A bit surprised I've been keeping up with this as much as I have. The next show I have up for discussion is A&E's "Storage Wars", another big player in the holy trinity of the Pawn/Auction reality category ("Pawn Stars" and "American Pickers" being the others.) "Storage Wars" involves a growing trend, one that I was never familiar with before, the art of bidding on abandoned storage lockers. Apparently when one does not pay the rent on a storage locker it's contents are put up for auction to recover some of the lost revenue. Participants of the auctions get a five minute preview of what is in the locker. Sometimes many items in the locker are obstructed by larger items so it is sometimes a gamble, there could be more valuable items that are not in eyesight.
The show involves the wheelings and dealings of a circle of professional bidders. Dave Hester is the owner of a thrift shop who both bids on many units and antagonizes his fellow bidders but purposely drives the bids up and backs down. He is know for his "Yep!" call when he bids on a unit. Darrel Sheets is known as "The Gambler" of the group because he will bid on a unit sight unseen. Jarrod Schultz and his girlfriend Brandi Passante are a hybrid of Dave and Darrell- Jarrod owns his own resale shop and will also bid on a locker without much inspection. The veteran, and my personal favorite of the group, is Barry Weiss. Weiss is more of a collector rather than a reseller like his fellow bidders. Weiss is the atypical Southern California middle age man- tan, slick hair, wheeler and dealer. I always think of Weiss as a hybrid of film producer Robert Evans, Michael Douglass and Jack Nicholson.
Wars takes place in Southern California but has ventured to Arizona and Northern California. When each episode begins the bidders give their own analysis of the region where the locker auction is located- ex) a storage auction in San Diego might yield units filled with surfboards.
The show airs Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. (usually two back-to-back half-hour episodes) on A&E. Find out more info on the show here
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| "Storage Wars" |
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| Barry Weiss |
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| Legendary Producer Robert Evans |
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| Michael Douglass |
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