Showbiz USA Now Starring on TV: Your


Networks are cashing in on the parallel trends of bargain hunting and By Alan Cooper


I


N THE PAST YEAR, THERE’S BEEN AN explosion in new TV shows focus- ing on ordinary objects many of us have socked away in closets, garages, attics, basements, and barns.


p


shops, antique auctions, collectibles, and even abandoned storage are all over TV. Though


a new summer game show on NBC starring “the hidden gems found in one’s attic.”


Shows about estate sales, pawn- pg shops, antique auctions, collectibles, and even abandoned storage units Though the shows


common question: What’s it worth? “We have a fascination with fi nd- ing out what things are worth,” says Cari Cucksey, a Michigan organizer of estate sales and yard sales, and star of Cash & Cari on HGTV (Home andCash & Cari Garden Television). On her show, Cucksey and her staff are seen enter- ing people’s homes, assessing the hoped-for value of the objects they ,


come at their subjects from a variety angles, they all seek to answer one common question: What’s it worth? “We have a fascination with fi nd- ing out what things are worth,” says Cari Cucksey, a Michigan organizer of estate sales and yard sales, and star


come at their subjects from a variety of angles, they


Garden Television). On her show, Cucksey and her staff are seen enter- ing people’s homes, assessing the hoped-for value of the objects they fi nd there, organizing a sale, and then tallying up the take.


It’s Worth What? is even the? is even the title of one of the newer entries in the category,


then tallying up the take. It’s Worth What?


title of one of the newer entries in the category,


A&E’s Storage Wars; and the granddaddy of them all, Antiques Roadshow on PBS. For TV’s experts it all comes


TruTV’s A&E’s


Sto grandd


down to collectability. “There truly is a collector for everything,” says Cucksey, “from old vinyl [78-, 45-, and 33-RPM records], to Matchbox cars to old ephemera [such as] old paper, old magazines, and old advertising.”


Antiques Ro For TV’s c


is a collect Cucksey, “ and 33-RPM cars to old as] old pape and old adv


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Cash & Cari — along with TV’s other estate-sale show, Big Brian: The Fortune Seller on TruTV — are just 2 of the more than 20 shows in this expanding category that are either on the air currently or between sea- sons. Among the most popular are History Channel’s Pawn Stars and American Pickers; TruTV’s


on the air c sons. Amo are Histor Stars


Hardcore Pawn;


“There are so many people who collect even the smallest things,” marvels Mike Wolfe, the star of American Pickers. On his show, Wolfe and pal Frank Fitz take their van on roadtrips into rural America in search of homes where they think the homeowner might be hoarding a treasure trove of collectibles. What’s the giveaway? Usually, it’s a yard visibly full of old cars, motorcycles,


bicycles,


tools, miscellaneous machinery, and vintage signs.


AMERICAN PICKERS


CASH & CARI


PAWN STARS


AMERICAN RESTORATION


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