Auction Hunters – My New Insanity

Yes I do need more reality TV, thank you!

It’s no secret that I’m completely addicted to Hoarders.  And Hoarding: Buried Alive.  And What Not to Wear.  My last shred of pride is that I refuse to watch anything featuring a Kardashian.  It’s a small shred.

While letting my teenager control the remote, I discovered a new potential cable reality addiction – Auction Hunters.  It actually makes sense – it’s sort of a logical extension of hoarding shows.  These two guys – Allen Haff and Ton (that’s right – “Ton”, got a problem with that?) Jones – bid on the contents of abandoned storage units in hopes of scoring antiques, collectibles and anything worth money.  Their goal is to sell the contents for at least twice what they paid for each unit.

They’re an interesting pair.  They love to play with the toys the find in the units they buy – guns, antique music machines, sporting equipment, you name it.  And they seem to know all the right experts for getting their treasures appraised as well as finding a buyer.

My first thought is that most of these units were going to be filled with hoards – trash and used diapers and old food.  But it turns out that the entire world of storage units is not filled with hoarders!  Also, the shows are clearly edited to show the best and most interesting finds.  But watching them pull an original antique Thomas Edison phonograph from inside an old armoire is really pretty cool.

Sometimes I’m surprised because I think their finds should be worth more than they get – but they know their market.  An appraisal value is very different from a selling price.  They like to turn things around quickly and sell to dealers, not collectors – so they know the items need to get marked up again.

It’s amazing what people abandon.  I definitely wonder what happened to the folks who collected all this valuable stuff – did they fall on hard times and become unable to make the storage payments?  Did they forget about the stuff?  Are they just really high end hoarders?

Auction Hunters is a half hour show that you should definitely watch via DVR if you have the option.  They love their commercials.  It plays on Spike TV, seemingly all the time.  I’m not entirely sure what it’s real time slot is.  If you watch one of their marathons the show will get old pretty fast, but a few episodes at a time is pretty fun.  If you like Hoarders, check it out – it’s another perspective on other people’s stuff.  You can also get it per episode on Amazon.  Sweet!

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