(TV) Pickers = new obsession

So this is back on again? I'll have to set it up on my DVR, because I just don't think of the show, especially with it being on the History Channel. Sure, I understand the history angle when I think about it, but the title is something I scan right past. Sounds like a country music series!

A lot of people don't realize that there is an entire industry/life style involved with pickers and those they sell their finds to, folks like my sister, who I mentioned here several months back. With a trained eye and experience, you can find "jewels" that someone will pay good money for, but to the untrained eye looks like a piece of junk. My sister does very well with her shop in Galveston, considering how little time she really puts into it. Her picker does a lot of the leg work for her and when she's out looking herself, she's really doing it more for the fun than for the profit. The profit is gravy.

 

I think those two guys are literally gay, me and my roomates always made fun of them. Then after, we would watch a real show, like PAWN STARS

 

Well, here is an example of the treasure, literally, that can be found while "picking," for others or simply for yourself. Read it and weep. This is far better than winning the lottery and only compares to an incidence like the fellow who found a Van Gogh the same way some years back.




Experts: Ansel Adams photos found at garage sale worth $200 million

By Alan Duke, CNNJuly 27, 2010 -- Updated 1321 GMT (2121 HKT)

Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Rick Norsigian's hobby of picking through piles of unwanted items at garage sales in search of antiques has paid off for the Fresno, California, painter.

Two small boxes he bought 10 years ago for $45 -- negotiated down from $70 -- are now estimated to be worth at least $200 million, according to a Beverly Hills art appraiser.

Those boxes contained 65 glass negatives created by famed nature photographer Ansel Adams in the early period of his career. Experts believed the negatives were destroyed in a 1937 darkroom fire that destroyed 5,000 plates.

"It truly is a missing link of Ansel Adams and history and his career," said David W. Streets, the appraiser and art dealer who is hosting an unveiling of the photographs at his Beverly Hills, California, gallery Tuesday.

The photographs apparently were taken between 1919 and the early 1930s, well before Adams -- who is known as the father of American photography -- became nationally recognized in the 1940s, Streets said.

"This is going to show the world the evolution of his eye, of his talent, of his skill, his gift, but also his legacy," Streets said. "And it's a portion that we thought had been destroyed in the studio fire."

How these 6.5 x 8.5 inch glass plate negatives of famous Yosemite landscapes and San Francisco landmarks -- some of them with fire damage -- made their way from Adams collection 70 years ago to a Southern California garage sale in 2000 can only be guessed.

The person who sold them to Norsigian at the garage sale told him he bought them in the 1940s at a warehouse salvage in Los Angeles.

Photography expert Patrick Alt, who helped confirm the authenticity of the negatives, suspects Adams carried them to use in a photography class he was teaching in Pasadena, California, in the early 1940s.

"It is my belief that he brought these negatives with him for teaching purposes and to show students how to not let their negatives be engulfed in a fire," Alt said. "I think this clearly explains the range of work in these negatives, from very early pictorialist boat pictures, to images not as successful, to images of the highest level of his work during this time period."

Alt said it is impossible to know why Adams would store them in Pasadena and never reclaim them.

The plates were individually wrapped in newspaper inside deteriorating manila envelopes. Notations on each envelope appeared to have been made by Virginia Adams, the photographer's wife, according to handwriting experts Michael Nattenberg and Marcel Matley. They compared them to samples provided by the Adams' grandson.

While most of the negatives appear never to have been printed, several are nearly identical to well-known Adams prints, the experts said.

Meteorologist George Wright studied clouds and snow cover in a Norsigian negative to conclude that it was taken at about the same time as a known Adams photo of a Yosemite tree.

In addition to Yosemite -- the California wilderness that Adams helped conserve -- the negatives depict California's Carmel Mission, views of a rocky point in Carmel, San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf, a sailing yacht at sea and an image of sand dunes.

"The fact that these locations were well-known to Adams, and visited by him, further supports the proposition that all of the images in the collection were most probably created by Adams," said art expert Robert Moeller.

Moeller said that after six months of study, he concluded "with a high degree of probability, that the images under consideration were produced by Ansel Adams.

Silver tarnishing on the negatives also helped date the plates to around the 1920s, Alt said.

"I have sent people to prison for the rest of their lives for far less evidence than I have seen in this case," said evidence and burden of proof expert Manny Medrano, who was hired by Norsigian to help authenticate them. "In my view, those photographs were done by Ansel Adams."

Norsigian, who has spent the last decade trying to prove the worth of his discovery, is now ready to cash in -- by selling original prints of the photographs to museums and collectors.

"I have estimated that his $45 investment easily could be worth up to $200 million," Streets said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/07/27/ansel.adams.discovery/?hpt=Sbin#fbid=2vQwXSXyop5

 

I watched it last night. Not bad, but brings back bad memories of pawnin' my satuff back in college to get through tough times, and putting up with the condescending brokers browbeating me out of enough money to eat decently for the week/month.

 

both those shows are ghey...lol..

I must admit, I like going to estate sales...I know its bad to pilfer through dead people's stuff, but I've gotten some pretty good stuff...especially in the Dallas area...just drive up and down Inwood, and you'll see an estate sale sign almost every weekend...

 

You aren't "pilfering" anything. The family, assuming there's one, wants to sell everything. Yes, it can be very sad. What bothers me are the photos of great aunts, uncles, a relative from WWI, grandparents when they were young, things like that. Things I would never sell in a million years, yet people do. Sometimes I buy them for the frames.

 

I hear you and I agree, the old family photos weird me out..I hope my kids don't do that...the family is just trying to extract value and move on, I get it...

I remember my ex's family was going through their great grandmother's things, while she was still alive in the hospital...that freaked me out even more...why couldn't they wait until she died...what's the f'n rush? to each their own, but of course, my ex's and her family are nucking futs

 

Yeah, that stuff really bums me out. I guess I'm sentimental. It's your family and its history, yet people toss it out for a few bucks. What can you do? It is what it is.

 

Holy freaking crap, that's pretty amazing. I'm thinking about maybe going to an estate sale myself in the near future. The problem is, i'm not really sure what to look for, I guess the older it is the better, obviously.

 

Want to know where to go without breaking your back "hunting?" The best neighborhoods in town, or the neighborhoods that used to be the best in town. That's frequently where you'll find the best stuff.

 

That guy Wolfe seems like a jerk. I know these older sellers just want to get rid of stuff, but to just say to their face "This is worth 50$, but I'm gonna offer you 20$."

Just like Pawn Stars I mainly watch Pickers to see the items and hear their history. There was a gasoline poster yesterday that was decades old and perfect, not even rolled up.

 

Yeah, I'm going to do a little research around Austin, hopefully check one out this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

If you operate under that principle, you're going to get burned. There are newspapers and magazines from the 1700's-1900 that are maybe worth $10. Later ones can be a lot more expensive simply because the paper stock used didn't have linen in it liked the old periodicals did. This caused them to decay faster and be a lot more rare than the periodicals from the 1700's.

There're exceptions to everything, so you should know what you're buying before you do unless you want to gamble on it.

 

I hear you, I'm definitely going to pick one or two types of items and do some research before I jump in. It will be interesting, that's for sure, I'm probably only looking to spend a couple hundred or so on my first outing.

 

How much for the wine cooler?

 

I love Pickers, but cant stand Pawn Stars. The two smart ass kids Corey, and Chumlee kill the show for me.