Quote Originally Posted by griffin View Post
One show I can't stand anymore is Auction Hunters (the pair of guys bidding on storage containers). They get some huge dollars from the items they re-sell, but excessively haggle over the re-sell price just so that they make even more money, and always walk away as the dominant party in the transactions. Like, selling an item for $10,000 that they only paid a few hundred for - why wouldn't you accept $8,000 being offered... and those people need a profit margin to resell it as well. (the pair are often asking at stores for a valuation, and when that store can only offer about half to make their own profit margin, the pair squeeze them for as close as to the value as possible... often just to make sure they have the final say/haggle) It's fascinating to see the treasures they sometimes dig up, but the arrogance of their haggling over items they are already making thousands of dollars profit on, puts me off watching it.
Keep in mind that the show only discusses their standout finds, they probably have 50 - 80% more items that they don't do so well on. Last night was interesting, they went all the way to Alaska, made around 10K and that was the show. Driving all the way there from the US proper would have taken the better part of at lest half a week.

Discounting the money they are making from doing a TV show, I wonder how many of these 'pickers' were making a 'good' income from this prior to their show? and do the collectors they buy from especially on this toy show, get a commision/appearance fee?