Contrary to what I have read here, I think "Pawn Stars"

[union_maid]

62. I enjoy Pawn Stars

Storage wars is pretty dumb, but if it happens to be on, sometimes I watch it. A lot of the stuff they count as profit looks a lot to me like the junk that anyone acquires given time and if you're inclined to hang onto things rather than toss them right away. I would imagine that finding really valuable items in a public storage facilty is a pretty rare event, so it wasn't to surprising to learn that most of those finds are planted. I've never caught Pickers or Hardcore Pawn.

I don't mind the faked up interaction between the principles on Pawn Stars. It's hokey, but that's how a show creates a character. I always appreciate the explanation of how they arrive at what they're going to offer once a retail value has been arrived at. Having dealt, in the past, in used and sometimes collectible items - mostly books and vinyl records - it seems very realistic to me. Sellers show understandable distress over being offered so much less than market value, but the reasons are solid. They clearly have a lot more money to work with than we ever did in our little shop, but the point that having acquired an item, now they might have to sit with it for a long period of time is key. You want full value, you have to find the collector yourself.

I do agree that it's a shame that the History Channel, Discovery and even Arts and Entertainment have failed to live up to their originial promise. On Discovery they have plenty of junk science, Arts and Entertainment is light on the arts part and even when HC does history, if it's an area that I'm not familiar with I would check the facts before accepting the version they're presenting. But I'd still rather watch any of it than a single episode of Fear Factor. Yuck! Yet popular, or at least it was.