The American Pickers Get Turned Down On Offers Way More Than What We See On TV
The crew on "American Pickers" are a History institution at this point. They've been on the air since 2010, producing more than 20 seasons of Mike Wolfe's excursions across the United States. It's safe to say he's truly seen it all at this point, but that doesn't mean he's slowing down in the slightest, with no end in sight on the program. As long as there are people out there with antiques in their garages, Wolfe won't be far behind to check it out and see if he can make some money off of it.
A standard episode will involve Wolfe and his picking partner checking out a few different locations to see what they can find. The episode may focus on a particular pick for as little as five minutes or up to most of the runtime. It really just comes down to what the pickers see. Any reality show will have a fair amount of editing taking place, so naturally, Wolfe and the gang are there for a lot longer than what viewers see in the episode. As a result, it can lead to some disorienting bits, like Wolfe seemingly passing over hot valuables. But there's a reason why fans won't see Wolfe make an offer on everything in a given episode.
A lot of people won't sell their antiques
If "American Pickers" was taken at face value, Mike Wolfe would travel hundreds of miles to check out someone's shed for 15 minutes only to make an offer on two items. Naturally, things are a bit more complex than that, as Danielle Colby told Famous Interview. After being asked why Wolfe didn't make an offer on a particular item, Colby explained, "There are many times the guys are on the road and people will e-mail me or call in and say 'They walked right past that Nash Metropolitan and they didn't even offer anything on it'. But, they do. There are a lot of times where people just say no. It's not really worth putting into the show if they've been turned down. 'Cause you get turned down a lot."
It makes sense; part of the appeal of "American Pickers" involves watching Wolfe make an offer on an item as he and the seller haggle on a final price. Wolfe asking about something only to be told it's not for sale would get pretty boring quickly, and there's only so much one can do within an episode's 60-minute runtime.
The best episodes of "American Pickers" show the team checking out astonishing places, such as a three-story building filled with all kinds of hidden rooms. While it would make for some nice bonus features to see more of them rummaging around, there's only so much we're able to see on History.