The Kabbage Blog

Photo courtesy of Pocheco

It’s no surprise to us when we see friends of Kabbage happily Tweeting about shows like Pawn Stars and American Pickers.  Our core users are savvy sources, wheelers and dealers at heart, and these shows speak right to the core of their being – you find cool, random stuff that may or may not be a fortune in disguise and sell it to the public.

However, if the world were made up of online entrepreneurs, not only would the world be a better place, the influx of auction, pawn, and picking shows would make total sense. But the reality is shows like Oddities and Picker Sisters spring up all the time, completely independent of where viewers bread their butter. So how to explain the phenomenon?

Go Where the Money is

A lot has to be said about the ability of TV and film producers to pick up on trends and run with them. As soon as something takes off in the slightest, then you can expect others to follow suit. And you may not realize it, but online sellers have more in common with them than you think.

Just like any good online seller, a successful show runner will firmly entrench their TV series into a niche. There’s always something different enough about each show to give it a reason to exist – if it doesn’t, it dies quickly, either on-air or in pre-production.

Take the picking shows, for instance. First there was American Pickers, the adventures of two guys out on the road in a cruddy van and their no-nonsense shopkeeper/location finder back home. This year saw the release of Picker Sisters, the adventures of two ladies out on the road and their tortured contractor back home, who must figure out a way to build the crazy home makeover stuff they want.

You can obviously see the similarities. However, you can also see the differences, and where the niche fits. The two shows are just different enough to warrant their individual existence. Your shop operates just the same – find your niche and exploit it. If you’re too similar, you risk fading into pointlessness.

The Beginnings

But all of this doesn’t quite explain where the trend came from in the first place. Shows like Antiques Roadshow have been around for years, but they may not be natural ancestors of the current crop. At some point, American Pickers was pitched and someone thought it was a good enough idea to put on TV.

One common thing these shows have in common is “things” – all the stuff that’s found, bought, or sold ties them together. And if the American people love one thing, it’s their stuff! And as we watch someone uncover a box full of treasure in Storage Wars, perhaps a little piece of us inside rejoices.

“Everyone has a garage, attic or basement filled with things we’ve collected over the years and we always wonder what it’s worth,” Pawn Stars and American Restoration co-Executive Producer Matthew Braley says.  ”How we define monetary value vs sentimental value is an interesting task.  Shows like Pawn Stars and American Restoration deal with this in every episode and viewers can completely relate.  In the current economic climate, people want to know that the things they’ve spent a lifetime accumulating are actually worth something and they would like to think they have spent time collecting the right things.”

When so much our world is known and become routine, the thrill of discovering something fun and magical is a rare event. And you have to agree that finding just that perfect item for your online shop makes you feel like a million bucks and floods your mind with possibilities.

And that may be it – people like to watch the pawn, picking, and auction shows because it reminds them there’s so much uniqueness out there to be found. It’s the same feeling they get when they peruse an eBay or other ecommerce store and stumble upon that perfect item they have to have. Their lives, for a while at least, are a little more complete.