MTFCA Forum

Was in neighboring LeClaire IA and stopped by American Picker's Antique Archeology shop. Came across a vintage RAJO I thought it might be of interest to some.

Did you ask what the "Not for Sale" price was ?

You may have missed seeing the NFS Tag on the head cover "Not For Sale" as are most of he treasures in there buildings in LeClaire. What they sell are "American Archeology" logo merchandise (T shirts, signs, cups, hats, fly swatters, oil cans, and etc. However they do have lots of items to gawk at. Perhaps the stuff for sale is in Nashville.

They got busted a couple of times for "Staging" their finds, ask me how I know? They approached me about using some of my weird mechanical items. Offered a good "user's" fee with insurance, etc., and the answer of course was "NO"! Very unethical.

Hank in dim dar hills

Was in the Nashville store in Aug '18. Much of what they had out was display only. I did get to dmsee the famousVon Dutch VW Bike.
Nothing but Antique Archaeology swag for sale. Tourist bus route stop.

We went to the Nashville store last summer. Lots of NFS (not for sale) items, but there was also a bunch of items for sale. Its hard to deal on the items that are for sale. I wanted to buy one of the moonshine stills. They had 2 of them. One NFS and the other one was 400.00. I offered 300.00 and they did come down to 360.00 (10%) The sales people can only come down 10%. So I left it there. They took my phone number in case it was reduced in price. 2 days later while we were driving the Natche's Trace scenic byway, they called and said they would take the 300.00 for it. I said I would if they would pay the shipping to my address in Arkansas. Never heard back from them . I have been a picker a long time. Even the NFS items can be bought. You just have to get serious. The little NFS signs stop the tire kickers from bugging them.

Seeing the Von Dutch motorcycle was worth the stop

So where the hell is all the stuff that they buy on the show and say this will sell in this shop or that shop if all they sell is their t shirts? Boy I dont even want to watch that show anymore after what you guys said

It is a TV SHOW. What were you expecting. They find private collectors and lease the goods for a specific amount of time. False hope and prophets praying on others.

Hank

Next your gonna tell me that Gilligan wasnt really trapped on that island?

"Those poor people...."

Are you telling me that Fred McMurray didn't fly that 1915 Roadster with his Flubber? I have been looking on the Classified Forum, eBay and Craigslist for Flubber since I bought my Model T. Sooooooo disappointed!

I saw the episode where they got the Rajo. They totally low balled the guy, I was screaming at the TV. The show kinda pisses me off.

Tim Williams wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 16, 2019 11:10 am

I saw the episode where they got the Rajo. They totally low balled the guy, I was screaming at the TV. The show kinda pisses me off.

That's almost certainly not what they actually paid.

"Reality" TV is bunk.

Several years ago I bought some NOS car parts from the Swedish guy who appeared on Gas Monkey Garage a few times. He was a super nice guy and, after an afternoon spent loading about 1,000 NOS parts into a trailer, he and I rested for a while and had a nice chat. He told me that he and the show's star agreed on a price for a car off-camera. Then, the producer said part of the deal was that he had to agree being filmed negotiating a price that was $10K higher than what the actual deal was. He wanted the car, so he agreed.

He got such a steal of a deal that he returned to the program a couple times to buy other cars, both times filming a "deal" that made the tv personality look like he'd come out much better than he actually did.

Also...the "fakeness" notwithstanding...one has to remember that a picker/re-seller has to buy things with enough potential profit to return a good margin. So, a real picker can't pay anywhere close to retail for things. I used to do a lot of this sort of thing with old car parts, but not so much anymore (I'm too busy with work and kids) but when I did, I typically wouldn't mess with it unless I could double my money. Anything less than that and I would just be messing around and not making any real money. These days, I tend to buy high, then sell low or just outright give stuff away.

I have been to both stores. As already stated above, most of the affordable merchandise this affiliated with the show. I think that they cater to clients that have a higher expendable income than I have.

I also watched the episode where they purchased the head. For the price that they paid the old gent was equal to theft in my opinion. At least Jesse James used a gun. HA!

What would be a reasonable price be for a head like that?

Don, Thanks for the insight on this. I knew stuff was staged but to the extent I wasn't sure.

Kim, At least I wasn't the only one who was having a fit watching that episode.

I still watch the show, I like to see the items they find. Mike and Frank are both rather annoying and sometimes I just turn the sound down and watch. Dani is a bit much also, and I'm a biker of sorts.
It's pretty obvious that it's all staged.
Some of the absolute garbage they pay big bucks for is ridiculous. Patina is one thing, but junk is junk...