Well, since this is my last “passion” post relating to all things treasure, I figure I should leave you with a few television shows that will continue to show you the great thrill of the hunt. Of course there are so many out there on History Channel and Discovery Channel that I love to watch. It’s amazing to see the kinds of things that people can find all over the country, where they find them, and especially how they came across them. I’ll give you a little synopsis of a few I’ve watched many times.
Auction Hunters
– Auction Hunters – This show gives “treasure hunting” a different perspective. The stars of the show, Allen and Ton, travel around the country in search for storage unit auctions. When a person with a storage unit doesn’t pay their rent for a set amount of time, their unit can go up for auction to the public. The trick to these auctions, though, is that they don’t always know what’s actually in the unit, what they’re bidding on. Usually the auctioneer will give the crowd a few minutes for everyone to get a look at the unit. However, they aren’t allowed to touch anything. So behind that gigantic dirty old couch could be pirate’s treasure chest – or nothing. Allen and Ton are experienced and use clues of the objects they can see and judge what else the person could have hid inside the unit. You’d be surprised what some people have!
American Pickers
– American Pickers – Mike and Frank are a duo of “pickers” who travel the country and love to get down and dirty looking for valuable antiques and collectibles in people’s own collections and junk yards. While they find so many great treasures on the show and make a pretty good profit, one of my favorite things about this show is the people they run into on the show. Usually the people they find have such unique stories of how they got involved in “picking” and their personalities are almost always just as unique. The people can be seen as treasures themselves.
Antiques Roadshow
– The Antiques Roadshow – I grew up with The Antiques Roadshow on PBS, so obviously it’s my favorite. The Antique Roadshow is a traveling group of antique appraisers who travel the United States and who welcome anyone to bring their antique belongings to be analyzed by professionals. I don’t know if there’s a permanent group of appraisers that travel the country or not, but I do know they have appraisers who specialize in certain areas of cultures and arts in different areas they travel to. Whether the guest has an idea of what their item is worth – or even an idea of what their item is – or not, the appraisers on The Antique Roadshow always seem to figure out just how much it’s worth and explain the history of each.
I’ve seen just about everything on the collection of antique and collectibles shows I watch. It’s amazing what people find and how something can be worth millions of dollars and was just found in the closet. So, I hope this little list will open you up to a world of antiques and treasures that will continue my stories of the thrill of treasure hunting. Enjoy!
Works Cited:
http://www.sentryjournal.com/2011/03/08/history-channels-american-pickers/
http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Antiques-Roadshow-2013-Box-Daily-Calendar-Posters_i8928425_.htm