Storage Wars say it aint so

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2012/12/11/storage-wars-star-dave-hester-says-show-is-rigged/1761603/

I remember a thread about Storage Wars on here some time ago

 

Doesn't surprise me at all.

It's an entertaining show but "reality" television should never be confused with actual reality. :wink

 

How entertaining would this show be if they found the usual stuff that are in storage lockers like old clothes and broken christmas stuff.

Not very interesting.

I watch all these type shows, storage wars, pawn stars, etc. If you pay attention you will see the same items crop up over and over.

Think about the dynamite plunger. i have seen that thing in every one of those show. Same with the 2 man super long rifle.

on the bright side, i dont like hester and hope they dumped him.

 

Good for him! This reality bull crap needs to go away, I can't believe people actually watch this shit.

 

I know someone who goes to storage unit auctions and he always tells me (he knows I really like watching those shows) that stuff had to be planted in those units. I guess now I should believe him now.

 

While these reality shows are not completely authentic, some of them are quite entertaining. I enjoy watching and learning about antiques and collectibles, how they are restored, etc. They are cheap to make, and get good ratings, so they'll probably be around for a while.

 

The article talks about "A&E regularly plants valuable items or memorabilia" but that doesn't seem to be the case as there aren't any real big blockbuster finds on the show, especially this season.

Checking Wikipedia it lists their profit per dollar spent as:
Dave: $2.34
Jarrod: $0.54
Darrel: $5.07
Barry: $0.78

The number for Darrel is so big because of one huge score, if you take that out his profit per dollar goes down to about 20 cents.

I'm not saying real or faked, just that if it was faked and A&E was planting "valuable items or memorabilia" you would expect the numbers to be much higher and that there would be and more interesting items, not the stuff they usually find or some or all of them losing money almost every episode.

What the show's producers said early on, and I believe was reiterated by the cast in one of the specials, is that they film about 20 locker auctions for every one that makes it to TV and for what they find in the lockers seems pretty consistent with that.

But that said, one thing to keep in mind is that the stars of the show probably get around $15,000-20,000 per episode so any talk in the show about somebody's store having a hard time making money or how much money so and so is losing on his warehouse is just fluff to spin a good story...

However, that also means that the livelihood of the cast doesn't depend on them making smart bids or picking the good locker or making some fantastic find like it would if this was their actual bread and butter income. So that means that they can effectively do whatever they need to do to win lockers because the contents don't matter, all that matters is they make it on to more episodes of the show.

 

I'm tired of the show. Haven't seen it for 2 to 3 years. Kind of getting tired of pawn stars too. It's way too setup

 

I used to have a 2nd hand shop, maintain a booth in a group show and now flea market. I go to auctions and lots of yard sales. They are good places to acquire furniture for the kids going away to college, some good tools, some antiques and collectibles. You never know what you may find and I have made some good money on finds but mostly it's doubling your money or so. I knew that it would take a lot of auctions to find all the good stuff that they seem to pull out of storage units episode after episode. However I die laughing as they pour over the crap that is in a unit saying we will get 100 dollars for this ottoman, and that Fridge will get $400! Prices must be great out there, most of that stuff if we find it here we have to pay to get rid of it at the transfer station.
My friends who used to go to storage auctions tell me that since the show went on the air they can hardly afford to bid prices are so high. Everyone thinks that they will do as well as the do on TV!

Jimbo338

 

This is quite true. I've been to a few auctions since the show started and there are generally large crowds. The bidding almost always seems to go too high for the stuff that you can see is in the unit. This must be great for owners and auctioneers, but any buyer that was around before the show hit the air has to struggle a lot more to get a decent deal than they used to.

 

I have to agree with Eddie on this...but there's TWO points I would like to make...

FIRST....about bidding on storage lockers.....there was a article in our local paper about the show and how real storage locker auctions are really done...what it said is the original owners of the things auctioned off do get some of that bidding money...if a locker owner owes let say $200 in rent and his belongings get $1000, then the $200 is paid for his rent and he gets the remaining $800.....because of that there are many who rent a storage locker and stage it so people looking in, bid high...they like to stage it with new EMPTY HD TV boxes, computer boxes, etc towards the rear of the storage space........they also know when to rent the unit, like at the end of a month and pay little for the first month but then don't pay again with hopes that their unit will be auctioned off due to rent owed...so again, if they owe a couple hundred on rent but crazy people bid HIGH because it looks like a gold mine with new high end TV's and Computers are being stored, they get the remaining amount of money...thus making several hundred dollars for a bunch of junk and EMPTY boxes...

Second on basically what Eddie is referring to....on 2 separate Porn Stars Shows I caught them basically double dipping on people (actors) and on items...in one of the very first Porn Star Shows they had a BIG GUY drag in a OLD COKE machine...Rick the owner purchased the Coke Machine and then took it to his friend "Rick Dale" to have it restored....they just reran that show not too long ago...the BIG GUY is now in almost every show "American Restorations"...he's either the brother of Rick Dale or plays the brother of Rick Dale...he's "RON" on the show....so they had "RON" take a old Coke Machine from Rick Dales business down to the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop to "sell" and then bring it back to Rick Dales business to have it restored.....basically setting up the History Channel for yet another "Reality Show"...

Another "Pawn Stars" fake is in one of the first shows again....their firearm expert they brought in... supposedly a local gun expert, shows up again 2 or 3 years later running a Gun Shop in Utah where Rick Harrison's new "gun expert" travels with him all the way to Utah to see and purchase a "Gatling Gun"....they act like they never have met and the owner in Utah asks them how they heard he had the gun and that it was for sale...they just tell him they heard and ask to see and shoot it....the owner say's he wants, if I remember correctly $365,000.00 for the Gatling Gun....Rick Harrison offers around $250,000.00 but the owner of the gun declines.

 

I like watching both shows. I guess nearly all shows have some fake stuff in it. Deadliest catch: as if you could really work 30+ hours straight without sleep doing such heavy work.
Hardcore pawn: idiots who just want to be on tv
Bear grylls: [YOUTUBE]3UpSlpvb1is[/YOUTUBE]

I guess I'd rather watch this then the shows they kill animals on just for the viewers sake

Back ontopic: On Sept. 6, Hester and some other cast members met with Neil Cohen

Who do you think were the other cast members??

 

Just no one tell me Brandi's units are fake.

 

Bad news, Flusher......

 

YUUUUUUUUUP

But if she ever bids on my unit there's still a good chance she'll find a motorboat.

 

watch closely and this guy will eventually show up on all of them.

 

Who believes it makes sense that someone would allow $10,000 worth of belonging to be lost over a $500 storage fee?

Absurd.

 

Not really, blue, it's just like all those "free" rooms in Vegas. lol

Saw the show once. That was enough. But I've never seen an episode of Big Brother, Survivor, Outhouse Attendants Gone Wild or most any of the genre.

 

In fairness, alot of them could be people who died, got in trouble with the law, or failed marriages where one just took off, etc.

 

I like watching some of them like Pawn Stars,American Restoration and the one with the car guy Danny from Pawn Stars.

I know it's 97% BS and the dialogue is scripted.
Does it really matter to Rick these days if he pays a guy $250 or instead $275 for something?
How much of that stuff that is brought in isn't really being sold to the shop,it's just more of a "prop" for the show?

Some people watch wrestling,I watch a few of these "reality" shows.