With a few exceptions, there is currently very little watchable AND enjoyable programming on network television these days. Most of the programs that I personally look forward to are on cable – specifically Discovery and History channels.
There is a genre of reality-based series on those channels that are “must-see-TV” for me and they are American Pickers, Pawn Stars and Storage Wars. The basic premise of each is treasure hunting in some manner or another. However, what each of the shows have in common is that they seem to be a quasi-hybrid between PBS’s Antiques Roadshow and Monty Hall’s Let’s Make a Deal- bottom line it’s great TV.
The most recent addition to my weekly DVR agenda is Storage Wars. This is a program that follows four different thrift shop owners in the greaterLos Angeles area who bid against each other for the contents of storage units that come up for auction. The units are usually crammed with stuff that the previous owners have abandoned from defaulting on the storage units’ rent for several months. As such, the “landlord” of the storage facility holds auctions to empty the units and make storage room for paying customers.
What’s interesting about this show is that the bidders are not allowed to step into the unit, touch any of the goods and can only visually scan the unit for 2 minutes before the auction begins – please bear with me, I will make a point with all this…..
So the Storage War bidders have to have a good eye and quick judgment to quickly estimate value of the goods they’re evaluating so they can acquire the prospective inventory at the right price that they can then resell for a profit.
During a recent Storage Wars episode, the newest 20-something shop owner named Jared had lost several auctions to the other veteran bidders on this particular episode – and Jared vowed to win the next storage unit up for bid. When the unit was opened for a visual scan, there were a few random cardboard boxes, some newspapers and old bottles as well as an old-looking, large combination safe in the middle of the floor [see photo insert above].
Jared wanted the safe because he fictionalized in his head that it was “likely” filled with riches, gems, gold bars, bearer bonds, land deeds….etc. After some frenetic hand-wringing bidding by Jared, he won the gamble with a hefty bid of nearly $1,500. Unfortunately, when Jared paid and entered the storage unit to see what he purchased – he was crushed when he opened the safe and found it was completely empty.
Understandably, Jared kind of freaked out a bit and carried on – regretting that he’d have to explain his $1,500 loss on an empty safe to his assertive newlywed wife and business partner. Yikes!
But here’s the point of the anecdote….
One of the competing, veteran store owners named David immediately came over to Jared and tried to calm him down. David told Jared not to worry about the money spent on the deal, because even though there wasn’t actual treasure inside the combination vault per se, the actual safe itself was a Diebold turn-of-the-century single-door floor vault with all its original parts in working order – making it a highly collectible antique.
Ultimately Jared sold the antique safe for nearly $3,000.
This different perspective and insight struck me and got me thinking about the areas of my life or people in my life that I mistakenly overvalue or undervalue on a daily basis.
How about you???
