American Pickers' Frank Fritz Once Bought A Spectacle Light Box For $550
Quick, what's the most money you've ever spent on a spectacle light box? $100? $200? Look, you're not going to get any judgment from us — everyone's dropped a fat hundo or two on a spectacle light box at one point or another, and why not? Spectacle light boxes are fun, whether you're a kid wiling away the summer days playing Cowboys and Spectacle Light Boxes, or just a full-grown devotee to the spectacle light box lifestyle. There's no wrong way to love a spectacle light box.
But is it all too much?
That's the tough question that "American Pickers" fans found themselves wrestling with in the wake of a Season 19 bonus episode, titled "An Eye for Picking," which is a pretty gross combination of words and a weird thing to name a show after if you think about it, but again. This is not a place for judgment. Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz, then-costars of the series and partners in picking, headed on down to Florida with every intention of treating the ophthalmology collection of a local couple like it was a five-string banjo: They wanted to pick it, by golly, and pick it is just what they did.
It was a good day to American Pick a spectacle light box, yes sir
Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz were in rare form during the events of "An Eye for Picking" when they pulled up to the Florida home of Jean and Terry, a retired ophthalmologist and his wife with a stunning collection of eyeball-related doodads and gizmos. In the family shed, Fritz spotted his quarry: An old light box. The kind with spectacles on it. Like T.J. Eckleburg of "The Great Gatsby" if he got both of his eyes poked out, that spectacle light box looked down at Frank Fritz and straight into his picker's soul.
Simply, excitedly, and without a moment's dickering, Fritz and Terry agreed on a reasonable price, with Terry's wife Jean popping in to give her blessing: $550 for the spectacle light box. In Fritz's mind, the still-functioning artifact of simpler-times Americana might fetch a higher price in the shop — maybe as much as $700, or even $850 to the right buyer. Hands shook. Currency was exchanged. The spectacle light box had a new home at the "American Pickers" store, thanks to honest-to-goodness American picking proficiency. What a day. What a pick. What a spectacle light box.