE: No. God
no. Check that out.

MIKE: When we get to a
pick, the first thing we do

is hand somebody a form

of everything that
we're looking for.

MIKE: We buy that kind of stuff.

Anything with two wheels, motor.

FRANK: We buy a
vast array of everything.

MIKE: Are you like me?

I've got one of those
things what I call

organized mess.

FRANK: Wow Lyle,
this is, it's overwhelming.

FRANK: There's heaps of
stuff everywhere you look.

MIKE: What are these over here?

FRANK: I mean I don't
even know where to start.

MIKE: What do you
got going on over here?

FRANK: What are you seeing Mike?

MIKE: It looks
like an old Elgin.

It's got a tank on
it, it's a boy's bike.

MIKE: Elgin bicycles were sold

by Sears and Roebuck company.

They were art-deco,
streamlined, deluxe bicycles,

but they were sold
during the depression

and they didn't
sell a lot of them.

They were expensive.

MIKE: Is that bicycle
something you'd sell

if we could get it out of there?

LYLE: I don't know.

MIKE: Any time I see one
of those, even a piece of it,

it's like I gotta rescue it.

MIKE: I'd do it justice

more than the
bicycle crypt there.

[LAUGHTER]

LYLE: We might be able
to pick that stuff off there

with a skid loader.

MIKE: Ooh, that'd
be really good.

No yeah, that would give
me some time to stew around

on that a little bit.

I see you got some old
Volkswagens over there.

What's the oldest one you got?

LYLE: A 1962.

A guy I know was in
the army in Germany,

and he bought it in Germany
and shipped it over here.

There's a Honda 90.

MIKE: Oh yeah.

FRANK: '60, '61,
something like that?

Those were popular when
they came across from Japan.

MIKE: I see some
old bicycles over here.

Can we look at
that pile over there?

MIKE: We search roads
all over America to find that

much of an accumulation
and he took his whole life

to buy everything there.

FRANK: Seventy-three
years Mike, he's lived here.

MIKE: I can see that.

This didn't, this all didn't
happen overnight, I bet.

FRANK: You got that.

LYLE: I had four
sons and a daughter.

They think I buy too much stuff.

Which is probably true.

FRANK: Here's
some of his Hondas.

LYLE: Those two belong
to my two oldest sons.

One's a 305, and one's a 350.

FRANK: Yeah.

LYLE: That is a good
motorcycle, but it's sat

here for so many years.

MIKE: Yeah.

So your son still wants
the, he wants this?

LYLE: He still wants it.

MIKE: Lyle had his priorities.

I mean he wasn't gonna
get rid of anything that his

kids still wanted.

LYLE: I enjoy my children
and my grandchildren

and they mean more
to me than all this stuff.

FRANK: Is any of
this stuff for sale?

LYLE: Some of it, yeah.

FRANK: Some of it's for sale.

Okay, we're halfway there Mike.

MIKE: What would you think
about somebody making you

an offer on everything?

LYLE: Oh my.

[LAUGHTER]

MIKE: So I see you
got some water skis.

LYLE: There's a
pile of tires I bought.

MIKE: You got
some old wheelchairs.

LYLE: There's an
antique manure spreader.

FRANK: I don't know if
we could fit that in the van.

MIKE: I don't see anything
in here I can't live without.

I mean is there anything
that you don't buy?

LYLE: Not really.

MIKE: There was no
direction with the way he

was collecting things.

I mean it was so
random, it was so sketch.

Everything was cool to him.

MIKE: You got any old
gas pumps around here?

You know, like the
old visibles, yeah

or the bottom halves, anything?

LYLE: No, no. That I don't have.

MIKE: How about anything
with advertising on it?

Like old signs,
old thermometers?

LYLE: That I haven't got into.

MIKE: In our job,
we have to distinguish

what's good junk and bad junk.

LYLE: I bought it at an
old blacksmith's shop,

when the guy retired.

MIKE: I don't know.

You could use it to blow
out a candle or something.

FRANK: It's hard to crank.

FRANK: Stuff that sits outside

through the winters of Iowa

probably is not going
to be in the best shape.

MIKE (WHISPERING): Listen.

We're gonna need to find
something here pretty soon

or we might as well
get the hell out of here.

FRANK: Yeah that
was neat in there.

MIKE: We're still looking
for some rusty gold.

FRANK: There's
a Phillip's 66 can.

MIKE: Don't do it.

FRANK: Oh that's right.

MIKE: Don't do it.

I like, I'm supposed to
remind him every time

he's looking at an oil can.

Ooh, look at this one.

I like this one.

FRANK: Uh, we
can't buy oil cans.

MIKE: Look at that.

FRANK: I've heard every
day, don't buy an oil can,

don't buy an oil can.

MIKE: Is that
something you'd sell?

FRANK: The guy stepped
over me to get an oil can.

MIKE: I'd pop
twenty bucks on it.

LYLE: Is that all?

MIKE: "Is that all?"

God, I thought I was
getting crazy there.

FRANK: I mean, he
was like, excuse me!

Like that.

MIKE: I was trying
to break the ice!

MIKE: What are
you thinking on it?

LYLE: Oh, I don't know.

MIKE: How about I do thirty?

LYLE: Um no, I don't think so.

MIKE: It had the large,
screen-printed horse

on the front of it.

It was a hundred
pound grease can,

I've never seen one before.

I think I can make
some money on it.

MIKE: I'd do thirty-five.

LYLE: I'll keep it.

MIKE: All right.

FRANK: I think you
still should go forty on it.

It'll clean up the front.

Forty's good.

MIKE: What's it worth though?

FRANK: I have no
idea what it's worth.

I've never seen a
hundred pound one.

MIKE: All right Lyle.

You busted me out.

Would you do the
forty bucks on the can?

LYLE: I suppose.

MIKE: I was doing the walk
hoping you'd go thirty-five.

MIKE: I walked away, you know?

It's kind of a little
trick I do, acting like,

all right, you know
what? I'm over it.

Hoping that he
would say, okay, okay.

MIKE: Hey, let me ask you this.

While we're in the
vicinity of the bicycle

and I know it's buried
in there but if I just go

Tasmanian devil on
that thing and start tearing

that pile up and
pull it out of there,

would you sell
it to me for fifty?

MIKE: I want this bike
because it's airflow design,

it's made before World War Two.

All I can see is the tank
sticking out, but at least

I can see a piece of it.

I gotta have it.

LYLE: If I dig it out, for
sixty I'd let you have it.

MIKE: Okay, if you get the
end loader and bust it out

for sixty, all
right, let's do it.

All right.

[♪]

MIKE: It was a good time
just watching him razing

all the trees up and
ripping everything back

with a chain wrapped around it.

He was having a
good time. I could tell.

I see this bike and I'm
thinking, oh, the mother load.

I love bicycles, this
thing's going to be airflow,

it's gonna be cool, it's
gonna be worth the trip today.

MIKE: Yeah!

FRANK: Unfortunately,
after we got it out,

it wasn't the gold bar
he was looking for.

MIKE: I can't believe I
paid sixty bucks for that.

FRANK: It's a little bit rough.

MIKE: You know what?

I buy a lot of rusty
bicycles, but when

he pulled that out of that
heap of crap and I saw

the condition it was in,

there's no way it
can be restored.

It's basically a parts bike now.

LYLE: That's worse
than I figured it was.

You'll probably need
the chain though.

FRANK: Yeah, that looks
like just a little bit of oil

and that would probably
work, wouldn't it?

MIKE: Thanks Lyle.

Yeah, that would be cool.

FRANK: Thanks Lyle.

LYLE: Well, when
it comes to the bike,

I guess I took him.

[LAUGHS]

But I really didn't know it
was in that bad a shape.

[♪]

FRANK: Don't know if that was
your best buy you ever made.

MIKE: The only reason
I bought that oil can

is because you told me to.

FRANK: If you don't
want it later on, I'll take it.

MIKE: Give me a hundred.

FRANK: Hey Lyle, appreciate it.

Next time maybe I can
get something from ya.

MIKE: That place
looked cool, but it's kind of

like eating a candy
bar with a wrapper on it.

I mean it was like...

FRANK: No, it was like
kind of getting a candy bar,

and then open it and
find out it was stale.

[♪]

MIKE: Remember that one
time we were on that farm

and the sheep goes, don't
let them on, they're pickers.

Remember that?

FRANK: No.

MIKE: You know what?

Let's call Danielle and
see if she's got any good

leads for us.

Danny D.

DANIELLE: Hey. What's up boo?

MIKE: Nothing, just
calling to check in and

see what's going on.

DANIELLE: I got a
cool lead for you guys.

I think you'll like this.

This guy has a huge glass pump.

FRANK: He's got a big pump?

DANIELLE: An old glass gas pump.

You need a Miracle Ear?

MIKE: Oh a visible pump?

DANIELLE: I guess
it's an invisible pump.

FRANK: Hey, just
real quick for you,

on future reference,
it's not an invisible pump,

it's called a visible pump.

DANIELLE: I did
not just say invis...

did I just say invisible?

FRANK: You said invisible
and those are really,

those are really hard to find.

FRANK: We got a lead here.

We're going to this guy.

His name's Shawn.

We're kind of excited.

If he's got a gas pump,
he might have other gas

and oil related things.

People that have
collections like to

collect other
things around them.

SHAWN: Howdy.

MIKE: Hey, you Shawn?

SHAWN: I'm him.

MIKE: What's your name?

ED: Ed.

MIKE: Ed, hi, nice to meet you.

You guys are off the
beaten track a little bit, man.

ED: Best place
to be around here.

FRANK: We're here to
look at anything you can,

anything you can show us.

SHAWN: Where
would you like to start?

MIKE: You got stuff in here too?

ED: I've got stuff
where stuff won't go.

MIKE: It's wild how we can
meet someone and within

fifteen minutes we're
in their home or we're in

their barn or we're
in the basement.

MIKE: There's some
old radios over here.

ED: Same people that
made the Crosley car.

MIKE: Yeah, that
one's kind of cute.

I like that one.
It's got cracks in it.

You see, the thing is the
tubes always heated these up,

you know, and then they
cracked the hell out of them there.

ED: Yeah and the plastic
at the time was no good.

Here's fishing stuff.

FRANK: Wow.

ED: A lot of people don't even
know they made steel rods.

FRANK: Oh yeah.

FRANK: Fishing equipment,
stuff like your creels,

your old rods, stuff
like that, people use that

for decorative items in
restaurants, in their dens.

FRANK: 1960 centurion.

FRANK: It's just
highly collectible.

FRANK: Little bit
of tackle in here.

ED: A little bit of junk.

MIKE: When I pull something
out of somebody's place...

ED: There's got to
be something here.

All this junk.

MIKE: And I go, what is this?

And they say, junk.

ED: Miscellaneous junk.

MIKE: I'm like, okay.

This is good.

MIKE: Reo amp temp fuel gauge.

What would you
have to have for those?

ED: Oh, ten bucks a piece.

FRANK: Pontiac.

Looks like 1950s hubcaps.

ED: Ten bucks for the set.

ED: Uh, Mike and Frank
seem like a couple of

pretty good scroungers.

MIKE: Purolator filters.

What would you
want for that thing?

ED: Five bucks.

MIKE: Five bucks.

All right. I'm there.

MIKE: Every time I pick
up a flashlight, I'm always

looking at the brand of it
hoping it would be some

oddball brand.

MIKE: How about
this old flashlight?

MIKE: It says Winchester.

Winchester had stores
back in the day where you not

just bought their
firearms, you actually

bought all their
different things.

It was almost like
a hardware store

with Winchester products.

MIKE: How much?

ED: Uh I'd have to
have a dollar out of that.

MIKE: All right, I'll
give you a dollar for this.

It's cool.

Frank, what's up?

MIKE: I'm like, okay, this
is fifty dollars worth of fun

for a dollar right here, man.

FRANK: You've got to be
fast to get in front of Mike.

I know enough to be dangerous...

MIKE: Ten bucks?

ED: Nah I'd go a
little more on that.

MIKE: Eleven?

ED: A little.

FRANK: It's hard for me
sometimes to be dangerous

'cause he's already bought it.

MIKE: How about twenty bucks?

ED: All right.

MIKE: What's behind
that door there?

ED: That's a fruit cellar.

MIKE: Is that like
Al Capone's vault.

Is there anything in there?

ED: No, no.

That's Purina's scale.

FRANK: What would
you want for this?

ED: I suppose ten bucks?

FRANK: I'll take that for ten.

MIKE: There it is Frankie.

MIKE: We've bought a
lot of pumps together on

properties all across
the United States

and I've never seen
a fifteen gallon pump,

so that was very intriguing.

ED: A fella down in
Oklahoma said the fifteen

gallon ones like
this is is very rare.

MIKE: This is what they
call a visible gas pump

and it's actually really
tall and the gas, once you

cranked it when you
were using it back then,

the gas would fill up in the
cylinder and then once you

put it in your car, you
could actually physically

see the gas leaving the
pump going into the car.

So it was just kind
of a neat, iconic thing.

You know, it was one of
the first early gas pumps.

MIKE: When you guys
had this down, I mean, I can't

see all around the top or
anything, was there any cracks

or hairlines in it anywhere
in the glass itself?

ED: In the glass? No.

In fact, I was, I was amazed
that it survived my BB gun.

I figured I would find
a couple pings in it.

MIKE: You had to be
jonesing to just shoot that thing.

We used to go down to
junkyards and break glass.

Remember that Frankie?

You just, when
you're a little kid,

you just want to break glass.

MIKE: Well let me ask you this.

What uh what kind of
numbers have people tossed

around at you?

ED: The glass alone
is worth six hundred.

MIKE: I actually think
that pump is probably

worth maybe a grand
to sixteen hundred.

To a car guy that's
doing like an old service

station theme in his
garage, that's gold to him.

MIKE: Well Ed, you look
like the kind of guy that

doesn't BS around,
and I'm the same way.

I'm here, I got cash,
I'd do six bills right now.

ED: We'll tally up
at the end of the day.

MIKE: I mean is that
something you'd do?

ED: Yeah.

MIKE: All right,
well then let's do it.

I'll do that and we'll
look around some more.

ED: I don't have time
to do my hot-rodding,

my restoring of things.

Might as well get rid of it
and let someone who does

have the finances and
the time to do it and get

the enjoyment out of it.

ED: This 'course,
this isn't much.

It's too modern.

That one right there is
a very expensive unit.

Bolex.

The chassis alone without
lenses or anything else

was, you know, four
to five hundred dollars.

MIKE: Oh really?

MIKE: When I see a camera,
I'm always like antenna up.

I love old cameras.

They're a great decorator piece.

There's a lot of people
that are photographers.

Or even if you're not a
photographer and you want

a nice piece to put on a shelf.

A camera is cool.

MIKE: So who was
the photographer?

ED: My dad.

He was a projectionist.

MIKE: One of the things I
liked best about Shawn's

was I liked his dad Ed.

He was really cool.

He had some really
awesome stories to tell.

MIKE: So did you used
to get in the picture show

for free?

ED: Yeah.

MIKE: Did you?

ED: Yeah.

And we always
sat in the balcony.

When Alfred Hitchcock
came out with The Birds,

we was in the balcony and
we was, had our squirt guns.

And when the birds would
fly over, we'd shoot the

squirt guns out
over the audience.

And all the audience...

[LAUGHTER]

MIKE: That must have scared
the hell out of everybody.

ED: Dad didn't see that.

FRANK: Oh, that's funny!

MIKE: Hey, thank you.

I think.

FRANK: Yeah, thanks guys.

ED: You guys aint
married, are you?

MIKE: We're married to the junk.

We got rust running
through our veins.

MIKE: Gauges.

ED: Those are a test
meter of some sort.

My dad put in that cigar box.

MIKE: All right so I'm
gonna - what am I at now?

FRANK: If you needed
these, you'd probably

never be able to find
them and here's a whole set

of four just laying in the dirt.

MIKE: Come to papa.

A little over nine.

Bingo.

No problem.

Frankie, it's gonna fit.

FRANK: All right,
we're loaded up here.

That Winchester
light was a good find.

MIKE: The picking gods are
shining down upon us, man.

DANIELLE: What the hell is this?

MIKE: What do you
mean what is this?

This is that gas pump.

I paid six hundred
bucks for this.

DANIELLE: Ooh did ya?

Did you pay extra
for the crap inside?

You guys have gone
way further for way less

so this is pretty good.

MIKE: It was a
humbling experience,

I mean it really was.

His dad, he was one of
those guys that didn't say

a lot but when he spoke,
I mean it was deep, man.

He was like right on the
money with when he spoke.

It was very few words.

It was like still
waters run deep.

That's exactly like his dad.

DANIELLE: So did
you French kiss?

'Cause it sounds like
you're kinda keen on him.

MIKE: No, we didn't French
kiss but um, you know, he did,

I think we held hands once.

DANIELLE: I think I might
have a cool place for you to go.

There's this guy in
Illinois, his name's William

and he has an opera house.

It's from the '30s.

Everything in there is
from the original owners.

Gonna be dusty
and dirty, I'm sure.

But you're used to that.

MIKE: No, we put mustard
on that stuff and eat it.

We love that stuff.

FRANK: That's nothing for us.

MIKE: It's cool that
Danielle is kind of

getting some of her
like little feline, female

influences all up
on us, you know.

She's like, hey, you know
- I wouldn't have gone

to an opera house.

FRANK: Probably not.

DANIELLE: The thing I
thought was cool was that

there's so many posters
from back then and I don't

know what they're worth.

MIKE: Yeah, movie
posters can be good.

DANIELLE: I think that
would be pretty cool.

FRANK: I'm ready to do
some awesome picking.

We're going to an
opera house that's a little

out of my category.

MIKE: You don't listen
to Andrea Bocelli?

FRANK: Uh-uh.

MIKE: Oh man,
you gotta put that on.

FRANK: I listen to Milli
Vanilli but I don't know

about Andrea Bocelli.

FRANK: One good thing
that was really big for me

I guess there's a bunch
of original movie posters,

which could be very good.

FRANK: They're
lightweight, you could

even handle them
with your back Mike.

For one time, you might be
able to carry something on a pick.

MIKE: We're pickers.

We know enough to be
dangerous sometimes,

we know enough to
buy movie posters,

but they're so random.

I'm fortunate.

I got a friend out in LA,
I'm going to give him a buzz.

BILL: Yeah.

MIKE: Hey dude,
this is Mister Wolf.

MIKE: I don't need to
pay for that education.

He already has it and
he'll help me out with that.

MIKE: One of the things
that he mentioned he had

was some old movie posters.

MIKE: Where you at?

I can barely hear you.

You at like the drive-up
window at the In-n-Out

burger or something?

BILL: I'm out in the middle
of cornfields in Iowa here.

MIKE: Oh, you're in Iowa?

BILL: Yeah, I'm in Iowa.

MIKE: You better not be
picking my territory, bro.

You hear that?

He's picking us.

FRANK: Let's see.

I don't see any
opera house things.

This place should-

MIKE: I think it's over there.

FRANK: This place
should stand out.

MIKE: Do you see it anywhere?

MIKE: There's a, that's a
funeral home over there.

Same thing, opera
house, funeral home.

FRANK: Maybe it's
this red building up here

with the blue front.

MIKE: Does it say opera house?

FRANK: Yeah, it says
opera house right there.

MIKE: Okay,
there it is. This is it.

FRANK: Oh, the
upstairs looks untouched.

MIKE: I think it's kind of
like you on a Saturday night.

Untouched.

FRANK: Untouched?

FRANK: We drove
through the town three times

around going, where's it at?

And then we seen
a little - and we went,

I guess that's it.

MIKE: Bill!

BILL: Come on up.

MIKE: I'm Mike.

FRANK: I'm Frank.

BILL: Glad to meet you.

MIKE: Oh wow.

[♪]

MIKE: When we first
walked up the stairs and he

opened up that room,
it was, it was really cool.

FRANK: You could tell you
were stepping back in time,

you know?

There was about fifteen
hundred people in the town

when the opera house was built

in eighteen seventy-nine.

MIKE: Danielle mentioned that
you had a few movie posters.

She was right.

BILL: They were all
left underneath the stage

when I bought the
building, so I dug them out,

framed them, and
put them on the walls.

MIKE: Every one
of these was here?

BILL: Yeah.

MIKE: Oh my god, that's awesome.

FRANK: They never had any
dances up here or anything?

BILL: Oh yeah.

FRANK: Okay, I was going
to say, they got a big floor for...

BILL: That's what closed
the place up in 1938.

They had so many
people upstairs that

the fire marshal
came and said, that's it.

And that's why everything
got left just as it is.

MIKE: This place was just
locked up and abandoned.

When somebody says,
you know, hey, it hasn't been

touched since the 1930s,
that gets my juices flowing.

That gets me really excited.

MIKE: Frank, you
should get up there man.

You can be like the
star for a few minutes.

Go on, get with it.

MIKE: I was a hambone
when I was a little kid.

Fourth grade, I was in the
school play and all that stuff,

and we were up on the
stage and we were looking out.

I was reminiscing a little bit.

I was in Pippy Longstockings,

I was in Tom Sawyer, I was
the Tinman in the Wizard of Oz.

Did you know that?

FRANK: Obviously things
haven't changed though.

You're still a hambone.

BILL: That was an old
Uncle Sam outfit that I found.

FRANK: I don't think it
does anything for you,

but that's my opinion.

MIKE: Frank, am I
Yankie Doodle Dandie?

FRANK: Not in
my book you're not.

MIKE: Wanted - a woman
with one tooth to bite holes...

FRANK: In donuts.

MIKE: In donuts.

FRANK: That's different.

MIKE: That's awesome.

BILL: I dug that out, I dug
that out of the wood box.

FRANK: A lot of times, we
have to let people show us

their collections before we
can get down to buying things.

BILL: The republican
ticket there,

for the republican government.

MIKE: Oh look at that.

Abraham Lincoln,
Fredrick Picker, wow.

BILL: This is the ticket
booth right over here.

FRANK: Fifteen cents.

BILL: This is where he
signaled the guy to run

the camera upstairs.

The camera's upstairs.

MIKE: Obviously, we're
going to have to do the dance

and see what's going on
before we even lay down

the laws, like, hey,
you know what?

This is what we do.

We're here to buy stuff.

MIKE: What if you had a
poster underneath the stage.

Would that be
something you'd turn lose?

BILL: Probably.

MIKE: Right then I
knew it was game on.

If he was gonna allow us
access underneath the stage

and he said, hey, if I
find one, then he was

going to sell it to me.

FRANK: Here we are Mike.

Stepping back in time.

MIKE: Then I was real
interested in digging.

MIKE: All right, I'm going in.

Frankie.

FRANK: Clear me out a spot
but make it wider than you are.

MIKE: Oh my gosh.

There's so much stuff in here.

I can't believe how many
posters are under here.

The Girl and The
Outlaw, opera house.

MIKE: When we
climbed under the stage,

it was kind of eerie.

This one says The Devil.

It was almost like the
Da Vinci Code of picking.

We're digging through stuff.

There's dirt everywhere.

MIKE: This is like the
movie poster tomb, dude.

MIKE: You can tell no one's
been under there but him.

MIKE: Look at this.

FRANK: What is it?

MIKE: King of Tramps.

Yeah, I can see a lot
of these are just getting

eaten up by the mice.

FRANK: Oh yeah.

MIKE: It's a little
mouse condo over there.

MIKE: This guy's got some
really rad movie posters

which I don't know a lot about.

I mean, I know enough to
buy them, I know they're hot.

MIKE: It's so fragile.

So fragile.

FRANK: When you're looking
at posters, the main thing

you want to look at is
the quality of the paper.

They were made
thinner back then.

Today, they make them
on cardstock which is thicker

because people frame them.

MIKE: It's kind of roached
out but it would still be neat.

FRANK: And by the colour.

They didn't have the
same vibrant colours

back in the earlier days.

MIKE: I think
this place is neat.

I think it would be just
cool to have a piece

of history from it.

MIKE: It was cool digging
in something like that.

MIKE: Oh look
at this, look at this!

MIKE: I mean, we're
used to digging in barns,

old buildings, you know,
people's basements,

cellars and stuff.

FRANK: But you know what?

MIKE: When's the last time
you were digging under an

1879 opera house stage?

MIKE: I mean, when you're
digging through history

like that, that's the kind
of stuff that keeps us

on the road.

MIKE: All right, I'm
going behind you.

Don't fart.

FRANK: All right, hold up.

MIKE: All right, I'm
coming out Frankie.

Bill, it's crazy under there.

FRANK: Now singing,
Gentleman Geoff.

Papa Boy.

Under the Harvest Moon.

The Most Weird, Wonderful
and Humorous Play Ever Written.

Here's another bunch
of the double ones.

FRANK: Anything that's
colourful, anything that

people can frame.

There's so much
reproduction stuff people

buy in big box stores
now, these are real posters.

People like real stuff.

MIKE: What would you feel
comfortable selling one of

those that was decent at?

BILL: If I had to say,
I'd say forty, fifty dollars.

MIKE: They're so random.

I mean, you could have
one with killer graphics

and looks cool, and
it's not worth anything.

MIKE: It's rough,
but it's still...

BILL: So neat.

MIKE: Yeah, it's still so neat.

You know, would you do
twenty-five on one of these?

BILL: Sure.

MIKE: Okay.

So I'd be interested
in one of those.

MIKE: All right, so
we got one bought.

A True Kentuckian.

How about something
like this one here then?

BILL: I'd go for
the twenty-five.

MIKE: Yeah, I'd
do the twenty-five.

Are you popping on one Frankie?

FRANK: I'll do one of
these doubles for twenty-five.

FRANK: Before we
leave Bill, thanks a lot for

looking for us.

We'll help you kinda
push these all together.

Could we take one look
up at the balcony up there?

MIKE: Oh yeah,
I'd love to see that.

FRANK: For sure.

MIKE: It kind of gives
you chills a little bit.

It does me, anyway.

I mean, seriously.

Looking out over this, the
way it is and the way it's

been kept, it's like...

FRANK: I mean it's
like a time capsule.

MIKE: It really is.

You're lucky,
you're very fortunate.

BILL: Yeah. I enjoy it.

MIKE: It's incredible.

MIKE: It was a really
unique experience just

because of the place that
we found them, and it had

been untouched and everything.

I felt honored to be there.

MIKE: I can't believe he
let us look under the stage.

FRANK: Oh I know.

DANIELLE: Hello?
Hey, what's happening?

MIKE: It's important
for us to check in with

Danielle constantly on the
road because you know what?

She is the one
who's finding us leads

when we're away from home.

She's running ads.

She's getting on the internet.

She's searching blogs.

She's our right hand
when we're gone.

DANIELLE: Good
morning gentlemen.

FRANK: Hi Danielle.

DANIELLE: What's happening?

FRANK: Checking
in on those auctions.

DANIELLE: First,
we sold the robot.

You purchased
that for two hundred,

it sold for two fifty six.

Second is the oil can
you purchased for twenty.

It sold for a hundred and
six so that's pretty nice.

MIKE: That's better
than I thought it'd do.

DANIELLE: Next we
have the trucking sign

you purchased for
seventy-five, right

and that sold for just
over twelve hundred.

MIKE: Woo!

DANIELLE: I know.

MIKE: We're kind
glad we called you.

DANIELLE: I'm excited.

This has been a
great day for us.

MIKE: That's exactly what
we wanted to hear because

we don't know we're
doing a good job sometimes

unless she tells us and
that reflection is in the

money that we make.

FRANK: We made money
on everything we did.

That's the name of the game.

MIKE: It's kind of like a
little pat on the back for us.

We're like hey, awesome.

MIKE: We're out driving
around, freestyling.

Hey, do you know who
owns that building over there?

MIKE: Your son does?

You know, we stopped
because it just looked

like it was old and
we buy old stuff.

FRANK: Anything we
can look at over there?

JUDY: I'm old, I'm for sale.

[laughter]

MIKE: It's all beveled.

FRANK: That's what
I need, right there.

You see anything Mike?

MIKE: Some of these
old calendars are neat, but

they're just in rough condition.

Oh yeah, it's an old girly one.

FRANK: Girly?

1952, that's going to crumble.

MIKE: The Naked
Truth And The Body.

FRANK: That probably would
have gotten our attention,

wouldn't it?

MIKE: Yeah, it just got mine.

How about like any toys

you had when you were a kid.

Come on over
here, I won't bite you.

JUDY: Oh, I didn't have toys.

MIKE: You didn't have toys?

JUDY: No, we played with rocks.

MIKE: Oh, really?

Like a stick and rock?

JUDY: Stick and rock.

We had cars that was rocks
and we had aluminum foil

to make our toy people
and, you know, that's what

we played with.

MIKE: So did your
husband used to collect like

railroad lanterns or something?

JUDY: No, actually they
come from my dad probably

most of them.

MIKE: When I looked at
the lanterns, what I'm looking

for is like railroad
names, things like that.

When I see the red
lens, that's automatically

what I think.

Railroad lanterns are good.

Some are thousands
of dollars and if I find one

and it's got any kind of
railroad markings on it at all,

then I'm going to buy it.

And those didn't
have any of that, so...

MIKE: This is weird.

Did your husband serve overseas?

This is a license plate
from, it looks like Japan.

Look at that Franky.

It's like in Japanese
or something.

FRANK: Aluminum?

MIKE: Yeah.

FRANK: This?

MIKE: I'm just interested
in it because it's Asian.

I've never seen one.

I'd do five bucks on
that just to hang it on the

wall in my shop.

If he's up for that, I'd buy it.

[♪]

FRANK: I can hand
one more down to you.

WOMAN: That's my dad's
back from World War Two.

FRANK: That's kind of neat.

There you go.

MIKE: Whoa.

The box is cool.

This is what
we're talking about.

FRANK: That's got some
Japanese writing on it there.

So that's got to be
at least 60 years old.

MIKE: I'm digging this box.

It's cool. Would you sell it?

WOMAN: What would
you give me for it?

MIKE: I don't
know. Thirty bucks?

WOMAN: Yeah, I'll sell it.

MIKE: Something like
this I'd do twenty five on.

FRANK: I don't know
too much about this.

Twenty five, same thing.

WOMAN: That belonged
to my husband's aunt.

That was their bed pan.

Or their pot.

Chamber pot I guess.

MIKE: That's an
early chamber pot.

Just think about it.

He'd be at home going,
hey, Judy's husband's

great aunt went to the
bathroom in this at one time.

FRANK: Well I don't know if
we want to think that thought.

MIKE: To me, it's priceless.

FRANK: Are you
sure that's what it is?

'Cause that's
how I'm going to...

JUDY: That's what
they used it for.

MIKE: We'll call
it a chamber pot.

I don't know if
it's a chamber pot.

I mean it's pretty
small in diameter.

You got to have pretty good
aim as far as I'm concerned.

The clay and the texture
of the piece and the

colors itself and the way
this handle was made with

the imprinting, and you
can see the way it was

thrown and how
it's kind of oblong.

It looks like it's 1880s.

I think it's a cool piece.

It's early.

This helmet's kind of
weird that you found

because it's got a star on it.

FRANK: She says it was...

MIKE: What's unusual about
it is, do you think it's U.S.?

Look at the inside
of it, the way it is.

JUDY: That's something
my dad sent, I think he sent

it home when he
was in World War Two.

I know he was in Iwo Jima.

MIKE: So that was
like a souvenir he sent

back from the war.

MIKE: I think it's a good find.

It's cool. I mean it's unusual.

We bought a lot of flea
market stuff and that's

always good because I
love doing flea markets,

I love the interaction
with people.

Bam. Fifty. Boom. Seventy.

JUDY: The casinos will love you.

MIKE: She's already got
her mind on the nickel slot.

FRANK: I know, she's already...

MIKE: She's already
going like this.

JUDY: Yeah, I got my money.

MIKE: Yeah, she isn't
even listening to us anymore.

You're like, Mike and Frank who?

MIKE: I'll trade you.

FRANK: No.

[honks horn]

[♪]

MIKE: Hello?

BILL: Mike, it's Bill, man.

What's going on over there?

MIKE: We had Danielle
email some pictures of the

posters from the opera
house to our poster expert,

Bill, to see what
these things are worth.

MIKE: What'd you
think of those things?

BILL: Oh, they're great man.

The most expensive one, the
best one is that Devil poster,

but the other ones are
like 50 to 75 bucks a piece

but that Devil
poster - that's worth

a lot, you know?

Upwards of like over
a hundred dollars

so keep it up man.

MIKE: All right buddy. Thanks.

We made money.

FRANK: Hey.

MIKE: All right, today
Frankie, basically this is

going to be your lucky day
because I'm gonna take you

to this old dude's place that
I've been picking for a while.

MIKE: This guy's got a
conglomeration of everything.

He's got old watches,
he's got old advertising,

he's got old machinery,
he's got really cool stuff.

MIKE: We're fortunate
that we're able to get in here

because I tell you what,
a lot of people know

this guy has this stuff.

FRANK: I'm happy. I'm excited.

MIKE: I'm not kidding you.

You're going to - believe
me, you're gonna be happy

when we walk in.

MIKE: Imagine every pick
that you've ever been on

that's like really good for you.

And then magnetize that
by like a thousand times.

FRANK: Magnetize or magnifly?

MIKE: Magnifly?

FRANK: Magnify or...?

MIKE: Magnify!

Magnify it by a thousand times.

FRANK: All right.

Mike's obviously been
there a few other times

and it takes a while to
build a rapport up so it

will be easy to get in,
it'll be, you know, a lot

smoother to get in but
it's going to be more

exciting for me
'cause it's my first time.

MIKE: I just love
watching these dollars fly

into my gas tank.

All right. There it is.

Whoomp, there it is!

MIKE: So anyway, I'm
watching The Hills last night,

Loren's not even
on there anymore!

FRANK: Who's Loren?

MIKE: You don't
know who Loren is?

FRANK: I've never
even heard of The Hills.

MIKE: Loren, from The Hills.

She stole the hearts of America.

FRANK: Hey, look
at this guy's collection.

MIKE: But anyway it's
uh, you got to check it out.

Next time it's on,
I'll invite you over.

FRANK: What's this guy's name?

FRANK: What's this guy's name?

MIKE: His name's Paul.

Let me get the door
for you, Frankie.

Hey! Paul!

PAUL: Who's there?

MIKE: Mike. You remember me?

I bought that old
BB gun off you.

PAUL: Oh yeah.

MIKE: Yeah, do you remember me?

How you doing? Good to see you.

PAUL: I thought you
was gonna come back.

MIKE: Well here I am.

Can we look around a little bit?

PAUL: Well, if you
don't bother them.

They're the boss now.

ROSIE: Good morning Mike,
I'm Rosie, the middle daughter.

MIKE: I've never been
there when his daughters

were there and that
was a different scene.

ROSIE: You guys gonna
have coffee with us?

MIKE: Sounds like
we got here just in time.

MIKE: All of a sudden. Bam!

We're thrown in the
middle of a tea party.

MIKE: Thank you.

Thank you very much.

FRANK: I'm sitting
down getting fatter now.

FRANK: Well we came
just, we came just at the right

time didn't we, Mike?

MIKE: Yeah, no kidding.

MIKE: The whole time
I'm thinking to myself, okay,

Frank's gonna kill me.

He's giving me
the hairy eyeball.

He doesn't like tea.

Frank hates cinnamon rolls.

MIKE: So do you guys
meet like this and do this

all the time?

ROSIE: Every Wednesday.

PAUL: Every Wednesday
we have a party here.

FRANK: I kind of just
pretty much went with the

program there so
eventually I could get in

to see the stuff to buy.

MIKE All right, can
we check it out?

PAUL: I'm ready.

MIKE: All right, let's go.

MIKE: This is cool, what's that?

PAUL: That's a
foot powered lathe.

MIKE: Get it going here.

Have you used this before?

PAUL: Well yes.

I'm using it now.

MIKE: I think this guy,
at some point in his life

used to have a lot of
money because the stuff

that he's collected, the
caliber of the things that

he has are amazing.

MIKE: I'm getting
a workout Frankie.

FRANK: That's all right.

Work off some of
those nine rolls you ate.

MIKE: This was an early piece.

Very primitive.

It was a, like a conveyor
belt that an animal would

have got on, either a goat
or a little pony and when

the animal walked, then a
pulley system would move

machinery, like either
a drill bit or a lathe.

Anything that they would
have hooked up to it.

MIKE: I think it made
my back feel better.

FRANK: Are those
bicycles over there for sale?

PAUL: No.

FRANK: Okay.

That's good.

PAUL: They belong
to Rosie anyway.

FRANK: Oh, they belong to Rosie?

If Rosie wanted to
sell some of the ones in

progress she might?

PAUL: Yeah, ask her, she might.

FRANK: All right, we'll ask her.

MIKE: You've got a
number of those lockers

downstairs and upstairs
here, would you sell me

one of those lockers?

PAUL: I don't own them,
they're - my girls own them.

MIKE: Oh, okay, okay.

FRANK: Talking to
the wrong person, Mike.

MIKE: All right.
Talk to the boss.

FRANK: All right,
let's head on up.

PAUL: Get out of
the way, I'm coming.

FRANK: Okay.

FRANK: Usually if
a relative is the one

that owns something,
and they're not there,

usually it's not for
sale and we don't try.

But in this case, Paul's
daughters are upstairs

so there's hope.

ROSIE: Did you find
anything in the basement

that you're interested in?

FRANK: Oh we just seen
some real common bicycles

down there, you know.

ROSIE: Nothing
you wanted to buy?

MIKE: He kind of liked the
one with the exhaust pipes.

FRANK: And the only reason
was that's a twenty-four inch.

I just bought a twenty-six inch.

MIKE: We needed to kick
in the bearded charmer.

AKA Frankie.

ROSIE: Oh, that
little Junior Higgins?

FRANK: There you go.

ROSIE: Yes. Sure.

MIKE: See? She
knows the lingo Frank.

FRANK: Yeah. I didn't pay
a lot for the other one, so...

[LAUGHTER]

ROSIE: Ah, so you're
not wanting to pay a lot for

this one either?

FRANK: I didn't say that.

FRANK: I think I did
a little flirting with the

daughters and that
was my strategy.

MIKE: Over here you got
a couple brass blade fans.

I'd do fifty bucks a
piece on the fans.

MIKE: I think they're cool

and there's a good
market for them.

They're still hot.

ROSIE: The fans could go.

MIKE: Then it was
game on, you know?

They were like,
yeah, we'll sell it.

ROSIE: If you got the
money, honey, I got the time.

MIKE: Wow, you're like
the third girl that said that

to Frank already.

FRANK: Yeah.

That seems to be a
real common phrase.

I wish I just had more money.

FRANK: He said they're
the bosses but in actuality,

the guy having the main
command decision was still Paul.

ROSIE: Fifty dollars a piece.

PAUL: I don't know,
that's kind of cheap.

MIKE: That's cheap?

MIKE: Brass blade fans
are hard to find, especially

in original paint and
that kind of condition.

I had to have it.

MIKE: If fifty
dollars is too cheap,

what were you thinking?

PAUL: More money.

MIKE: How about seventy
dollars on this one fan.

I'd do that.

PAUL: You're cheap.

MIKE: I'm at seventy
on the fan and we'll just

leave it for that.

PAUL: Seventy-five and let's go.

That's cheap.

MIKE: All right, seventy-five.

PAUL: All right.

MIKE: All right, thanks.

FRANK: He gives new
meaning to the word

hard bargain.

DAUGHTER: When they're
empty, they're very heavy.

MIKE: Oh lord.

If you'll do 200 and
the bosses say yes,

I'd like to have one.

PAUL: Okay.

MIKE: All right, thank you.

All right, thank you.

MIKE: We don't buy a
lot of furniture but it was

an early piece, it
was original paint,

and what was cool
about it, it was still useful.

I think it's gonna be
something we can flip real easy.

MIKE: They're saying
that this is real heavy when

they're empty, Frank.

And you know how
my back feels right now.

FRANK: Well then you might
have to go up to the diner

here somewhere and
recruit some people 'cause it

looks like I'm not buying
anything and when I,

when I don't buy anything
and I have to lift something

like that, it don't compute.

MIKE: I'll buy,
I'll buy you lunch.

FRANK: Keep going.

DAUGHTER: Couple of dinners.

MIKE: I'll have, I'll have
Danielle rub your shoulders.

MIKE: Overall I think
it was a good day.

I definitely owe Frank
a better pick than this,

and I owe him three dinners now.

FRANK: If nothing else,
that's what I scored today.

Three free dinners from him.

MIKE: Yeah.

FRANK: Oh I got all the
weight on my back now, thanks.

MIKE: Now that I got this
outside, you know what?

I don't even
know if I want this.

FRANK: Ha ha ha!

Here, let me get the heavy end.

I'm done.

MIKE: Wait! Wait!

FRANK: I'm done.

MIKE: This place
doesn't look too bad, huh?

FRANK: Yeah, it looks good.

FRANK: Mike didn't think
I would but I'm gonna take

him up on those
three free dinners.

MIKE: Oh my god,
look at these prices.

FRANK: Yummy, I'm hungry too.

MIKE: I think this meal's
going to cost me more

than I made on that cabinet.

Do I need my glasses
or does that really say...

FRANK: It really
says fifty-nine dollars.

First I want an
order of crab legs...

WAITRESS: Sure.

MIKE: Dude.

FRANK: Then I'm gonna
have the New York strip.

MIKE: Are you serious?

FRANK: And then I'd like
the cedar plank redfish.

WAITRESS: Okay.

And for you sir?

MIKE: I guess I'll just
have a glass of wine.

MIKE: When I said
three meals, I thought like,

you know, maybe a couple
double chocolate glazed

at Dunkin Donuts.

FRANK: That's not a meal.

That's an appetizer.

WAITRESS: Marinated crab claws.

FRANK: Oh yeah,
that'll get me started.

WAITRESS: This is
our cedar plank redfish.

FRANK: Looks good.

WAITRESS: And that's
going to come with our garlic

roasted potatoes.

FRANK: Oh, I needed
those too, thank you.

WAITRESS: And this
is our New York strip.

FRANK: Mmm.

You want a?

MIKE: Oh, thanks.

I'll make this last here.

FRANK: It's melting in my mouth.

MIKE: Okay.

FRANK: You okay over there?

MIKE: I'm as good
as I'm gonna get.

FRANK: All right.

FRANK: Nice doing
business with you.

So good.