American Pickers (2010–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - Back Breaker - full transcript
This time on American Pickers... Mike's hurt his back but can't afford time off to recuperate. The guys dive into a 92-year-old Iowa farmer's unbelievable collection but make a huge mistake in the process. Mike and Frank counsel a prolific Ohio collector reluctant to part with his magnificent jukebox. And, after kicking it into high gear in Charlie's motorcycle-packed outbuilding, Mike's back takes a turn for the worse.
MIKE: I'm gonna
see what's up here.
This place is like a total
picker's house of horrors, man.
FRANK: How much
is somethin' like this?
FRED: About $4000.
FRANK: 4000? Whoa,
hang on! Catch me!
JAY: One of the joints
in your back is super hot,
and it's basically
pushing you over.
MIKE: Yeah, it's great how
the guy with the bad back
ends up haulin' a jukebox.
I think Frank should
end up paying for me
chiropractic adjustment.
MIKE: I'm Mike Wolfe.
FRANK: I'm Frank Fritz.
MIKE: And we're pickers.
[♪]
FRANK: We travel the
backroads of America
lookin' for rusty gold.
We're lookin' 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.
FRANK: And the people
we met, well, they're a breed
all their own.
[♪]
MIKE: We make a
living telling the history of
America-one piece at a time.
[♪]
DANIELLE: It turns
out Mike's not the million
dollar man we all
thought he was.
He's hurt himself, his
back is out, he can't lift
anything.
MIKE: Sorry man, my back hurts.
DANIELLE: He's pissing
and moaning around the office.
MIKE: We're workin'
together here, it's not
just me, you can't just
say, oh, do your stuff and
I'll do my stuff.
Danielle, do we have
notes on this guy right here?
DANIELLE: I love the
guy like a fat kid loves cake,
but he's drivin'
me freakin' crazy.
MIKE: Can you sound
this out for me, go.
DANIELLE: Alright, see ya later.
MIKE: Sell, and that's
an exclamation point.
DANIELLE: He needs
to get better, fast.
[♪]
MIKE: We've decided to
leave Iowa behind and head
to Ohio.
There is no way I'm gonna
let a bad back stop me pickin'.
Basically, what it means
is that you're gonna have
to work-
FRANK: For two of us?
MIKE: -twice as hard,
which would actually put
you in the category
of working just like I do
every day.
FRANK: (laughing) Comments
like that's not gonna get
any lifting done.
[♪]
MIKE: What's that
place look like?
Naw, it's got an
above ground pool.
Freestyle pickin' is a
term that we came up with
when we started doin' this
business 'cause it's such
a random act.
FRANK: Wow, look at that place.
Let me look in the window.
MIKE: Yeah, see if
there's anything in there.
FRANK: I don't know, I
don't like to look out on
people's property without
checking with them, you know?
MIKE: What do you mean?
You just did.
FRANK: That's why I'm-I
didn't wanna stay lookin'
through their stuff.
MIKE: Forget about it?
FRANK: Yeah, forget about it.
MIKE: I mean, there is a
method to our madness.
We do very well on
freestyle cold calls.
That was killer!
We gotta do a U-ey.
They got some old
cars too, that one-
FRANK: Studebaker. '49.
MIKE: Yeah, it was
an old Studebaker.
Yeah, look at this,
check the guy out.
MIKE: People always ask
us, you know, why did you
stop there?
It's, it almost gets to
the point where it's like
a gut feeling, we've been
doin' this for so long, or
we might see
something in the yard.
He's got a lot of trailers,
too, filled with stuff.
FRANK: Mm-hmm.
That looks like our kind of guy.
[♪]
MIKE: Lookin' good, Frankie.
My first impressions were, whoa!
If this guy's got this
much stuff on the outside
of his property, I can't
wait to see the inside.
MIKE: Hello, nice
to meet you, sir.
Always nice to
meet another junker.
CHARLIE: Ah,
thank you, thank you.
FRANK: Here's a little,
here's a little list right here.
Me and Mike, we're
pickers, we're out buyin',
searchin' America,
searchin' the backroads
while tryin' to
find unique stuff.
MIKE: Do you actually have
open hours here and stuff?
CHARLIE: No.
This was my hobby to get
away from the home, and
then my wife passed away
and so now I come out here
to get away from home.
MIKE: What did you first
start buying, what was
your interest then?
CHARLIE: My wife, she
wanted this Hiese Rose glass.
At this time now, we were,
we'd speak on payday, that
was about-my wife and I, so...
so as I was travelin'
around, I found a piece
here and there and
when I bring it home, boy,
strange things
started happenin'.
FRANK: You guys started
talkin' more than just on
the weekends, alright.
MIKE: So collecting
actually brought you
together, a little bit closer?
CHARLIE: Oh yes, yes.
MIKE: When we're on
the road, we love to meet
people, we love to hear
stories and everything.
It was cool how Charlie's
wife started him collecting
FRANK: Are you,
uh, adverse to selling?
CHARLIE: I would if I
wanna, if I'm ready to get
rid of it, yeah.
FRANK: Okay.
[♪]
MIKE: See anything, Frankie?
FRANK: Few things.
I saw a couple toys, and I
started seein' some stuff,
and I was like, this
place looks promising.
It's a lot to take in, Charlie.
You've got stuff hangin'
from the rafters, you've
got stuff-
CHARLIE: Well
yeah, it had to go up.
FRANK: Couldn't go-you
ran out of room down, huh?
MIKE: I'm gonna venture
deeper in to the, the
masses of your collection here.
FRANK: Hey Charlie, how
about this up mirror here,
is that somethin' that
would be for sale?
CHARLIE: I don't
know. No, I better not.
FRANK: Okay.
Castor oil.
CHARLIE: No.
FRANK: Well, it
don't hurt to ask.
There's a nice, uh,
porcelain malt maker up
there, is that somethin'
that would be for sale?
CHARLIE: No. I'm
not helpin' here much.
MIKE: What about
that right there, that
candlestick phone?
Candlestick phones, they
were from the early 1900s
to, even into the 1930s,
a lot people use them as
decorator items.
CHARLIE: Uh, no,
I got parts to fix it.
MIKE: Uh-huh. I'm a little
bit confused that, you know,
he, he did say he'd sell.
FRANK: We've been down
this road a lot of times before.
People wanna sell, but
they're just not quite ready.
I'm gonna keep on lookin'
around here a little bit.
Hey Charlie, what can
you tell me about this
windshield wiper
blade thing here?
CHARLIE: Oh. Uh, no, that I
don't wanna part with right now.
FRANK: We have to
convince this guy to start sellin'.
If we don't, we're not gonna
make any money today.
CHARLIE: I ain't
helpin' ya much.
MIKE: You, know, Charlie
wasn't selling, we decided
we had to find anything,
even if we had to spend
stupid money.
What have you got goin'
on here with the motor home
club jackets?
CHARLIE: That was his and hers.
MIKE: Turnpike travelers.
I might have to take
that 'Louise off, though.
Man, Louise must, Louise
was, like, a big chick.
CHARLIE: Well,
that'd be-yeah, yeah.
DANIELLE: You gotta
pay the admission fee.
You know, even if we
just gonna get the money
rollin'- how, how
about 20 bucks?
CHARLIE: No-
MIKE: No, but seriously,
I'll give you 20 bucks.
[laughter, cross-talk]
See we're tryin' to get
y'all moved up here-
CHARLIE: Yeah, okay.
MIKE: This is a icebreaker.
This is a icebreaker jacket.
FRANK: I wanna look at this bus.
I had one of those before.
CHARLIE: Oh, didja?
Oh, that's wheel's come off.
FRANK: I think somebody
wound her up here too tight.
Yeah, I think so.
The robot bus was
made in the 1950s.
I've seen a lot of the red
ones around, but the blues
ones are the rare ones.
What did you want for this?
CHARLIE: $100.
FRANK: $100.
FRANK: But there's no
way it's worth $100 with a
broken wheel.
FRANK: $30 wouldn't buy the bus?
CHARLIE: No. One side's good.
FRANK: But now if
it doesn't wind up, it
doesn't wind up.
CHARLIE: You want
somethin' to wind up? Here.
[toy plays 'Deck
the Halls' music]
MIKE: That's awesome.
Hey, um, one thing that's
confused me is that I know
that you keep sayin'
that you've gotta sell stuff,
but when we get into it,
when we actually try to
pull the trigger with you,
you're havin' a hard time
with it, and I can
understand that part too,
but it sounds like you
know, at some point or
now, that you have to
sell stuff, and just keep that
in mind 'cause we're
interested in, uh, in
poppin' on a few things.
CHARLIE: Yeah, okay,
well, I'm gonna, yeah.
MIKE: Share the love.
CHARLIE: It's realization
that I've got to start
cuttin' down.
I mean, this is
clear outta hand.
Yeah, I was thinkin' about
this telephone you guys,
somebody wanted.
MIKE: Oh, that candlestick?
CHARLIE: Yeah. I think
I would part with that for-
MIKE: For how much?
CHARLIE: Just
the way it's at, $20.
CHARLIE: The phone
has sat in here 15 years.
I haven't done anything with it.
I better start movin'
somethin' (laughs).
MIKE: All of a sudden things
that weren't on the market
are for sale now.
FRANK: The wheel's
gone, right at 35 cash.
CHARLIE: That's good.
FRANK: Okay, I'm poppin' for 35.
MIKE: What do you want for that?
CHARLIE: Uh, two dollars.
MIKE: Alright, I'll take
it for two bucks, I like it.
It's a great feeling when
we move people forward.
Charlie got rid of some
stuff, he moved some
clutter down the road,
we're gonna make some
money, everybody's happy.
FRANK: Yeah, we're like
psychologists for people
and their stuff.
MIKE: I walked out to do a
secondary search on some
on the piles of rust out here.
Frankie turned into the
Energizer Bunny, man.
FRANK: How much
is somethin' like this?
FRANK: What would
somethin' like this be worth?
What do you want
for these things?
CHARLIE: How about
five dollars a piece?
FRANK: Well, I'll take
these two for sure, 'cause
that's a set.
CHARLIE: Could you
use a, uh, jukebox?
[♪]
FRANK: And then he
pointed out a jukebox.
It was in great condition,
the outside was in great
condition.
This doesn't spin?
CHARLIE: It will go
around, it'll-you can
collect the record, but
the needle don't work.
FRANK: Okay.
Jukeboxes go to a lot of
different collectors They
make great pieces for your den.
Even if they don't work,
it's really hard to find
'em in that good shape.
[♪]
So what's your best offer
on something like that?
CHARLIE: $1700.
FRANK: 1700 was a
good price, but I had to get it
lower, that's the picker in me.
FRANK: I'd do $1200
on it, 1200 is where I'd feel
comfortable, 'cause I
see some of these, working
condition for a couple thousand.
CHARLIE: I could do 1300.
FRANK: I don't think I'm
gonna cry about an extra
hundred, we'll do it at 1300.
CHARLIE: Okay.
I've got to start...
gettin' rid of
somethin' (lauging).
So I was happy.
MIKE: What have we
got goin' on, Frankie?
FRANK: We bought this.
MIKE: We bought this.
FRANK: We bought it.
MIKE: And then when
he told me what he paid for
it, I was like, wow.
I mean, it was
pretty unbelievable.
We're not happy unless we
buy somethin' that's heavy
and bulky.
Charlie, you got a dolly?
CHARLIE: Right here,
comin'. Be careful.
MIKE: So we got to
spin it around now.
I can't really see what
you got me doin' over-
FRANK: Okay.
Alright, you got it, Mike?
MIKE: You know, it's
great how the guy with a bad
back ends up haulin' a jukebox.
I think Frank should
end up payin' for my
chiropractic adjustment.
Alright.
Well, we got it
out of the building.
That's the first step.
FRANK: Looks nice outside.
MIKE: It does. And as far as
I'm concerned, we walked out
of there with the
best thing the guy had.
FRANK: Yeah.
MIKE: Rock-Ola, baby.
We worked it out, you
sold me a phone. Thanks.
Thank you.
I mean, a nice candlestick
phone, depending on the
manufacturer, it's
gonna be 150, 250 bucks.
[♪]
FRANK: Yeah, I got
the bus, I'm happy.
[♪]
CHARLIE: This has been fun.
MIKE: Thank you again.
CHARLIE: Thank you.
MIKE: I think we got a
good deal on the jukebox,
but I'm not a expert on
the current market value.
$1300 for us is a lot of
money to gamble, so we're
gonna get our jukebox
guy to check this thing out
when we get back
from our road trip.
FRANK: Hey, I'm
diggin' the jackets.
MIKE: I'm lovin' the jackets.
FRANK: Lovin' the jackets,
man, they are the bomb.
I think, all in all,
it was a good day.
[♪]
FRANK: Danielle sent us
on a lead, he's 92 years old,
he had been buyin' stuff
from auctions for the last
40 years.
I think it's gonna be good.
MIKE: Why, 'cause
we're on a gravel road?
FRANK: No, 'cause he
sounded good over the phone.
MIKE: 'Cause we're in
the middle of nowhere?
FRANK: Yeah.
MIKE: Moo!
Man.
FRANK: Testin' out the
shock absorbers here,
aren't we?
This looks like the kind
of place we wanna be.
MIKE: I'm kinda freakin' out.
This place is really cool.
Every outbuilding he
has here, everything that's
around his house, there's
gotta be something good.
I'm lookin' at that
weathervane back there
goin', oh my gosh.
You think I get up
there on that roof?
FRANK: Uh, you
could, I wouldn't.
MIKE: There are so many
weeds and trees in front
of the doors on most
of these barns, and that
tells me no one's been
in it for a long time, and
that gets the juices flowin'.
[knock on door]
FRANK: George? Hi partner,
how you doin', my name's Frank.
I'm glad we made it here,
you have quite the driveway.
MIKE: You've got a
nice piece of property.
FRANK: Yeah, it's nice out here.
MIKE: How long have
you been on this property?
GEORGE: Since 1948.
When I come home from
the service, I wanted to be a
farmer, which I was, and I
never went over 20 from my
house to get things.
FRANK: I'll be darned, wow.
MIKE: I see you
collect clocks, huh?
FRANK: Oh boy.
GEORGE: Well, not only
clocks, a little of everything.
FRANK: A little bit
of everything, huh?
You're just like us then.
GEORGE: I collect
everything but women.
MIKE: Uh-oh, there
you go (laughing).
[♪]
FRANK: Oh boy, wow. It's
overwhelming in here, George.
It's a lot of fun when
you're buyin' stuff,
though, isn't it?
GEORGE: It is, because
I knew it was just being
sold as junk and nobody
wanted it, they laughed at me.
MIKE: He was so nice,
and I was trying to keep my
eyes on him and
connect with him in that
conversation, but there
were so many things behind
me and I knew he
was scopin' it out.
FRANK: You're amazin' me here.
Every turn has a
different collection.
There was a lot of things
we wanted in there, he had
a beautiful clock
collection, he had some
toys in there, he had
a harp in there that was
unbelievably beautiful.
MIKE: I've never
seen anything like that.
Hey, I saw this black
powder flask over here.
I'm thinkin' this is like,
to me, I don't know, I
mean, this looks
like the civil war.
GEORGE: I would
say civil war too, yeah.
MIKE: That's what I'm thinkin'.
Civil war stuff is
highly collectable.
That brass powder flask,
some of those are worth a
thousand dollars or more.
That's not somethin' you'd sell?
GEORGE: No.
FRANK: George, is
this a player piano?
GEORGE: Yup.
FRANK: Does it work?
GEORGE: Yup.
FRANK: Could I hear it?
GEORGE: You betcha.'
FRANK: I'll be darned.
[piano music]
MIKE: We have to build
a good relationship with
people to find good stuff,
and I think we did great
job of doing that.
He was crankin' up the piano,
we were havin' some laughs.
[piano music]
FRANK: So here's
a question for ya.
Would it be, would it be
possible for us to go out
and have a look around
a little bit in the barns?
GEORGE: You betcha.
I'll go down there with ya.
MIKE: Yeah, if you wanna
go down there with us.
GEORGE: Because I wanna
watch so you don't steal
nothin' (laughing)
FRANK: We got
no place to put it!
MIKE: Hey, I don't blame you.
Nowadays it's rough out there.
[♪]
FRANK: We love old barns.
GEORGE: This is gonna
be a job, to get back in here.
FRANK: Ah, we'll
dig around a bit.
MIKE: What year is that John
Deere right there, George?
GEORGE: Well,
that's a '25, I think.
MIKE: 1925?
GEORGE: That's an old D,
John Deere. Paid $100 for it.
[♪]
MIKE: What's something
like that worth today
though, what do those go for?
GEORGE: I really don't
know, I guess it's really
what you wanna pay for it.
FRANK: Good answer.
[♪]
MIKE: You need the
big guns? Big guns?
FRANK: I've got it. Whoa!
GEORGE: Whoa!
MIKE: I mean, that's
the kind of place we have,
like, conjured up in our
minds, you know, you
always paint these
pictures of a place to pick?
That would be it.
How about this old BB gun?
It's pretty rusty but it's cool.
The BB gun was a Buzz
Barton from the 1930s.
Whoever collects BB guns,
they're gonna want that thing.
GEORGE: I might give it to you.
MIKE: No, how about,
how about 20 bucks?
GEORGE: Yeah.
MIKE: Alright,
I'll buy this off ya.
Here Frankie, you could use
this at your house, can't ya?
FRANK: Hahaha!
MIKE: How about this
old plumbing piece?
That old faucet piece,
I'm tellin' ya, everybody
who's restorin' homes,
buildings and stuff, all
that architectural stuff
that doesn't look like
anything, but it was a
really neat piece, it was
nickel-plated, it had
really nice knobs one it
that were porcelain.
GEORGE: What'll
you give me for it?
MIKE: How about five bucks?
GEORGE: Okay, it's yours.
I don't wantcha to go home
without anything (laughing)
MIKE: Hey you know what,
appreciate that thought.
He let us look everywhere.
You know, I'm like,
hey, can I look under the
porch, whatever, he let me
do anything I wanted, and
that was cool.
Wow, look, this is killer.
FRANK: He doesn't think
there's anything in here,
so this would probably
be our best area to try to
look into stuff-
MIKE: Who are you
talkin' to, a ghost?
You talkin' to a
squirrel in your pocket?
FRANK: I'm talkin' to
you, loser! (laughter)
Which I shouldn't be,
because I should be
looking instead of talking.
[♪]
MIKE: This place is like
a total picker's house of
horrors, man, I mean,
the floors are like,
[squeaking sound], it's crazy!
It's one of those globe
lamp type things right here.
Isn't that what
that is, Frankie?
FRANK: I have
to see it over here.
It's made of plastic, I think.
MIKE: You've got
good hands, bro.
FRANK: It's kind of
cool, but you know what?
MIKE: What?
FRANK: It's not old.
MIKE: Okay, I'm riskin'
my life over here, tell me
that's not old.
You don't think that's old?
FRANK: I don't think so.
MIKE: It's, like, from
the forties, it's cool.
FRANK: I don't think so.
MIKE: Alright, I like it anyway.
FRANK: Take it.
George!
Found a couple things in there.
MIKE: How about on this
stuff, like, the lamp, and
this can, 25?
GEORGE: Good deal.
MIKE: Alright, good deal.
The reason we bought the
tobacco tin and the lamp,
I mean, we still sell at
flea markets every once in
a while, and we can
make some money on it.
Alright, George.
FRANK: Can we
get this one, George?
GEORGE: Go way back.
FRANK: Alright.
Do we open this one
up, or the one back?
GEORGE: No, the hole.
There's a hole back there.
MIKE: Oh, there's a hole.
FRANK: Oh, I see it.
Let's go in here for
a second and see...
GEORGE: Good thing
they're going there, not me.
MIKE: Whoa!
FRANK: Looks like
some farm equipment stuff.
MIKE: I think this is
gonna take a while.
[♪]
It's an old door push, 'clean
made bread, thanks call again.'
This is killer! I got it.
FRANK: And we got
excited, we got a little blood
rushin', we were lookin' around,
we were climbin' over stuff.
Careful!
We were seein' things that
we possibly would like to buy.
Time slips away
when you're havin' fun.
FRANK: Oh yeah, wow.
This bad boy's been
sittin' here for a while.
It looks like a 1949 Dodge.
Probably that's a Coronet.
MIKE: See if it's open.
Man, look at it!
FRANK: Oh man, look at
the interior! Oh, this is nice
MIKE: Yeah, those are rad.
It was cool because it
had original paint, and you
just don't find stuff like this.
FRANK: Yeah, it was
a real piece of steel.
Look at these
taillights on there.
MIKE: Hey, those are rad.
FRANK: Oh, this is nice.
MIKE: That car just oozed cool.
FRANK: Yeah, that was
definitely somethin' we
wanted to talk to George about.
MIKE: Let's check that room
back where we were though.
[clock ticking]
Man, this is friggin' awesome.
Are those buggy stuffs?
FRANK: Buggy stuffs!
MIKE: Let's see what's up here.
FRANK: I guess we were
in there, like, an hour or so.
George!
MIKE: We played
this one totally wrong.
We stayed in the
barn a little bit too long.
The light was completely
gone from his face.
FRANK: We could see that
his attitude had totally changed
MIKE: How about this thing?
GEORGE: I believe
I'll keep them.
MIKE: It's really
important as a picker that
people do not feel
invaded when we're on their
property, and we made
George feel that way,
unfortunately.
You don't believe
you wanna sell it?
Alright, how about this?
How about this, what
are we thinkin' on this?
This is for the other stove?
GEORGE: Yeah.
MIKE: So we can't
buy any of this stuff?
Alright.
Well, you know what, we
don't know until we ask.
GEORGE: Right.
MIKE: And at that point,
I realized it wasn't even,
it wasn't even important
for us to ask about the
car, because he just, I
could, like, tell that we
had overstayed our welcome.
FRANK: Thanks for lettin'
us look around, we enjoyed
ourselves.
How about you, did you enjoy it?
GEORGE: Well, not
as much as you did.
[laughter]
FRANK: We found some
stuff that you thought you
didn't even have or that
you didn't know where-
GEORGE: That's nothing new.
MIKE: Seriously, I can't
tell ya how much we very
much appreciate you
lettin' us take a look around.
Really, thank you
so much, partner.
FRANK: Thanks partner!
See ya later.
MIKE: Today was a reminder
to always be aware and to
never take things for granted.
God, man, I freakin killed
my back at George's place.
FRANK: Really?
MIKE: Yeah, it hurts, man.
FRANK: Well, maybe we
should, maybe we should
find a doctor so you
can have it checked out.
You don't want it gettin' worse.
MIKE: Yeah, but the thing
is, we need to make some
money, I'm not
gonna blow this trip.
I would rather see my doctor
back home anyway, you know?
FRANK: Well, plus, we
still got more pickin' to
do in Ohio.
MIKE: I know, I know.
I think there's plenty of
back roads in Ohio we
haven't hit yet.
[♪]
MIKE: Wait, look at this place.
Right here, this looks old.
FRANK: Ah, that
looks too well-kept.
The grass is cut too much.
What about that one over there?
MIKE: It's got two
brand new cars.
Oh, there's something
we don't like to see.
Private property,
no trespassing.
Why don't you go talk to him?
I'll do a U-ey, we'll go back.
FRANK: I don't like that idea.
When it says 'no
trespassing, ' that
rejection could be more of a-
MIKE: I've always noticed
how you don't wanna do
much door knockin' after
Wednesday night ladies
night.
I think you just get so much
rejection on ladies night-
FRANK: Oh, that I can't take it?
That I haven't the stamina
for any more rejection?
That's funny.
MIKE: (laughing).
FRANK: Check that boat
out, check that boat out.
Slow down a little bit,
slow down on this one.
Pull in there.
MIKE: This looks good.
FRANK: This looks alright, yeah.
MIKE: It's your turn.
FRANK: Alright, I'll hit him
FRANK: [♪]
FRANK: The whole reason
we stopped here was because
of a boat.
It was old and rusty.
That kind of stuff tells us
that this guy is a collector.
[knock on door]
CHARLIE: Hello!
MIKE: Hey, how
you doin'? I'm Mike.
CHARLIE: You lost?
MIKE: We're from Iowa.
We buy and sell, but Frank
and I are collectors too.
CHARLIE: What do you
collect, anything special?
FRANK: We both collect
motorcycles somewhat.
MIKE: Memorabilia,
anything with advertising on it.
CHARLIE: Well,
you can look around.
MIKE: We like to hear that.
What did you want for
the boat, just real quick?
CHARLIE 2000 for it.
MIKE: 2000, alright.
FRANK: He gave me a
price right off the bat, $2000.
He didn't say how much
will you give me for it, I
don't know if I wanna sell
it, blah blah blah so that
gave me the first inclination
on where the guy was at.
[♪]
MIKE: Wow.
Well, I can see why you
had to build on, Charlie.
CHARLIE: Yeah.
MIKE: When Charlie opened
the door and we saw the
motorcycles, my heart
gets goin', man, I don't care
how long we've been
doin' this, you're gonna get
your heart rate up.
FRANK: You ride dirt bikes, huh?
CHARLIE: Yes, 50 years.
I rode one of the H-1s
when they first came out,
and it was pretty amazing.
FRANK: Pretty fast.
CHARLIE: Yeah.
MIKE: I mean, how unusual
is it for us to freestyle,
and meet a guy that's into
the same stuff that we are?
FRANK: So this Yamaha
here, this is like, what, 1976?
CHARLIE: 'Round that, yeah.
FRANK: '76, this is a TT
bike, a 500, a real classy
and durable bike.
What's somethin'
like that worth?
CHARLIE: Oh, around a thousand.
MIKE: A thousand bucks.
FRANK: He seems like
he's right on the money on the
bikes, you know what I mean?
CHARLIE: There's the good stuff.
MIKE: I'll go first, Frankie.
FRANK: Oh, I
don't like that idea.
MIKE: Oh my god,
look at all this stuff!
(laughing)
CHARLIE: I keep
discovering things.
I don't know what I've got.
[♪]
MIKE: A lot of people, they
don't dig as much as we do, man.
FRANK: Right, they don't dig.
MIKE: They don't get
down and dirty and they don't
get under [censored],
they don't do all that stuff.
I feel like I'm goin'
downhill, man, my back
hurts, my knee hurts.
It's all hittin' me at once.
Ain't that the way it
usually happens, Charlie?
CHARLIE: Yeah, yeah.
FRANK: Charlie, uh, how
old do you think this is?
CHARLIE: I'd say around 1940.
FRANK: You know how it
says Remington Portable
right there?
I couldn't imagine it being
over 80 bucks, maybe.
I know that it probably
might have cost more back
then than they get for 'em
these days, you know what
I mean?
The Remington typewriter,
it was in great condition,
but there's thousands and
thousands of 'em around.
There's no money
to be made on 'em.
Hey Charlie, how much
is the hawk up here?
CHARLIE: Hundred dollars.
If you want it for a
hundred, I might sell it.
FRANK: He's pretty neat.
CHARLIE: He was supposedly
over a hundred years old
when I got him 30 years ago.
FRANK: The reason I
would think about purchasing
something like that is
because I believe that you
can't have hawks anymore.
CHARLIE: I thought I
priced it out of range.
FRANK: Mike, buddy, could
you help me get that down
since you're taller than me?
MIKE: (hawk
sounds) It really stinks.
Oh man, he'd be on
your side of the van, bro.
He smells like sumo
wrestler took a dump on a
burning tire.
Are you interested in this?
FRANK: Ah, you better put it up.
It's not a hundred
dollars neat to me.
It's 50 dollars neat, though!
CHARLIE: No...
MIKE: Charlie's
a pretty savvy guy.
All the prices he was
givin' us was exactly what
we could sell it for.
Step into my office, Frankie.
If you see somethin' that
you wanna buy, don't say
you want it.
You know what I mean,
go, okay, this is 20, let me
think about it, so we got
a pile, you know what I
mean, so he's givin' us
a number, but we're not
saying whether or
not we're takin' it.
I figured we'd have a
better chance at lowering
Charlie's prices if we
piled up everything we were
interested in and offered
him one price for everything.
Charlie!
CHARLIE: What did you find?
MIKE: I found this old
license plate, 1958 Ohio.
That's gotta be priceless.
A lot of people
collect license plates.
They're lookin' for
specific states, they're
lookin' for specific years.
They wanna continue that
collection that they're doing.
MIKE: I found these
old pennants too.
I like the little chick
in the one-piece.
I'd probably pay more if she
had a two-piece, but you know.
And then statue of
liberty, I've got a friend
that lives in New York,
so what I'll do is I'll start
a pile right here.
FRANK: Hey Charlie?
CHARLIE: Yo, what did you find?
FRANK: I dunno, you're
gonna have to tell me about this.
It went like that?
CHARLIE: Yeah. You might
get over to this end and get a
better tone.
FRANK: It's portable, it
had a great wooden case.
Musical stuff is collectable.
MIKE: It says xylophone, $48.
But the thing is, the
xylophone market totally
fell out, didn't it?
FRANK: Yeah, yeah.
MIKE: You'd be lucky to
get 8 bucks for that now.
CHARLIE: Oh...
FRANK: I'll put it in the
pile, I can always take it
out of the pile.
[♪]
MIKE: This is a sales
brochure for a Delorean.
Presenting the Delorean-what
are you gonna have for that?
CHARLIE: Probably 20.
MIKE: 20 bucks. The
Delorean car brochure was killer,
it's for a very rare car.
I know collectors that
would bite my hand off to
get at that thing.
[♪]
Alright, I'm gonna
throw this on my pile.
FRANK: How
about this little guy?
I don't think it's real old?
CHARLIE: Maybe 50s, 60s, 50s.
FRANK: The reason I
stuck the Japanese tin car on
was because it had great
graphics, it was a very
collectable piece.
I think he's worthy of my pile.
What are you findin',
Mike, anything?
MIKE: Oh, tons of gold dubloons.
FRANK: I know, 'cause when
you get quiet, I get nervous.
MIKE: This is a
bicycle odometer.
Mounting bracket's there
so it can still be mounted.
Basically, you'd have a
piece, and it'd click that
as it went by.
That thing's from the turn
of the century, that thing
would go on, like,
a wood rim bicycle.
I loved that piece.
[♪]
Uh, broken windshield
it looks like, huh?
FRANK: Uh, they were made
in West Germany, they had
a great following.
A lot of the Schuco
stuff had multiple actions,
which made them
very collectible.
[♪]
MIKE: What do you think
on somethin' like that?
CHARLIE: 50.
MIKE: 50 bucks. See, I always
pickin' out the expensive stuff.
FRANK: That's 'cause
you're always goin' first
and I'm back here.
FRANK: All right Charlie.
Frank! I found a killer piece.
CHARLIE: Horse hide.
That was a personal
coat for a while.
MIKE: This was your coat?
CHARLIE: Yeah,
I've worn that a lot.
MIKE: What would you
want for somethin' like this?
CHARLIE: Oh, that
oughta be 40 but I'll take 30.
MIKE: 30 bucks?
Alright, I'll try it on, see
how it'll fit here.
CHARLIE: Classic
style, isn't it?
MIKE: It's gonna
clean up super well.
It just had that broke
in, worn out feel that you
just can't get with a new coat.
You and me are about
the same size, Charlie.
FRANK: Yeah, it
looks good on you.
Is there any gold-
MIKE: Whoa, man,
this was your lucky coat!
Would you throw those in?
CHARLIE: Oh yeah.
MIKE: Alright, I'll take it.
I'll probably enjoy this
as much as you did.
CHARLIE: Yeah.
MIKE: Let's take our stuff
out of this room that we
want, that we're interested in.
That we haven't
committed to yet.
CHARLIE: Goin'
to the haggle area.
MIKE: Goin' to the haggle box.
[♪]
CHARLIE: You wanna
make me a good offer?
I wouldn't trust you guys. I
come up with, uh, 335. Yeah.
FRANK: He had every
price written down what he
quoted us, so when he
put it in the pile, he didn't
really come down any.
MIKE: Well, you don't
blame him, 'cause he knew,
he knew we were gonna kick him.
Let's add up this stuff
ourselves, Frankie.
FRANK: We have a racer,
we have a little film cutter.
You wanted 20 for this.
MIKE: That looks dangerous.
FRANK: You have a little
Schuco German wind-up car.
MIKE: 50, missin' the
windshield and the key.
FRANK: We have,
let's go 25 on this.
I only wanna go 20 on this.
I try not to pressure
somebody too much.
MIKE: And that's a fine
line we have to walk.
I mean, the thing is, if
we see somethin' that we
really want, and I tell
you that we're not leaving
this property without it,
yeah, we're gonna kick
him, but we're not gonna
kick him so hard that he's
gonna say fah, you
know, get off my property.
FRANK: Yeah, it's
not for sale now, boom.
MIKE: 240, or
are we too far off?
CHARLIE: Alright.
MIKE: What do I owe you
for the leather coat, 20?
CHARLIE: Yeah.
MIKE: Alright, let's get
this stuff loaded, Frank.
CHARLIE: I got
screwed with my pants on.
I should be carrying something.
FRANK: Ah, don't worry about it.
I think it was fantastic.
It was a great stop, it
was a great cold call.
MIKE: Okay, thanks, seriously.
CHARLIE: Alright.
MIKE: One of my favorite
things that I bought at
Charlie's house
was that leather coat.
I mean, leather
coats are expensive.
[♪]
You know what man, for a
cold call, I'm happy as hell.
I mean, I got that Delorean
book, that was really cool.
[♪]
That odometer is
a really good piece.
I mean, you could have
just a regular wood-rim
bicycle and you dress it
up with accessories like
that, boom, the price
jumps right way up.
I'm happy as hell
to get that thing.
[♪]
We got that Schuco car cheap.
FRANK: The Schuco had a
lot of writing on the bottom.
Well, if it had been used
a lot, all that'd be gone,
so that's why I'm gonna
say that's two bills easy.
MIKE: Really? Killer.
[♪]
FRED: He put [♪]
MIKE: When we're out
freestyle pickin' we'll stop
at a place because we see
an old car, we see a shed
door that's open or a
garage door might be open,
we kinda see somethin' in there.
FRANK: I see a '57 Chevrolet.
MIKE: '57?
FRANK: Yeah, he must
be pretty proud of it 'cause
he's got it out.
MIKE: So we're pullin' up,
and in the back, we could
see all this junk, so
we decided to stop.
Alright, let me do the talkin'.
I'm Mike!
FRANK: I'm Frank!
MIKE: This is our flyer.
It's basically like just a
general list of the kind
of stuff we're lookin' for.
FRED: I might have
a little bit of everything
down here you got on the list.
MIKE: Yeah, as I was
gonna say, it looks like you've
got a little bit of
everything, we were
checkin' out your outbuilding.
You know, if you wanna
show us around, that'd be cool.
FRED: I can do that.
MIKE: I was encouraged
'cause, you know, he had a
lot of stuff layin' around.
FRANK: Right, um, it
didn't look like too good
of stuff, but hey,
you never know..
FRED: That's a
circular staircase.
MIKE: Gotcha. Those
are somethin' neat.
Do you have the railing
and the centre pole, though?
FRED: All I have is the steps.
FRANK: I was interested
in the cast iron spiral
staircase until Fred told
us what each step was.
FRED: $50 a piece on those.
MIKE: How much?
FRANK: 50 a piece?
Is that delivered?
FRED: No! That's
right where they lay.
FRANK: That's when I
realized that his prices
are probably gonna be too high.
FRED: Now, you might be
interested in a fire hydrant.
FRANK: No, we
see a lot of those.
FRED: My old Ford
tractor, of course.
MIKE: Wow, tractors.
Everybody's got one.
FRED: Yeah, it seems
like everybody's got one.
FRANK: The highlight of
the stuff that was outside
was definitely Fred's
immaculate 1957 Chevrolet.
[♪]
FRED: This is the 210 model.
FRANK: The 210, right. What
is something like this valued at?
FRED: Somewhere
between 20 and $40,000.
My father bought this car
new back in '57 and then
he put it in his garage
and it sat in there for
about 25 years and
I've had it ever since.
This car's never been
touched as far as, uh,
body work on it, so
this is original paint-
MIKE: Oh, it's original paint!
FRANK: Watch the way it
goes backwards and then
sinks down, isn't that neat?
MIKE: That's really cool.
FRANK: Well, it's a
family heirloom, it's
priceless, you know.
MIKE: I mean, this is
something to be proud of,
this is awesome that you
guys have, uh, you know,
maintained it this way,
it's beautiful, it really is.
[♪]
We didn't even try to
haggle him down on that
car, I mean, it was
a family heirloom.
It was obviously goin' nowhere.
FRED: Well, let me go in
my building and open the
door here.
FRANK: Okay, well, I'm ready.
MIKE: Frank and I never
get tired of when we go to
a place and the guy
opens those big doors.
[♪]
Now, after the door opens,
that's a different story.
Wow.
You know, we're thinkin'
maybe his collection will
be of some type of quality.
[♪]
You know, after we
looked around a little bit, we
could tell he was one
of those guys that get
everything at an auction
that nobody wanted.
FRED: You see the
globes up on top?
They were from
street lights uptown.
FRANK: Was that an
auction you got those from?
FRED: Yeah, city auction.
Got some cute
little workbenches.
MIKE: Oh yeah, sure.
FRED: This is stuff here,
there's a couple bicycles
back here, neon signs.
FRANK: Neon signs, alright
FRED: Big mail
pouch, that's a big one.
FRANK: The tobacco
sign was beautiful, it was in
great condition.
I was really into it. How
much is somethin' like this?
FRED: Oh... about $4000.
FRANK: $4000!?
4000? Whoa, hang
on to me. Catch me.
Get the smelling salt out.
That's, uh, a good
piece to have.
FRED: It's, uh, wing feeds.
FRANK: Of course it is.
That's whatcha get your...
FRED: And you see
there's a coffee grinder here.
FRANK: Mm-hmm. He's wantin'
to push the junk towards us,
and the good stuff, he's
wantin' a trillion dollars for.
FRED: That's a drill bit thing.
FRANK: Why didja buy
this, just, it was cheap?
MIKE: Alright, which
way's the honeyhole?
As a picker, you have
to keep diggin' through all
the trash, because you
never know what killer
item might be around the corner.
[♪]
MIKE: He's a great guy,
he wants us to look through
everything, and I don't
have a problem doin' that...
if there's good stuff.
FRED: Find anything
that looks good?
MIKE: Nothin' I
can't live without.
I like the doorknob.
FRANK: Got it? It was startin'
to look like we weren't gonna
find anything on this pick,
and then I found the old
wooden box.
This is kind of nice,
it's dovetailed, it's got
different hardware on
it, you can set it down.
Leather strap.
What do you want for this, Fred?
FRED: 25.
FRANK: 25. You interested, Mike?
MIKE: Uh... I'm
interested for 10.
FRED: 15.
MIKE: I'll do 15.
FRANK: Mike's poppin' on it.
MIKE: I'll pop it.
That was definitely the
turning point on that pick.
Finally I see
somethin' I can pop on.
15 bucks on that
piece was a great price.
It was definitely
worth more than that.
The guy that's into
aviation, he's gonna love this.
FRED: He's gonna love that box.
He don't care what's in it.
MIKE: I mean just, like,
up on a shelf you know.
And then we walked around
and the sign was there.
FRED: This has been layin'
against the building there
for about seven years.
MIKE: And that's like,
so we see-there you go.
The big sign was so awesome.
Grab that one and throw
it over there, and I'll grab
one and throw it, and
we'll just kind of figure it out.
So we took it out, threw
it on the ground, spread
it all out so we could
actually see what was there.
There's a D, where's the U?
FRED: Drugs.
MIKE: Oh, okay,
I see right there.
Okay, let's do this one.
I feel like Vanna White.
FRED: (laughing) You
have it upside down.
MIKE: Okay, so we got drugs.
The panels are all porcelain.
FRED: Yes, all porcelain.
They're all in good shape.
MIKE: I love the colour,
I mean, they're real
vibrant, it's real bright still.
FRED: These are probably...
go back into the 50s?
MIKE: You used to shop
here when you were kids?
FRED: Yes. It was one of
the main drug stores in town.
MIKE: Tell you what,
anything that's porcelain,
it just seems that it
lasts the test of time,
doesn't it, Frankie?
FRANK: You bet. Well, what
are you thinkin' on this thing?
MIKE: The sign was so
cool I was expecting a really
high number on it.
FRED: I hope you'll
load it for nothin'.
MIKE: Oh, it's free?
FRED: It's free.
MIKE: So anything I sell it
for is pure profit. ( laughing )
It goes to show in picking
that you never give up.
Things can turn around
if you put in the effort.
FRANK: Another example of
the ups and downs of picking.
[♪]
MIKE: It's got great
graphics on it, it's cool.
For 15 bucks, heck, like
Frank says, you can't get
pizza for that.
FRED: You're right.
[♪]
MIKE: I'm always teasin'
him about buyin' oil cans,
and he's always teasing me
about buying stuff that's huge.
And that's heavy.
[♪]
Uh! That's my back.
My back has been
gettin' worse on this trip.
I pick up the sign and
boom, that's where it went.
FRED: Thanks again!
MIKE: Ugh, my back.
That sign at Fred's
kicked my butt, dude.
FRANK: There's no
use in gettin' it worse.
Maybe we should just
head in, get in so you can see
your chiro.
You know me when I
don't feel good, bam, I'm
taking, I'm done.
MIKE: You think our
picker's union insurance
will cover it?
FRANK: I don't think so.
MIKE: We'[♪]g
[♪]
MIKE: My back was a total mess.
I decided to admit defeat.
I gotta get it checked out.
[♪]
I'm goin' to my chiropractor.
When my back's out
like this, it makes me feel
completely helpless.
I can't do anything
with my business.
I mean, if I don't take
care of my back, it could
be more than one or two
days, it could be a week.
I got the back of, like,
an 85 year old man, so...
I'm walking with a
bad mamma-jamma.
JAY: Mike, uh, basically,
you're messed up.
One of the joints in
your back is super hot, it's
swollen up, and it
basically pushes it over.
Pain and discomfort
displaces it.
I'd take a couple
weeks off, honestly.
[♪]
MIKE: And what's
my other option?
I mean, taking two weeks
off is definitely not an option.
JAY: Well, you gotta be careful.
I mean, otherwise what
you can do is you can reduce
lifting and stuff that way.
You wanna be careful
if you are lifting you're
using your legs.
Get out at rest stops.
It's a good idea.
Basically, they're an
hour apart, get out, walk
around, and keep
yourself movin'.
MIKE: Well, thanks for
seein' me on such short
notice, I mean, we're only
in town for just a day or
two and I had to
get this taken care of.
I just left Dr. J's.
His prognosis for the
whole situation was for me
to take two weeks off of work.
That is absolutely
not gonna happen.
Danielle's found too many
leads, and Frank would be
freakin' out if I went
back and told him that.
I'm just gonna have to
make sure I don't complain
too much because
those guys already think I
complain too much as it is.
[♪]
MIKE: Wow look at that.
I didn't even notice
that when we bought it.
FRANK: I know. Look
at t his little dance floor.
This thing is awesome cool.
Kenny'll be able to tell
us when he gets here what
the scoop is on it.
You know he's Mr. Jukebox.
You know, with Mike
when we're out pickin' and
stuff, we don't claim to
be antique appraisers or
antique dealers, so
we called in, uh, Kenny
'cause he's the
jukebox vending guy.
[cross-talk]
MIKE: The reason we
bought that it just because we
thought it looked cool.
FRANK: Well, it looks cool
and we thought we got a
halfway decent deal on it.
What have we got?
MIKE; He's always dealt
in really high quality stuff.
He's a really good source.
He's gonna be able to
tell us exactly if we wasted
our $1300 bucks or
if we got a good buy.
KENNY: Well, it's a 1948,
it's a 1428 model, and I
can see just by that 45
record layin' there that
it's been switched over.
This thing would
have played 33s.
FRANK: I had been told
that if you can see the
arm pick it up, take it,
click it down, that people
wanna see that stuff.
KENNY: Exactly. They'll
take the records out and play
it right in front of you.
So whether it's Rock-Ola
or Seabird or Wurlitzer,
the top three, I mean,
that's what people want.
You've got four lights
on the top, and so this is
lit up really pretty
inside here, and you're
fortunate none of
this stuff's cracked.
FRANK: Uh-huh. Plug it
on in, see if we got anything.
MIKE: Zzt-zzt.
FRANK: Yeah. That's
original equipment, 1948.
KENNY: It's corded out
[crackling electricity sound]
MIKE: Whoa! It just did.
KENNY: It's broke there,
it's been taped three or
four places.
FRANK: And just rewire
it, get some good wire on it.
KENNY: Just put a
new type of wire on it.
FRANK: Okay. Could you give
us some type of estimate you
would think, operating?
KENNY: It could
bring $5000. Okay.
A number one machine
in the book shows $6000.
MIKE: I am kind of jacked
up about gettin' it lit now.
FRANK: The jukebox is
amazing, we got a great
price on it.
[♪]
MIKE: Is this thing rad or what?
DANIELLE: This
is just incredible!
Did you see, inside
there's a little stage!
MIKE: Yeah. Danielle, you've
got a whole lot of cleanin'
to do, we're gonna go
home and take a nap.
I'm gonna give my back a rest.
see what's up here.
This place is like a total
picker's house of horrors, man.
FRANK: How much
is somethin' like this?
FRED: About $4000.
FRANK: 4000? Whoa,
hang on! Catch me!
JAY: One of the joints
in your back is super hot,
and it's basically
pushing you over.
MIKE: Yeah, it's great how
the guy with the bad back
ends up haulin' a jukebox.
I think Frank should
end up paying for me
chiropractic adjustment.
MIKE: I'm Mike Wolfe.
FRANK: I'm Frank Fritz.
MIKE: And we're pickers.
[♪]
FRANK: We travel the
backroads of America
lookin' for rusty gold.
We're lookin' 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.
FRANK: And the people
we met, well, they're a breed
all their own.
[♪]
MIKE: We make a
living telling the history of
America-one piece at a time.
[♪]
DANIELLE: It turns
out Mike's not the million
dollar man we all
thought he was.
He's hurt himself, his
back is out, he can't lift
anything.
MIKE: Sorry man, my back hurts.
DANIELLE: He's pissing
and moaning around the office.
MIKE: We're workin'
together here, it's not
just me, you can't just
say, oh, do your stuff and
I'll do my stuff.
Danielle, do we have
notes on this guy right here?
DANIELLE: I love the
guy like a fat kid loves cake,
but he's drivin'
me freakin' crazy.
MIKE: Can you sound
this out for me, go.
DANIELLE: Alright, see ya later.
MIKE: Sell, and that's
an exclamation point.
DANIELLE: He needs
to get better, fast.
[♪]
MIKE: We've decided to
leave Iowa behind and head
to Ohio.
There is no way I'm gonna
let a bad back stop me pickin'.
Basically, what it means
is that you're gonna have
to work-
FRANK: For two of us?
MIKE: -twice as hard,
which would actually put
you in the category
of working just like I do
every day.
FRANK: (laughing) Comments
like that's not gonna get
any lifting done.
[♪]
MIKE: What's that
place look like?
Naw, it's got an
above ground pool.
Freestyle pickin' is a
term that we came up with
when we started doin' this
business 'cause it's such
a random act.
FRANK: Wow, look at that place.
Let me look in the window.
MIKE: Yeah, see if
there's anything in there.
FRANK: I don't know, I
don't like to look out on
people's property without
checking with them, you know?
MIKE: What do you mean?
You just did.
FRANK: That's why I'm-I
didn't wanna stay lookin'
through their stuff.
MIKE: Forget about it?
FRANK: Yeah, forget about it.
MIKE: I mean, there is a
method to our madness.
We do very well on
freestyle cold calls.
That was killer!
We gotta do a U-ey.
They got some old
cars too, that one-
FRANK: Studebaker. '49.
MIKE: Yeah, it was
an old Studebaker.
Yeah, look at this,
check the guy out.
MIKE: People always ask
us, you know, why did you
stop there?
It's, it almost gets to
the point where it's like
a gut feeling, we've been
doin' this for so long, or
we might see
something in the yard.
He's got a lot of trailers,
too, filled with stuff.
FRANK: Mm-hmm.
That looks like our kind of guy.
[♪]
MIKE: Lookin' good, Frankie.
My first impressions were, whoa!
If this guy's got this
much stuff on the outside
of his property, I can't
wait to see the inside.
MIKE: Hello, nice
to meet you, sir.
Always nice to
meet another junker.
CHARLIE: Ah,
thank you, thank you.
FRANK: Here's a little,
here's a little list right here.
Me and Mike, we're
pickers, we're out buyin',
searchin' America,
searchin' the backroads
while tryin' to
find unique stuff.
MIKE: Do you actually have
open hours here and stuff?
CHARLIE: No.
This was my hobby to get
away from the home, and
then my wife passed away
and so now I come out here
to get away from home.
MIKE: What did you first
start buying, what was
your interest then?
CHARLIE: My wife, she
wanted this Hiese Rose glass.
At this time now, we were,
we'd speak on payday, that
was about-my wife and I, so...
so as I was travelin'
around, I found a piece
here and there and
when I bring it home, boy,
strange things
started happenin'.
FRANK: You guys started
talkin' more than just on
the weekends, alright.
MIKE: So collecting
actually brought you
together, a little bit closer?
CHARLIE: Oh yes, yes.
MIKE: When we're on
the road, we love to meet
people, we love to hear
stories and everything.
It was cool how Charlie's
wife started him collecting
FRANK: Are you,
uh, adverse to selling?
CHARLIE: I would if I
wanna, if I'm ready to get
rid of it, yeah.
FRANK: Okay.
[♪]
MIKE: See anything, Frankie?
FRANK: Few things.
I saw a couple toys, and I
started seein' some stuff,
and I was like, this
place looks promising.
It's a lot to take in, Charlie.
You've got stuff hangin'
from the rafters, you've
got stuff-
CHARLIE: Well
yeah, it had to go up.
FRANK: Couldn't go-you
ran out of room down, huh?
MIKE: I'm gonna venture
deeper in to the, the
masses of your collection here.
FRANK: Hey Charlie, how
about this up mirror here,
is that somethin' that
would be for sale?
CHARLIE: I don't
know. No, I better not.
FRANK: Okay.
Castor oil.
CHARLIE: No.
FRANK: Well, it
don't hurt to ask.
There's a nice, uh,
porcelain malt maker up
there, is that somethin'
that would be for sale?
CHARLIE: No. I'm
not helpin' here much.
MIKE: What about
that right there, that
candlestick phone?
Candlestick phones, they
were from the early 1900s
to, even into the 1930s,
a lot people use them as
decorator items.
CHARLIE: Uh, no,
I got parts to fix it.
MIKE: Uh-huh. I'm a little
bit confused that, you know,
he, he did say he'd sell.
FRANK: We've been down
this road a lot of times before.
People wanna sell, but
they're just not quite ready.
I'm gonna keep on lookin'
around here a little bit.
Hey Charlie, what can
you tell me about this
windshield wiper
blade thing here?
CHARLIE: Oh. Uh, no, that I
don't wanna part with right now.
FRANK: We have to
convince this guy to start sellin'.
If we don't, we're not gonna
make any money today.
CHARLIE: I ain't
helpin' ya much.
MIKE: You, know, Charlie
wasn't selling, we decided
we had to find anything,
even if we had to spend
stupid money.
What have you got goin'
on here with the motor home
club jackets?
CHARLIE: That was his and hers.
MIKE: Turnpike travelers.
I might have to take
that 'Louise off, though.
Man, Louise must, Louise
was, like, a big chick.
CHARLIE: Well,
that'd be-yeah, yeah.
DANIELLE: You gotta
pay the admission fee.
You know, even if we
just gonna get the money
rollin'- how, how
about 20 bucks?
CHARLIE: No-
MIKE: No, but seriously,
I'll give you 20 bucks.
[laughter, cross-talk]
See we're tryin' to get
y'all moved up here-
CHARLIE: Yeah, okay.
MIKE: This is a icebreaker.
This is a icebreaker jacket.
FRANK: I wanna look at this bus.
I had one of those before.
CHARLIE: Oh, didja?
Oh, that's wheel's come off.
FRANK: I think somebody
wound her up here too tight.
Yeah, I think so.
The robot bus was
made in the 1950s.
I've seen a lot of the red
ones around, but the blues
ones are the rare ones.
What did you want for this?
CHARLIE: $100.
FRANK: $100.
FRANK: But there's no
way it's worth $100 with a
broken wheel.
FRANK: $30 wouldn't buy the bus?
CHARLIE: No. One side's good.
FRANK: But now if
it doesn't wind up, it
doesn't wind up.
CHARLIE: You want
somethin' to wind up? Here.
[toy plays 'Deck
the Halls' music]
MIKE: That's awesome.
Hey, um, one thing that's
confused me is that I know
that you keep sayin'
that you've gotta sell stuff,
but when we get into it,
when we actually try to
pull the trigger with you,
you're havin' a hard time
with it, and I can
understand that part too,
but it sounds like you
know, at some point or
now, that you have to
sell stuff, and just keep that
in mind 'cause we're
interested in, uh, in
poppin' on a few things.
CHARLIE: Yeah, okay,
well, I'm gonna, yeah.
MIKE: Share the love.
CHARLIE: It's realization
that I've got to start
cuttin' down.
I mean, this is
clear outta hand.
Yeah, I was thinkin' about
this telephone you guys,
somebody wanted.
MIKE: Oh, that candlestick?
CHARLIE: Yeah. I think
I would part with that for-
MIKE: For how much?
CHARLIE: Just
the way it's at, $20.
CHARLIE: The phone
has sat in here 15 years.
I haven't done anything with it.
I better start movin'
somethin' (laughs).
MIKE: All of a sudden things
that weren't on the market
are for sale now.
FRANK: The wheel's
gone, right at 35 cash.
CHARLIE: That's good.
FRANK: Okay, I'm poppin' for 35.
MIKE: What do you want for that?
CHARLIE: Uh, two dollars.
MIKE: Alright, I'll take
it for two bucks, I like it.
It's a great feeling when
we move people forward.
Charlie got rid of some
stuff, he moved some
clutter down the road,
we're gonna make some
money, everybody's happy.
FRANK: Yeah, we're like
psychologists for people
and their stuff.
MIKE: I walked out to do a
secondary search on some
on the piles of rust out here.
Frankie turned into the
Energizer Bunny, man.
FRANK: How much
is somethin' like this?
FRANK: What would
somethin' like this be worth?
What do you want
for these things?
CHARLIE: How about
five dollars a piece?
FRANK: Well, I'll take
these two for sure, 'cause
that's a set.
CHARLIE: Could you
use a, uh, jukebox?
[♪]
FRANK: And then he
pointed out a jukebox.
It was in great condition,
the outside was in great
condition.
This doesn't spin?
CHARLIE: It will go
around, it'll-you can
collect the record, but
the needle don't work.
FRANK: Okay.
Jukeboxes go to a lot of
different collectors They
make great pieces for your den.
Even if they don't work,
it's really hard to find
'em in that good shape.
[♪]
So what's your best offer
on something like that?
CHARLIE: $1700.
FRANK: 1700 was a
good price, but I had to get it
lower, that's the picker in me.
FRANK: I'd do $1200
on it, 1200 is where I'd feel
comfortable, 'cause I
see some of these, working
condition for a couple thousand.
CHARLIE: I could do 1300.
FRANK: I don't think I'm
gonna cry about an extra
hundred, we'll do it at 1300.
CHARLIE: Okay.
I've got to start...
gettin' rid of
somethin' (lauging).
So I was happy.
MIKE: What have we
got goin' on, Frankie?
FRANK: We bought this.
MIKE: We bought this.
FRANK: We bought it.
MIKE: And then when
he told me what he paid for
it, I was like, wow.
I mean, it was
pretty unbelievable.
We're not happy unless we
buy somethin' that's heavy
and bulky.
Charlie, you got a dolly?
CHARLIE: Right here,
comin'. Be careful.
MIKE: So we got to
spin it around now.
I can't really see what
you got me doin' over-
FRANK: Okay.
Alright, you got it, Mike?
MIKE: You know, it's
great how the guy with a bad
back ends up haulin' a jukebox.
I think Frank should
end up payin' for my
chiropractic adjustment.
Alright.
Well, we got it
out of the building.
That's the first step.
FRANK: Looks nice outside.
MIKE: It does. And as far as
I'm concerned, we walked out
of there with the
best thing the guy had.
FRANK: Yeah.
MIKE: Rock-Ola, baby.
We worked it out, you
sold me a phone. Thanks.
Thank you.
I mean, a nice candlestick
phone, depending on the
manufacturer, it's
gonna be 150, 250 bucks.
[♪]
FRANK: Yeah, I got
the bus, I'm happy.
[♪]
CHARLIE: This has been fun.
MIKE: Thank you again.
CHARLIE: Thank you.
MIKE: I think we got a
good deal on the jukebox,
but I'm not a expert on
the current market value.
$1300 for us is a lot of
money to gamble, so we're
gonna get our jukebox
guy to check this thing out
when we get back
from our road trip.
FRANK: Hey, I'm
diggin' the jackets.
MIKE: I'm lovin' the jackets.
FRANK: Lovin' the jackets,
man, they are the bomb.
I think, all in all,
it was a good day.
[♪]
FRANK: Danielle sent us
on a lead, he's 92 years old,
he had been buyin' stuff
from auctions for the last
40 years.
I think it's gonna be good.
MIKE: Why, 'cause
we're on a gravel road?
FRANK: No, 'cause he
sounded good over the phone.
MIKE: 'Cause we're in
the middle of nowhere?
FRANK: Yeah.
MIKE: Moo!
Man.
FRANK: Testin' out the
shock absorbers here,
aren't we?
This looks like the kind
of place we wanna be.
MIKE: I'm kinda freakin' out.
This place is really cool.
Every outbuilding he
has here, everything that's
around his house, there's
gotta be something good.
I'm lookin' at that
weathervane back there
goin', oh my gosh.
You think I get up
there on that roof?
FRANK: Uh, you
could, I wouldn't.
MIKE: There are so many
weeds and trees in front
of the doors on most
of these barns, and that
tells me no one's been
in it for a long time, and
that gets the juices flowin'.
[knock on door]
FRANK: George? Hi partner,
how you doin', my name's Frank.
I'm glad we made it here,
you have quite the driveway.
MIKE: You've got a
nice piece of property.
FRANK: Yeah, it's nice out here.
MIKE: How long have
you been on this property?
GEORGE: Since 1948.
When I come home from
the service, I wanted to be a
farmer, which I was, and I
never went over 20 from my
house to get things.
FRANK: I'll be darned, wow.
MIKE: I see you
collect clocks, huh?
FRANK: Oh boy.
GEORGE: Well, not only
clocks, a little of everything.
FRANK: A little bit
of everything, huh?
You're just like us then.
GEORGE: I collect
everything but women.
MIKE: Uh-oh, there
you go (laughing).
[♪]
FRANK: Oh boy, wow. It's
overwhelming in here, George.
It's a lot of fun when
you're buyin' stuff,
though, isn't it?
GEORGE: It is, because
I knew it was just being
sold as junk and nobody
wanted it, they laughed at me.
MIKE: He was so nice,
and I was trying to keep my
eyes on him and
connect with him in that
conversation, but there
were so many things behind
me and I knew he
was scopin' it out.
FRANK: You're amazin' me here.
Every turn has a
different collection.
There was a lot of things
we wanted in there, he had
a beautiful clock
collection, he had some
toys in there, he had
a harp in there that was
unbelievably beautiful.
MIKE: I've never
seen anything like that.
Hey, I saw this black
powder flask over here.
I'm thinkin' this is like,
to me, I don't know, I
mean, this looks
like the civil war.
GEORGE: I would
say civil war too, yeah.
MIKE: That's what I'm thinkin'.
Civil war stuff is
highly collectable.
That brass powder flask,
some of those are worth a
thousand dollars or more.
That's not somethin' you'd sell?
GEORGE: No.
FRANK: George, is
this a player piano?
GEORGE: Yup.
FRANK: Does it work?
GEORGE: Yup.
FRANK: Could I hear it?
GEORGE: You betcha.'
FRANK: I'll be darned.
[piano music]
MIKE: We have to build
a good relationship with
people to find good stuff,
and I think we did great
job of doing that.
He was crankin' up the piano,
we were havin' some laughs.
[piano music]
FRANK: So here's
a question for ya.
Would it be, would it be
possible for us to go out
and have a look around
a little bit in the barns?
GEORGE: You betcha.
I'll go down there with ya.
MIKE: Yeah, if you wanna
go down there with us.
GEORGE: Because I wanna
watch so you don't steal
nothin' (laughing)
FRANK: We got
no place to put it!
MIKE: Hey, I don't blame you.
Nowadays it's rough out there.
[♪]
FRANK: We love old barns.
GEORGE: This is gonna
be a job, to get back in here.
FRANK: Ah, we'll
dig around a bit.
MIKE: What year is that John
Deere right there, George?
GEORGE: Well,
that's a '25, I think.
MIKE: 1925?
GEORGE: That's an old D,
John Deere. Paid $100 for it.
[♪]
MIKE: What's something
like that worth today
though, what do those go for?
GEORGE: I really don't
know, I guess it's really
what you wanna pay for it.
FRANK: Good answer.
[♪]
MIKE: You need the
big guns? Big guns?
FRANK: I've got it. Whoa!
GEORGE: Whoa!
MIKE: I mean, that's
the kind of place we have,
like, conjured up in our
minds, you know, you
always paint these
pictures of a place to pick?
That would be it.
How about this old BB gun?
It's pretty rusty but it's cool.
The BB gun was a Buzz
Barton from the 1930s.
Whoever collects BB guns,
they're gonna want that thing.
GEORGE: I might give it to you.
MIKE: No, how about,
how about 20 bucks?
GEORGE: Yeah.
MIKE: Alright,
I'll buy this off ya.
Here Frankie, you could use
this at your house, can't ya?
FRANK: Hahaha!
MIKE: How about this
old plumbing piece?
That old faucet piece,
I'm tellin' ya, everybody
who's restorin' homes,
buildings and stuff, all
that architectural stuff
that doesn't look like
anything, but it was a
really neat piece, it was
nickel-plated, it had
really nice knobs one it
that were porcelain.
GEORGE: What'll
you give me for it?
MIKE: How about five bucks?
GEORGE: Okay, it's yours.
I don't wantcha to go home
without anything (laughing)
MIKE: Hey you know what,
appreciate that thought.
He let us look everywhere.
You know, I'm like,
hey, can I look under the
porch, whatever, he let me
do anything I wanted, and
that was cool.
Wow, look, this is killer.
FRANK: He doesn't think
there's anything in here,
so this would probably
be our best area to try to
look into stuff-
MIKE: Who are you
talkin' to, a ghost?
You talkin' to a
squirrel in your pocket?
FRANK: I'm talkin' to
you, loser! (laughter)
Which I shouldn't be,
because I should be
looking instead of talking.
[♪]
MIKE: This place is like
a total picker's house of
horrors, man, I mean,
the floors are like,
[squeaking sound], it's crazy!
It's one of those globe
lamp type things right here.
Isn't that what
that is, Frankie?
FRANK: I have
to see it over here.
It's made of plastic, I think.
MIKE: You've got
good hands, bro.
FRANK: It's kind of
cool, but you know what?
MIKE: What?
FRANK: It's not old.
MIKE: Okay, I'm riskin'
my life over here, tell me
that's not old.
You don't think that's old?
FRANK: I don't think so.
MIKE: It's, like, from
the forties, it's cool.
FRANK: I don't think so.
MIKE: Alright, I like it anyway.
FRANK: Take it.
George!
Found a couple things in there.
MIKE: How about on this
stuff, like, the lamp, and
this can, 25?
GEORGE: Good deal.
MIKE: Alright, good deal.
The reason we bought the
tobacco tin and the lamp,
I mean, we still sell at
flea markets every once in
a while, and we can
make some money on it.
Alright, George.
FRANK: Can we
get this one, George?
GEORGE: Go way back.
FRANK: Alright.
Do we open this one
up, or the one back?
GEORGE: No, the hole.
There's a hole back there.
MIKE: Oh, there's a hole.
FRANK: Oh, I see it.
Let's go in here for
a second and see...
GEORGE: Good thing
they're going there, not me.
MIKE: Whoa!
FRANK: Looks like
some farm equipment stuff.
MIKE: I think this is
gonna take a while.
[♪]
It's an old door push, 'clean
made bread, thanks call again.'
This is killer! I got it.
FRANK: And we got
excited, we got a little blood
rushin', we were lookin' around,
we were climbin' over stuff.
Careful!
We were seein' things that
we possibly would like to buy.
Time slips away
when you're havin' fun.
FRANK: Oh yeah, wow.
This bad boy's been
sittin' here for a while.
It looks like a 1949 Dodge.
Probably that's a Coronet.
MIKE: See if it's open.
Man, look at it!
FRANK: Oh man, look at
the interior! Oh, this is nice
MIKE: Yeah, those are rad.
It was cool because it
had original paint, and you
just don't find stuff like this.
FRANK: Yeah, it was
a real piece of steel.
Look at these
taillights on there.
MIKE: Hey, those are rad.
FRANK: Oh, this is nice.
MIKE: That car just oozed cool.
FRANK: Yeah, that was
definitely somethin' we
wanted to talk to George about.
MIKE: Let's check that room
back where we were though.
[clock ticking]
Man, this is friggin' awesome.
Are those buggy stuffs?
FRANK: Buggy stuffs!
MIKE: Let's see what's up here.
FRANK: I guess we were
in there, like, an hour or so.
George!
MIKE: We played
this one totally wrong.
We stayed in the
barn a little bit too long.
The light was completely
gone from his face.
FRANK: We could see that
his attitude had totally changed
MIKE: How about this thing?
GEORGE: I believe
I'll keep them.
MIKE: It's really
important as a picker that
people do not feel
invaded when we're on their
property, and we made
George feel that way,
unfortunately.
You don't believe
you wanna sell it?
Alright, how about this?
How about this, what
are we thinkin' on this?
This is for the other stove?
GEORGE: Yeah.
MIKE: So we can't
buy any of this stuff?
Alright.
Well, you know what, we
don't know until we ask.
GEORGE: Right.
MIKE: And at that point,
I realized it wasn't even,
it wasn't even important
for us to ask about the
car, because he just, I
could, like, tell that we
had overstayed our welcome.
FRANK: Thanks for lettin'
us look around, we enjoyed
ourselves.
How about you, did you enjoy it?
GEORGE: Well, not
as much as you did.
[laughter]
FRANK: We found some
stuff that you thought you
didn't even have or that
you didn't know where-
GEORGE: That's nothing new.
MIKE: Seriously, I can't
tell ya how much we very
much appreciate you
lettin' us take a look around.
Really, thank you
so much, partner.
FRANK: Thanks partner!
See ya later.
MIKE: Today was a reminder
to always be aware and to
never take things for granted.
God, man, I freakin killed
my back at George's place.
FRANK: Really?
MIKE: Yeah, it hurts, man.
FRANK: Well, maybe we
should, maybe we should
find a doctor so you
can have it checked out.
You don't want it gettin' worse.
MIKE: Yeah, but the thing
is, we need to make some
money, I'm not
gonna blow this trip.
I would rather see my doctor
back home anyway, you know?
FRANK: Well, plus, we
still got more pickin' to
do in Ohio.
MIKE: I know, I know.
I think there's plenty of
back roads in Ohio we
haven't hit yet.
[♪]
MIKE: Wait, look at this place.
Right here, this looks old.
FRANK: Ah, that
looks too well-kept.
The grass is cut too much.
What about that one over there?
MIKE: It's got two
brand new cars.
Oh, there's something
we don't like to see.
Private property,
no trespassing.
Why don't you go talk to him?
I'll do a U-ey, we'll go back.
FRANK: I don't like that idea.
When it says 'no
trespassing, ' that
rejection could be more of a-
MIKE: I've always noticed
how you don't wanna do
much door knockin' after
Wednesday night ladies
night.
I think you just get so much
rejection on ladies night-
FRANK: Oh, that I can't take it?
That I haven't the stamina
for any more rejection?
That's funny.
MIKE: (laughing).
FRANK: Check that boat
out, check that boat out.
Slow down a little bit,
slow down on this one.
Pull in there.
MIKE: This looks good.
FRANK: This looks alright, yeah.
MIKE: It's your turn.
FRANK: Alright, I'll hit him
FRANK: [♪]
FRANK: The whole reason
we stopped here was because
of a boat.
It was old and rusty.
That kind of stuff tells us
that this guy is a collector.
[knock on door]
CHARLIE: Hello!
MIKE: Hey, how
you doin'? I'm Mike.
CHARLIE: You lost?
MIKE: We're from Iowa.
We buy and sell, but Frank
and I are collectors too.
CHARLIE: What do you
collect, anything special?
FRANK: We both collect
motorcycles somewhat.
MIKE: Memorabilia,
anything with advertising on it.
CHARLIE: Well,
you can look around.
MIKE: We like to hear that.
What did you want for
the boat, just real quick?
CHARLIE 2000 for it.
MIKE: 2000, alright.
FRANK: He gave me a
price right off the bat, $2000.
He didn't say how much
will you give me for it, I
don't know if I wanna sell
it, blah blah blah so that
gave me the first inclination
on where the guy was at.
[♪]
MIKE: Wow.
Well, I can see why you
had to build on, Charlie.
CHARLIE: Yeah.
MIKE: When Charlie opened
the door and we saw the
motorcycles, my heart
gets goin', man, I don't care
how long we've been
doin' this, you're gonna get
your heart rate up.
FRANK: You ride dirt bikes, huh?
CHARLIE: Yes, 50 years.
I rode one of the H-1s
when they first came out,
and it was pretty amazing.
FRANK: Pretty fast.
CHARLIE: Yeah.
MIKE: I mean, how unusual
is it for us to freestyle,
and meet a guy that's into
the same stuff that we are?
FRANK: So this Yamaha
here, this is like, what, 1976?
CHARLIE: 'Round that, yeah.
FRANK: '76, this is a TT
bike, a 500, a real classy
and durable bike.
What's somethin'
like that worth?
CHARLIE: Oh, around a thousand.
MIKE: A thousand bucks.
FRANK: He seems like
he's right on the money on the
bikes, you know what I mean?
CHARLIE: There's the good stuff.
MIKE: I'll go first, Frankie.
FRANK: Oh, I
don't like that idea.
MIKE: Oh my god,
look at all this stuff!
(laughing)
CHARLIE: I keep
discovering things.
I don't know what I've got.
[♪]
MIKE: A lot of people, they
don't dig as much as we do, man.
FRANK: Right, they don't dig.
MIKE: They don't get
down and dirty and they don't
get under [censored],
they don't do all that stuff.
I feel like I'm goin'
downhill, man, my back
hurts, my knee hurts.
It's all hittin' me at once.
Ain't that the way it
usually happens, Charlie?
CHARLIE: Yeah, yeah.
FRANK: Charlie, uh, how
old do you think this is?
CHARLIE: I'd say around 1940.
FRANK: You know how it
says Remington Portable
right there?
I couldn't imagine it being
over 80 bucks, maybe.
I know that it probably
might have cost more back
then than they get for 'em
these days, you know what
I mean?
The Remington typewriter,
it was in great condition,
but there's thousands and
thousands of 'em around.
There's no money
to be made on 'em.
Hey Charlie, how much
is the hawk up here?
CHARLIE: Hundred dollars.
If you want it for a
hundred, I might sell it.
FRANK: He's pretty neat.
CHARLIE: He was supposedly
over a hundred years old
when I got him 30 years ago.
FRANK: The reason I
would think about purchasing
something like that is
because I believe that you
can't have hawks anymore.
CHARLIE: I thought I
priced it out of range.
FRANK: Mike, buddy, could
you help me get that down
since you're taller than me?
MIKE: (hawk
sounds) It really stinks.
Oh man, he'd be on
your side of the van, bro.
He smells like sumo
wrestler took a dump on a
burning tire.
Are you interested in this?
FRANK: Ah, you better put it up.
It's not a hundred
dollars neat to me.
It's 50 dollars neat, though!
CHARLIE: No...
MIKE: Charlie's
a pretty savvy guy.
All the prices he was
givin' us was exactly what
we could sell it for.
Step into my office, Frankie.
If you see somethin' that
you wanna buy, don't say
you want it.
You know what I mean,
go, okay, this is 20, let me
think about it, so we got
a pile, you know what I
mean, so he's givin' us
a number, but we're not
saying whether or
not we're takin' it.
I figured we'd have a
better chance at lowering
Charlie's prices if we
piled up everything we were
interested in and offered
him one price for everything.
Charlie!
CHARLIE: What did you find?
MIKE: I found this old
license plate, 1958 Ohio.
That's gotta be priceless.
A lot of people
collect license plates.
They're lookin' for
specific states, they're
lookin' for specific years.
They wanna continue that
collection that they're doing.
MIKE: I found these
old pennants too.
I like the little chick
in the one-piece.
I'd probably pay more if she
had a two-piece, but you know.
And then statue of
liberty, I've got a friend
that lives in New York,
so what I'll do is I'll start
a pile right here.
FRANK: Hey Charlie?
CHARLIE: Yo, what did you find?
FRANK: I dunno, you're
gonna have to tell me about this.
It went like that?
CHARLIE: Yeah. You might
get over to this end and get a
better tone.
FRANK: It's portable, it
had a great wooden case.
Musical stuff is collectable.
MIKE: It says xylophone, $48.
But the thing is, the
xylophone market totally
fell out, didn't it?
FRANK: Yeah, yeah.
MIKE: You'd be lucky to
get 8 bucks for that now.
CHARLIE: Oh...
FRANK: I'll put it in the
pile, I can always take it
out of the pile.
[♪]
MIKE: This is a sales
brochure for a Delorean.
Presenting the Delorean-what
are you gonna have for that?
CHARLIE: Probably 20.
MIKE: 20 bucks. The
Delorean car brochure was killer,
it's for a very rare car.
I know collectors that
would bite my hand off to
get at that thing.
[♪]
Alright, I'm gonna
throw this on my pile.
FRANK: How
about this little guy?
I don't think it's real old?
CHARLIE: Maybe 50s, 60s, 50s.
FRANK: The reason I
stuck the Japanese tin car on
was because it had great
graphics, it was a very
collectable piece.
I think he's worthy of my pile.
What are you findin',
Mike, anything?
MIKE: Oh, tons of gold dubloons.
FRANK: I know, 'cause when
you get quiet, I get nervous.
MIKE: This is a
bicycle odometer.
Mounting bracket's there
so it can still be mounted.
Basically, you'd have a
piece, and it'd click that
as it went by.
That thing's from the turn
of the century, that thing
would go on, like,
a wood rim bicycle.
I loved that piece.
[♪]
Uh, broken windshield
it looks like, huh?
FRANK: Uh, they were made
in West Germany, they had
a great following.
A lot of the Schuco
stuff had multiple actions,
which made them
very collectible.
[♪]
MIKE: What do you think
on somethin' like that?
CHARLIE: 50.
MIKE: 50 bucks. See, I always
pickin' out the expensive stuff.
FRANK: That's 'cause
you're always goin' first
and I'm back here.
FRANK: All right Charlie.
Frank! I found a killer piece.
CHARLIE: Horse hide.
That was a personal
coat for a while.
MIKE: This was your coat?
CHARLIE: Yeah,
I've worn that a lot.
MIKE: What would you
want for somethin' like this?
CHARLIE: Oh, that
oughta be 40 but I'll take 30.
MIKE: 30 bucks?
Alright, I'll try it on, see
how it'll fit here.
CHARLIE: Classic
style, isn't it?
MIKE: It's gonna
clean up super well.
It just had that broke
in, worn out feel that you
just can't get with a new coat.
You and me are about
the same size, Charlie.
FRANK: Yeah, it
looks good on you.
Is there any gold-
MIKE: Whoa, man,
this was your lucky coat!
Would you throw those in?
CHARLIE: Oh yeah.
MIKE: Alright, I'll take it.
I'll probably enjoy this
as much as you did.
CHARLIE: Yeah.
MIKE: Let's take our stuff
out of this room that we
want, that we're interested in.
That we haven't
committed to yet.
CHARLIE: Goin'
to the haggle area.
MIKE: Goin' to the haggle box.
[♪]
CHARLIE: You wanna
make me a good offer?
I wouldn't trust you guys. I
come up with, uh, 335. Yeah.
FRANK: He had every
price written down what he
quoted us, so when he
put it in the pile, he didn't
really come down any.
MIKE: Well, you don't
blame him, 'cause he knew,
he knew we were gonna kick him.
Let's add up this stuff
ourselves, Frankie.
FRANK: We have a racer,
we have a little film cutter.
You wanted 20 for this.
MIKE: That looks dangerous.
FRANK: You have a little
Schuco German wind-up car.
MIKE: 50, missin' the
windshield and the key.
FRANK: We have,
let's go 25 on this.
I only wanna go 20 on this.
I try not to pressure
somebody too much.
MIKE: And that's a fine
line we have to walk.
I mean, the thing is, if
we see somethin' that we
really want, and I tell
you that we're not leaving
this property without it,
yeah, we're gonna kick
him, but we're not gonna
kick him so hard that he's
gonna say fah, you
know, get off my property.
FRANK: Yeah, it's
not for sale now, boom.
MIKE: 240, or
are we too far off?
CHARLIE: Alright.
MIKE: What do I owe you
for the leather coat, 20?
CHARLIE: Yeah.
MIKE: Alright, let's get
this stuff loaded, Frank.
CHARLIE: I got
screwed with my pants on.
I should be carrying something.
FRANK: Ah, don't worry about it.
I think it was fantastic.
It was a great stop, it
was a great cold call.
MIKE: Okay, thanks, seriously.
CHARLIE: Alright.
MIKE: One of my favorite
things that I bought at
Charlie's house
was that leather coat.
I mean, leather
coats are expensive.
[♪]
You know what man, for a
cold call, I'm happy as hell.
I mean, I got that Delorean
book, that was really cool.
[♪]
That odometer is
a really good piece.
I mean, you could have
just a regular wood-rim
bicycle and you dress it
up with accessories like
that, boom, the price
jumps right way up.
I'm happy as hell
to get that thing.
[♪]
We got that Schuco car cheap.
FRANK: The Schuco had a
lot of writing on the bottom.
Well, if it had been used
a lot, all that'd be gone,
so that's why I'm gonna
say that's two bills easy.
MIKE: Really? Killer.
[♪]
FRED: He put [♪]
MIKE: When we're out
freestyle pickin' we'll stop
at a place because we see
an old car, we see a shed
door that's open or a
garage door might be open,
we kinda see somethin' in there.
FRANK: I see a '57 Chevrolet.
MIKE: '57?
FRANK: Yeah, he must
be pretty proud of it 'cause
he's got it out.
MIKE: So we're pullin' up,
and in the back, we could
see all this junk, so
we decided to stop.
Alright, let me do the talkin'.
I'm Mike!
FRANK: I'm Frank!
MIKE: This is our flyer.
It's basically like just a
general list of the kind
of stuff we're lookin' for.
FRED: I might have
a little bit of everything
down here you got on the list.
MIKE: Yeah, as I was
gonna say, it looks like you've
got a little bit of
everything, we were
checkin' out your outbuilding.
You know, if you wanna
show us around, that'd be cool.
FRED: I can do that.
MIKE: I was encouraged
'cause, you know, he had a
lot of stuff layin' around.
FRANK: Right, um, it
didn't look like too good
of stuff, but hey,
you never know..
FRED: That's a
circular staircase.
MIKE: Gotcha. Those
are somethin' neat.
Do you have the railing
and the centre pole, though?
FRED: All I have is the steps.
FRANK: I was interested
in the cast iron spiral
staircase until Fred told
us what each step was.
FRED: $50 a piece on those.
MIKE: How much?
FRANK: 50 a piece?
Is that delivered?
FRED: No! That's
right where they lay.
FRANK: That's when I
realized that his prices
are probably gonna be too high.
FRED: Now, you might be
interested in a fire hydrant.
FRANK: No, we
see a lot of those.
FRED: My old Ford
tractor, of course.
MIKE: Wow, tractors.
Everybody's got one.
FRED: Yeah, it seems
like everybody's got one.
FRANK: The highlight of
the stuff that was outside
was definitely Fred's
immaculate 1957 Chevrolet.
[♪]
FRED: This is the 210 model.
FRANK: The 210, right. What
is something like this valued at?
FRED: Somewhere
between 20 and $40,000.
My father bought this car
new back in '57 and then
he put it in his garage
and it sat in there for
about 25 years and
I've had it ever since.
This car's never been
touched as far as, uh,
body work on it, so
this is original paint-
MIKE: Oh, it's original paint!
FRANK: Watch the way it
goes backwards and then
sinks down, isn't that neat?
MIKE: That's really cool.
FRANK: Well, it's a
family heirloom, it's
priceless, you know.
MIKE: I mean, this is
something to be proud of,
this is awesome that you
guys have, uh, you know,
maintained it this way,
it's beautiful, it really is.
[♪]
We didn't even try to
haggle him down on that
car, I mean, it was
a family heirloom.
It was obviously goin' nowhere.
FRED: Well, let me go in
my building and open the
door here.
FRANK: Okay, well, I'm ready.
MIKE: Frank and I never
get tired of when we go to
a place and the guy
opens those big doors.
[♪]
Now, after the door opens,
that's a different story.
Wow.
You know, we're thinkin'
maybe his collection will
be of some type of quality.
[♪]
You know, after we
looked around a little bit, we
could tell he was one
of those guys that get
everything at an auction
that nobody wanted.
FRED: You see the
globes up on top?
They were from
street lights uptown.
FRANK: Was that an
auction you got those from?
FRED: Yeah, city auction.
Got some cute
little workbenches.
MIKE: Oh yeah, sure.
FRED: This is stuff here,
there's a couple bicycles
back here, neon signs.
FRANK: Neon signs, alright
FRED: Big mail
pouch, that's a big one.
FRANK: The tobacco
sign was beautiful, it was in
great condition.
I was really into it. How
much is somethin' like this?
FRED: Oh... about $4000.
FRANK: $4000!?
4000? Whoa, hang
on to me. Catch me.
Get the smelling salt out.
That's, uh, a good
piece to have.
FRED: It's, uh, wing feeds.
FRANK: Of course it is.
That's whatcha get your...
FRED: And you see
there's a coffee grinder here.
FRANK: Mm-hmm. He's wantin'
to push the junk towards us,
and the good stuff, he's
wantin' a trillion dollars for.
FRED: That's a drill bit thing.
FRANK: Why didja buy
this, just, it was cheap?
MIKE: Alright, which
way's the honeyhole?
As a picker, you have
to keep diggin' through all
the trash, because you
never know what killer
item might be around the corner.
[♪]
MIKE: He's a great guy,
he wants us to look through
everything, and I don't
have a problem doin' that...
if there's good stuff.
FRED: Find anything
that looks good?
MIKE: Nothin' I
can't live without.
I like the doorknob.
FRANK: Got it? It was startin'
to look like we weren't gonna
find anything on this pick,
and then I found the old
wooden box.
This is kind of nice,
it's dovetailed, it's got
different hardware on
it, you can set it down.
Leather strap.
What do you want for this, Fred?
FRED: 25.
FRANK: 25. You interested, Mike?
MIKE: Uh... I'm
interested for 10.
FRED: 15.
MIKE: I'll do 15.
FRANK: Mike's poppin' on it.
MIKE: I'll pop it.
That was definitely the
turning point on that pick.
Finally I see
somethin' I can pop on.
15 bucks on that
piece was a great price.
It was definitely
worth more than that.
The guy that's into
aviation, he's gonna love this.
FRED: He's gonna love that box.
He don't care what's in it.
MIKE: I mean just, like,
up on a shelf you know.
And then we walked around
and the sign was there.
FRED: This has been layin'
against the building there
for about seven years.
MIKE: And that's like,
so we see-there you go.
The big sign was so awesome.
Grab that one and throw
it over there, and I'll grab
one and throw it, and
we'll just kind of figure it out.
So we took it out, threw
it on the ground, spread
it all out so we could
actually see what was there.
There's a D, where's the U?
FRED: Drugs.
MIKE: Oh, okay,
I see right there.
Okay, let's do this one.
I feel like Vanna White.
FRED: (laughing) You
have it upside down.
MIKE: Okay, so we got drugs.
The panels are all porcelain.
FRED: Yes, all porcelain.
They're all in good shape.
MIKE: I love the colour,
I mean, they're real
vibrant, it's real bright still.
FRED: These are probably...
go back into the 50s?
MIKE: You used to shop
here when you were kids?
FRED: Yes. It was one of
the main drug stores in town.
MIKE: Tell you what,
anything that's porcelain,
it just seems that it
lasts the test of time,
doesn't it, Frankie?
FRANK: You bet. Well, what
are you thinkin' on this thing?
MIKE: The sign was so
cool I was expecting a really
high number on it.
FRED: I hope you'll
load it for nothin'.
MIKE: Oh, it's free?
FRED: It's free.
MIKE: So anything I sell it
for is pure profit. ( laughing )
It goes to show in picking
that you never give up.
Things can turn around
if you put in the effort.
FRANK: Another example of
the ups and downs of picking.
[♪]
MIKE: It's got great
graphics on it, it's cool.
For 15 bucks, heck, like
Frank says, you can't get
pizza for that.
FRED: You're right.
[♪]
MIKE: I'm always teasin'
him about buyin' oil cans,
and he's always teasing me
about buying stuff that's huge.
And that's heavy.
[♪]
Uh! That's my back.
My back has been
gettin' worse on this trip.
I pick up the sign and
boom, that's where it went.
FRED: Thanks again!
MIKE: Ugh, my back.
That sign at Fred's
kicked my butt, dude.
FRANK: There's no
use in gettin' it worse.
Maybe we should just
head in, get in so you can see
your chiro.
You know me when I
don't feel good, bam, I'm
taking, I'm done.
MIKE: You think our
picker's union insurance
will cover it?
FRANK: I don't think so.
MIKE: We'[♪]g
[♪]
MIKE: My back was a total mess.
I decided to admit defeat.
I gotta get it checked out.
[♪]
I'm goin' to my chiropractor.
When my back's out
like this, it makes me feel
completely helpless.
I can't do anything
with my business.
I mean, if I don't take
care of my back, it could
be more than one or two
days, it could be a week.
I got the back of, like,
an 85 year old man, so...
I'm walking with a
bad mamma-jamma.
JAY: Mike, uh, basically,
you're messed up.
One of the joints in
your back is super hot, it's
swollen up, and it
basically pushes it over.
Pain and discomfort
displaces it.
I'd take a couple
weeks off, honestly.
[♪]
MIKE: And what's
my other option?
I mean, taking two weeks
off is definitely not an option.
JAY: Well, you gotta be careful.
I mean, otherwise what
you can do is you can reduce
lifting and stuff that way.
You wanna be careful
if you are lifting you're
using your legs.
Get out at rest stops.
It's a good idea.
Basically, they're an
hour apart, get out, walk
around, and keep
yourself movin'.
MIKE: Well, thanks for
seein' me on such short
notice, I mean, we're only
in town for just a day or
two and I had to
get this taken care of.
I just left Dr. J's.
His prognosis for the
whole situation was for me
to take two weeks off of work.
That is absolutely
not gonna happen.
Danielle's found too many
leads, and Frank would be
freakin' out if I went
back and told him that.
I'm just gonna have to
make sure I don't complain
too much because
those guys already think I
complain too much as it is.
[♪]
MIKE: Wow look at that.
I didn't even notice
that when we bought it.
FRANK: I know. Look
at t his little dance floor.
This thing is awesome cool.
Kenny'll be able to tell
us when he gets here what
the scoop is on it.
You know he's Mr. Jukebox.
You know, with Mike
when we're out pickin' and
stuff, we don't claim to
be antique appraisers or
antique dealers, so
we called in, uh, Kenny
'cause he's the
jukebox vending guy.
[cross-talk]
MIKE: The reason we
bought that it just because we
thought it looked cool.
FRANK: Well, it looks cool
and we thought we got a
halfway decent deal on it.
What have we got?
MIKE; He's always dealt
in really high quality stuff.
He's a really good source.
He's gonna be able to
tell us exactly if we wasted
our $1300 bucks or
if we got a good buy.
KENNY: Well, it's a 1948,
it's a 1428 model, and I
can see just by that 45
record layin' there that
it's been switched over.
This thing would
have played 33s.
FRANK: I had been told
that if you can see the
arm pick it up, take it,
click it down, that people
wanna see that stuff.
KENNY: Exactly. They'll
take the records out and play
it right in front of you.
So whether it's Rock-Ola
or Seabird or Wurlitzer,
the top three, I mean,
that's what people want.
You've got four lights
on the top, and so this is
lit up really pretty
inside here, and you're
fortunate none of
this stuff's cracked.
FRANK: Uh-huh. Plug it
on in, see if we got anything.
MIKE: Zzt-zzt.
FRANK: Yeah. That's
original equipment, 1948.
KENNY: It's corded out
[crackling electricity sound]
MIKE: Whoa! It just did.
KENNY: It's broke there,
it's been taped three or
four places.
FRANK: And just rewire
it, get some good wire on it.
KENNY: Just put a
new type of wire on it.
FRANK: Okay. Could you give
us some type of estimate you
would think, operating?
KENNY: It could
bring $5000. Okay.
A number one machine
in the book shows $6000.
MIKE: I am kind of jacked
up about gettin' it lit now.
FRANK: The jukebox is
amazing, we got a great
price on it.
[♪]
MIKE: Is this thing rad or what?
DANIELLE: This
is just incredible!
Did you see, inside
there's a little stage!
MIKE: Yeah. Danielle, you've
got a whole lot of cleanin'
to do, we're gonna go
home and take a nap.
I'm gonna give my back a rest.