JoeSantana wrote: In the beginning the show was about taking people because they didn't know the value of something. I think they must have received a lot of pushback from viewers, especially when they took a 90-something veteran and a kindly 85-year-old widow.
But I've watched a lot of episodes and to me it's about the long-time relationship of Mike and Frank, their styles of picking, and the people they meet, many of whom are tough old birds, male and female, negotiating on prices of things they have piled to the ceiling covered in rust and dust.
They don't show any real expertise is cars, so I never expect them to be accurate. Motorcycles and bicycles they know a lot more about than most people, so I find that interesting.
Their biggest pick, $90K, was right here in Oregon near Salem from a collection of a guy who never sold anything while he was alive.
The "negotiating" of prices is basically the reading of a script. Most of this stuff is just acting, no matter how real it may seem to some watching it.
Knowledgeable with motorcycles and bicycles? Maybe motorcycles. But bicycles? It may SEEM like they know a lot... but it just SEEMS that way. As with the wild stories of Packard bicycles, it is easy to dazzle people with what seems to be knowledge when those listening don't know any better. And it SEEMS easy these days to feign knowledge of vintage bicycles; just by repeating things from gossip forums and DIY web sites.
And when the guys are giving little talks about car or bicycle history... and cute little "historical" inserts are shown during the recitations of all this, it is important to remember one important thing. What you hear and see is not necessarily from the brain of one person. Rather, there is a whole staff of (for lack of a better term) "fact checkers" and researchers who put all of the little factoid stuff together for the show. And they have the good 'ol internet. So don't confuse all this with one or two persons reciting personal knowledge. It's a TV show. And that TV show has the dough to pay for know-even if the know is weak or wrong. In the earlier days they were a lot more careless (as in the case of the "1939 Plymouth").
Years ago, I got an email from one of the experts when I corrected several things said on TV that were dead wrong. The email questioned why I would want to "ruin the fun"? That was bad enough. But the writer went further on to claim that HE was "sitting next to Frank Schwinn" years ago commiserating when the Leslie Hindman auction of the Schwinn collection took place. OMG! I asked, "Which Frank? Frank V? Or Frank W.?" He could not answer. It didn't make any difference. Both Franks were dead at that time, so sitting next to one and talking with him at the auction would have been a neat trick!
I catch the show on TV occasionally (usually when in a hotel on a trip), but I never take any of it seriously. The only fun I have with it is getting a peek into so many different collections. Otherwise, it's just TV.... entertainment.
