American Pickers' Frank Fritz Once Spent $725 For Six Shiny Things
Here's the elevator pitch for "American Pickers," a show that's been around for longer than any of the bones in your body. The premise: What if some guys with a van looked through people's basements, bought stuff, and then gave ballpark estimates on how much they thought they could get for said stuff in a retail setting? The result: So many seasons of television. Like, so many. More than most people born far away from nuclear test sites can count on their fingers and toes.
By Season 20, co-hosts Frank Fritz and Mike Wolfe more or less had things down to a science. Spelunking down into the basement of a collector in the episode "Picker's Dozen," they found themselves some unopened Oilzum. Back on the surface, they were introduced to a 19th-century tooth extractor pulled from the nightmares of an unloved body horror director. But it was a box of shiny things that really got Fritz's blood pumping. He may not have woken up that day thinking "I'm going to spend $725 on six shiny things" — or maybe he did, who knows? The point is, spending $725 on six shiny things is exactly what he did.
Frank Fritz got his mitts on some shiny things
The shiny things that Frank Fritz bought on this particular day? Nothing to sneeze at.
The bulk of the purchase was made up of car ornaments: Three metal logos, from the REO Motorcar Company, Hudson Motorcar Company, and the Lincoln Auto League. There was also an elegant mountable clock for a car's dashboard, and a pair of handsome stopwatches, one hand-wound and one with a matching key.
Fritz, who as has been mentioned was no greenhorn when it came to picking after 20 seasons on the show, shot low with his opening volley. "How about $650?" he tried. The owner, more amiable to an offer closer to around $800, made the reasonable compromise of $725. Hands were extended, then shaken. The deed was done.
As with most episodes of "American Pickers," a clear lesson was taught: You just never know what you can find if you spend enough time in strangers' houses, looking through boxes of stuff that they forgot they had.