Are Prices on Reality TV Shows 'Real'?

[Harold]

I've watched a lot of TV fix-n-flip car shows in the past couple of years and am amazed by the prices they pay for the cars they use. Am I behind the times, or is it usual to (happily) pay upwards of $3,000.00 for a wreck from a junkyard or salvage auction?

Harold

[dan at larescorp]

I have wondered the same thing in the past. I personally wouldn't pay that kind of money for most of the cars seen on these shows, but that could be cause I'm a cheap A$# .

Granted every once in a while I see what seems like a fair deal to both parties. Those are few, and far between.

[NC-car-guy]

Oh I'm sure they are inflated to make more dramatic television. What gets me is that then people who own some heap of crap that you need one thing off of, want a million bucks (or they will scrap it) and the whole thing is worth $100. :-P

[Guest Skyking]

I was out with my '54 Metropolitan the other night and a guy I was talking to said he was watching a show where someone bought 4 cars and the owner threw in a '54 Met. Apparently the new owner said he'll get $2000 for the hood ornament. Yeah, right! I don't waste my time watching those fake shows. Everybody seems to be getting rich, including the cable companies...................

Edited July 13, 2013 by Skyking (see edit history)

[5219]

There is very little reality in reality TV. Even if they were paying those prices for those cars, they are spending the production company's money, not their own. We have reached a pitiful state in our society when most peoples' lives are so uneventful that they need to experience other peoples' lives vicariously on television.

[The Continental]

I'd like to know what the deal on that hood piece off the Nash was, but I'd love to have a Healy.

[alsancle]

Believe nothing you see on reality TV. Everything is staged.

[Guest billybird]

There is very little reality in reality TV. Even if they were paying those prices for those cars, they are spending the production company's money, not their own. We have reached a pitiful state in our society when most peoples' lives are so uneventful that they need to experience other peoples' lives vicariously on television.

Thanks for that great observation! When I read that I just burst into laughter! My sentiments exactly!

[Rusty_OToole]

Reality TV is more TV than reality. Record a few shows and watch them a second, 3d or 4th time. The phoniness will jump out at you. You will catch all kinds of things that escaped your notice the first time.

[Rusty_OToole]

A few years ago I picked up a DVD of Flip That House with a guy named Montelongo from Texas. After I watched 2 or 3 shows I started noticing a fishy smell. On watching the shows a second or 3d time it became obvious that this guy has not done what he purports to have done. I doubt he ever made a profit on a house deal, the way he goes at it. This opinion is based on 40 years of investing in real estate, doing renovations etc. A web search confirmed this opinion. Eventually he was canned from the show.

His next move was to give classes in real estate investing costing $10,000 in which he drives around in a bus and teaches his worthless "secrets". The sad part is innocent people are being scammed out of their money, because they can't see through this bird.

[Bleach]

Shows like that end up making those TV ads for the incredible $9.99 products shown during the commercial breaks actually believable.

[Coley]

American Restoratiion is a put on scam show that is hard to watch and hear the quotes for simple work.

We did some work for them and found out how they stage the "restorations".

Interesting to watch at times, just don't believe all you see.

[Pomeroy41144]

There is very little reality in reality TV. Even if they were paying those prices for those cars, they are spending the production company's money, not their own. We have reached a pitiful state in our society when most peoples' lives are so uneventful that they need to experience other peoples' lives vicariously on television.

Well said man. I'll add to that: Reality TV is garbage.

[GARY F]

i agree with alsancle

[rocketraider]

I find that most TV now is garbage. What did Springsteen say? "57 channels and nothing on"? Now there are HUNDREDS.

What's sad is I find History Channel is as bad about the fake TV as any of them, and I remember a time when there was a lot of neat "historical" content on that channel.

Made to appeal to the lowest common denominator- the "Honey Boo Boo crowd" as me cousin says.

I have a young friend who went thru the street rod program at WyoTech and graduated in the top 5 of his class. In high school the boy idolized Boyd Coddington until the man visited the Blairsville campus to promote that TV show he had (American Hot Rod? can't remember the name so shows how memorable it was) and Kris had the chance to meet and talk with him. Suffice to say a very disillusioned young man called me that night.

[Guest RonB]

I enjoyed that Canadian show,Dream car garage with the late Tom Hanshaw or however he spelled his name.... But Boyd Coddingtons show did little but show how badly his cars were built ,with much bondo and bad attitudes. The old boy who did the sheet metal was brillaint though and it's a pity he wasn't assigned a couple of apprentices to learn his skills .I saw a very old documentry once about Coddington and the same body man was working with him then .Coddington was a different guy in the doco to the stressed out business man he was before his demise.

Some of the worst involve customising cars with fish tanks and trucks with lurid paint jobs.

[ghostymosty]

If the reality is anything like Storage Wars then I wouldn't believe a single bit of the footage. My last job was relief-managing self storage places (no job for a year now due to a family medical situation that is OK now) and I would see lockers go for 300 to 600 that the TV show would get bids of 2-3000 for similar units. No way my auction buyers would go so high that breaking even would be a stroke of luck.

[Dandy Dave]

Oh I'm sure they are inflated to make more dramatic television. What gets me is that then people who own some heap of crap that you need one thing off of, want a million bucks (or they will scrap it) and the whole thing is worth $100. :-P

Any parts car is worth at least scrap value. I have used this as a basis to value all sorts of old rusty iron for years. When the price of scrap goes up, you will need to pay more for a parts whatever than you use to. You cannot buy much for a hunderd bucks today when scrap cars are bringing three to four hundered. Dandy Dave!

[39BuickEight]

Almost all of the prices in these showed are inflated, whether because it's better to get a bigger audience, or because someone wanted to be on TV, so they paid more thinking it would get them on. They will throw in a realistic price very now and then to make it look more "real."

I'll watch anything on TV that has cars in it because I love cars. Anything past that is obviously not "real" at all. My favorite is Desert Car Kings, not because the money is any more accurate or because the cars are in any way better (because they aren't), but because they don't yell at each other all the time, and they don't appear to be as condescending as the rest.

[Amphicar BUYER]

After being personally involved in a "reality" show and knowing a few friends who also were in them, I can say with 100% certainty those prices are real! Yup as "real" as the shows are... (99 & 44/100ths BS!) Sometimes the staging is obvious like the GT350 Floyd Cotterpin pulled out of a barn allegedly there for many years but covered with fresh golden straw over a tarp still showing creases from being folded and it started without so much as a jump start or new fuel! I just saw a Lizard Lick repo show where they had to drive across a lawn to get a car as it was blocked, you could CLEARLY see where they had done that shot at least 3 times from the fresh tire tracks in the lawn! The mistakes are easy to spot. It's not reality... is BS!

I was invited to feature one of my Amphicars on the Cajun pawnshop show. They wanted me to transport it to Louisiana from Colorado for them to make me an offer (no guarantee of a sale) ... on my own dime! Shipping Wars flat out lied to me about how I would be compensated (none at all). "Clean Sweep" portrayed my sisters house a filthy unkempt home when is was not what so ever (the room they redid POORLY was a storage area for 25 years and they made it look like that was how her entire home looked) and a few other behind the scene stories from other shows I know of first hand (Junkyard Wars, Wheeler Dealers and a couple others).

These shows all should be viewed as fiction, NOT reality. My sister bought storage sheds for 25 years, I can say that the storage wars lockers are absolutely seeded. Yes, once in a while she found some surprising finds, but most of the time it's the usual household goods. The bidding NEVER went as they portray. Yes there was some pissing contests, but NOBODY paid the stupid prices they showed nor did they travel across the country for the auctions.