Categories
GUEST EDITOR

From The Desk Of They Might Be Giants: I Heart “American Pickers”

TMBGLogoPerhaps it’s poetic license that has seen They Might Be Giants—Johns Flansburgh and Linnell—through a voluminous series of ups, downs and holding patterns over its three decades in operation. TMBG’s second adult album in five years and its 16th overall, Nanobots (Idlewild/Megaforce) boasts 25 new songs. Much of Nanobots takes advantage of what is now a fully acclimated quintet that also includes guitarist Dan Miller, bassist Danny Weinkauf and drummer Marty Beller. “We’d been functioning as a two-piece for 10 years, and we really just sort of talked ourselves into it,” says Linnell of the bumpy transition, which began in 1992. “It’s still John and I making the decisions, but we lean heavily on the other guys for a lot of the musical resources. It’s a benevolent dictatorship.” Flansburgh will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new TMBG feature.

american-pickers

Flansburgh: Similar to stuffy and stuffier great aunts Antiques Roadshow and (the original) Antiques Roadshow UK, American Pickers is total comfort television for people who are obsessed with junk-shop culture. But with American Pickers, there is a reality twist—all the action revolves around the two dudes traveling through the back roads of the United States, seeking cultural ephemera. Inevitably they wind up talking to various rural folk, many of whom seem to be missing important teeth. Everybody loves this show—even Jack White, who graced an episode buying some taxidermy and selling off a jukebox. 
Of course, with all these shows the “true value” question comes up again and again, and it seems like there are liberties taken to make the finds seems more awesome. Whenever an item comes up for sale on an auction show with a value I am familiar with (like a guitar), I am always shocked at how overvalued the assessed price is. The show Pawn Stars had a pretty trashed, kinda not-so-awesome Gibson SG formerly owned by Mary Ford later in her career, and the “expert appraisal” price seemed a pure fantasy at $180,000.
Recently I had a conversation with a friend in the vintage-jewelry business about these shows. She found the pricing summaries on American Pickers totally unbelievable. At the end of a deal on American Pickers, they tally up what they got, and it seems they typically pay out about 50{e5d2c082e45b5ce38ac2ea5f0bdedb3901cc97dfa4ea5e625fd79a7c2dc9f191} of what will be their retail price. She says those margins would even sink a pawn shop where the stuff is walking in the front door. To my friend, the idea of hunting down stuff in another state and shipping it back would have to involve greater profit just to stay in business. Maybe they just don’t want the pickers to seem like they’re taking advantage of the hillbillies, but according to somebody really in that business, something doesn’t wash.

Video after the jump.