by Cori Hilsgen
news@thenewsleaders.com
The American Pickers television show will film episodes in Minnesota in October, and the staff members of the show have contacted the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce to let them know they are looking for people in the area who might have unique antique collections.
Victoria Weinberg, the show’s casting associate, sent an email to the chamber notifying it they are looking for people who have rare, large collections and things they have never seen before with interesting stories behind them.
American Pickers is a documentary series on the History Channel that explores the world of antique “picking.”
The show’s stars, Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz, are experienced “pickers” who travel the country scouting for rare antiques and vintage collectibles in yards, buildings and other locations.
The two, who have known each other for many years, enjoy unearthing old signs, motorcycles, cars and other “rusty gold” from people’s yards and other storage areas. They enjoy verbally wheeling-and-dealing with people who have large, rare collections and things they’ve never seen before.
As Wolfe and Fritz travel across country, they rescue many forgotten valuables.
They follow up on leads generated by another star of the show, Danielle Colby, and also go “free-styling,” which means making pop-in visits to places they think there might be interesting items. They sometimes visit places more than once.
Together, they try to give historically significant items a new life while they learn about American history.
At the end of the show’s episodes, the men return to Wolfe’s “Antique Archaeology” store in LeClaire, Iowa. Another Antique Archaeology store is located in Nashville, Tenn.
Wolfe was a competitive bicycle racer and owned two bicycle shops before he began traveling on the road with the show. Raised by his single mother, he began “picking” things as a young child. The show was Wolfe’s creation. He is also involved with several other business ventures.
Fritz, who worked for many years as a fire-and-safety inspector, also began collecting treasures such as rocks and other items as a young child.
The two pickers buy items they can sell quickly, at markup prices, to dealers and collectors.
Wolfe and Fritz only pick private collections so no stores, malls, flea markets, museums, auctions, businesses or anything open to the public will be considered.
Anyone with one-of-a-kind items or large, private collections or accumulations of antiques who would like to be considered should email a message about them to AmericanPickers@cineflix.com, or leave a voicemail at 1-855-653-7878 or contact them on Facebook @GotAPick.
Interested people should include name, town, state, telephone number, where their collection is located and a description of the items.
American Pickers, which first aired in 2010, has more than 5 million viewers each week.
The American Picker’s television show stars, Frank Fritz (left) and Mike Wolfe, will be filming episodes in Minnesota in October. The hosts of the show are looking for people in the area with unique, sizeable antique collections and items with interesting stories behind them.
