The cast of Market Warriors (l-r):
John Bruno says “virtually everything in our home is a flea market, thrift shop, yard sale, or antique shop find!” He is an industry veteran, having been an antiques and collectibles dealer for more than 40 years as well as an appraiser for more than 25 years. Along with his wife, he runs Flamingo Eventz, one of the largest antiques show promotion organizations in the Northeast.
Miller Gaffney has years of wide-ranging experience in the art world, having worked with leading auction houses, galleries, and museums. A graduate of the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, Miller is a certified member of the Appraisers Association of America. She founded her company, Miller Gaffney Art Advisory, in 2006.
Bob Richter grew up surrounded by his family’s interior design business, he was inspired from an early age by old movies, attic treasures, and his grandmother’s design and business skills. In New York City he began working for an antiques dealer while pursuing degrees at New York University. Bob soon became a regular at local flea markets, where people soon noticed his eye for design. Interior design jobs followed, and today he runs his own successful interior design company.
Kevin Bruneau has been in the antiques business for more than two decades and is fluent in the world of buying and selling investment-quality antiques and collectibles in both brick-and-mortar shops and the online marketplace. Kevin is the proprietor of Bruneau Antiques specializing in upscale antiques and Asian arts.
Cast of Pickers: (l-r) Miller Gaffney, John Bruno, Bob Richter, and Kevin Bruneau
The first episode (of 20) of the new PBS series Market Warriors aired tonight. Produced by WGBH Boston (full disclosure: my old employer), by the same folks who do Antiques Roadshow (ARS), Market Warriors (MW) tries to capture the thrill of the hunt. The four "pickers" are pitted against one another and go shopping at a different flea market each week. In the first segment, they were tasked to find a mid-century modern piece (difficult in rural Pennsylvania, apparently) within their meager budgets, and then all had to agree that the pieces were period authentic. In the second segment, they had a "price off" challenge where they had to estimate the price of a piece of art glass. The winner (in this case Miller Gaffney) was given an extra $100 towards her shopping budget. The pickers then have the run of the show to select 1 or 2 pieces that they feel will bring the most profit at auction. The final segment brings the cast out to an auction house in LA where they watch their items go on the block. They are allowed to remove one of their items from sale if they wish, depending on whether they've had second thoughts as to the auction value (vs. flea market purchase price). Simple math shows who made the best deals.
In addition to the four treasure hunters is the addition of a voice over "narrator" by comedian Fred Willard. When I first read this I thought it seemed a surprising pairing, but he might be the best part of the show. Apparently an avid collector of sports memorabilia, he provides a low-key, wry and knowledgeable running commentary on the proceedings, including pointing out where the pickers made mistakes when selecting and negotiating prices.
On the plus side, I think there will be a lot of lessons to be learned about the values of items and the very small margins between purchases and sales. Anyone who's watched ARS has been surprised when items are super pricey, or on the contrary, when they don't seem to fetch much. Additionally, the appraisers have often veered between giving a "retail price" or "insurance value" or "auction price" leaving the viewers sometimes in the dark about which is which. In the case of MW, we see a whole lot of junk to be picked through, and then what it fetches at a real auction. I've been regularly attending the Sandwich Auction House auctions here on Cape Cod for the last year and it's been an eye opener to see how little things go for at auction. The LA auction house on MW was quite comparable. And finally, on the plus side, is Fred Willard.
On the down side, I'm not totally sure I can take 20 episodes of these particular four cast members. While they all appear to have experience in antiques, art and interiors, they seemed very out of their elements in a flea market setting. Surprisingly, Bruno and Richter made decisions based on their emotional responses to certain items (which were pretty ugly, to be honest). Gaffney spent a lot of time researching comparable prices for the items she was considering, but showed her hand to the dealer she was working with and clearly overpaid for her auction item, having been swayed by the Tiffany brand. Bruneau seemed the only cast member who made careful selections and was willing to walk away when he couldn't get the price he not only wanted, but knew he needed to make a profit.
I'll obviously have to see more episodes as you can never really judge a series by the first episode. But, I am thinking that I would have preferred different group of pickers each week, or maybe every two weeks. Then the winners of each of those groups would move on to a final round. Obviously, it would be harder to produce, but could have been more interesting to view. We'll see.
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