Ban this show now!

[dr greg]

Now

That's nothing, one day while going to garage sales in Brisbane I saw a guy who had a wireless laptop in his car set up on a sort of adustable lectern on the passenger's seat, connected to the local paper's website and google maps in different windows, driving around like Fangio, knee-deep in paper coffee cups, obviously been at it since before dawn, and buying any old rubbish into the bargain.......unbelievable.

 

[1stsargent]

I think ebay, american pickers and other shows like it are a double edged sword. With ebay it has been great for finding collectables, that would other wise be much harder to find. When I first started collecting militaria in the early 90's I would have to sort through dozens of adds in mags, request paper catalogs that would take weeks to arrive, had vague descriptions and no photos and call some seller that was usually having a bad day to find just one item. But of course there are a lot of scammers on the bay and self professed know-it-all's. But to the point made earlier, I find more overly priced items being sold by "long time vintage dealers" than the novice who believes their avirex a-2 is worth $2000.
As for collector shows, they are not so bad. Ya they make a lot of people think everything they have is vintage gold, but it also makes the garage seller less subject to being taken for a ride by a buyer who buys something for a buck and resells it for $1000 because they know more than the seller. It makes the professional "pickers" or buyers work for a living for a change.