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Post by margaret56 on Mar 9, 2010 13:21:44 GMT -5
I don't post here that often these days, so I don't know if this show has been discussed before. I did do a search and nothing turned up but I am kind of a klutz when it comes to effective searches so I may have missed something.
So what do people here think of this show? My husband and I were watching it last night and our reactions were dramatically different. He is a recovering hoarder, I am "just" a messie. My thought on seeing the people depicted with homes and barns and basements full of hoarded stuff was that it was terribly sad. He, on the other hand, actually seemed to ENVY them because they had even more "stuff" than he had even at the height of his hoarding.
He also seemed to think that because the "pickers" found the occasional item worth a couple hundred dollars in the midst of these hoards that it somehow justified it, that the owners of all this stuff were "smart cookies". I just shook my head.
Most of the stuff these people had was just moldering away, literally rotting into the earth. I also wondered aloud what a burden it would be on someone after these people died, trying to clean it all up. In some cases it looked like it would take tens of thousands of dollars in clean up costs. He, on the other hand, said it would be a shame, because "all those things would be sold for just pennies on the dollar".
Another guy on the show refused to part with anything of his literally millions and millions of items. I asked my husband if he didn't think that was a little peculiar. No, he said, because all those things were his "memories". Really? Old padlocks in a box? Piles of old tin cans?
Anyway, this was an eye opener for me. I really thought his hoarding tendencies had gotten better but apparently just because most of the hoard is gone the thought processes are still there.
For those of you who hoard, or are "recovering" hoarders, what do you think of this show? Do you think it gives you insight into your hoarding or do you think it might actually be harmful for you to watch because it seems to justify hoarding?
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Post by puppybox on Mar 9, 2010 13:34:01 GMT -5
I feel like I'm a recovering hoarder, it didn't get to that degree of severity with me but it was plenty bad. I haven't seen the show, I think I could watch it without it making me want to haord more, I think I would watch it thinking -wow, that is how I used to think and look how "crazy" (No offence) it is. Not that I think like a cleanie or ever will or want to, but I feel like I've left that hoarder mentality behind. When/where/what time/channel is it on?
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Post by margaret56 on Mar 9, 2010 13:48:04 GMT -5
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Post by Peach on Mar 9, 2010 14:10:06 GMT -5
I'm not a hoarder but I came across this show a couple weeks ago and watched two episodes. I thought it was great that there are people who go around and attempt to salvage old junk (which they then resell to antique dealers). The two men who are chronicled were respectful and non-judgmental toward the sellers and their hoards.
I viewed the show as a form of Antiques Roadshow -- where the people are interesting and their found treasures are presented in a way that the audience learns some history about a piece.
The show illustrates very well what happens when too much stuff is collected and then neglected. As Margaret said: "Most of the stuff these people had was just moldering away, literally rotting into the earth."
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Post by shopgirl on Mar 9, 2010 14:29:39 GMT -5
American Pickers is my new favorite show! Pickers always pay wholesale, and they always have a lot of CHARM. If the stuff is valuable, why sell to the pickers? Why not put it on ebay and get fair market value? Last night the old guy Galen in Maryland totally knew he was getting a great deal, selling that rusty 1939 Plymouth for $5,500. You don't often see the pickers overpaying like that. It was an emotional buy, and they didn't research the value of the car beforehand. It's kind of a crap shoot, a lot of times the pickers just sense that something is valuable. Most of the time they're right, but when they're wrong, it's a chuckle.
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Post by Arid on Mar 9, 2010 14:36:02 GMT -5
I haven't watched this particular show, but I have cut way back on watching "Antiques Roadshow." I love the show, but it DEFINITELY stimulates my "search out and hoard" genes when I watch it. It makes me want to go back to my old habit of attending estate sales every single weekend in search of . . .what?!!! The Holy Grail; financial independence; the envy of all my friends. . .?
Sometimes, people get lucky and find a $150,000 masterpiece at a thrift store for $2.50. More often, they have paid $4,000 at an auction or estate sale for an item that is worth $40,000. Well, I'm not the sort of person who would pay the $4,000 in the first place. My odds of finding a masterpiece at a thrift store are much, much less than the odds of my buying more "stuff" to drag home to my already-overstuffed house! (It's a form of gambling, really--and just as addictive!)
So, all in all, I'm better off staying away from those sorts of shows.
At least, when I watch "Hoarders," it makes me get up to do some work around the house!
Arid
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Post by margaret56 on Mar 9, 2010 15:21:25 GMT -5
Last night the old guy Galen in Maryland totally knew he was getting a great deal, selling that rusty 1939 Plymouth for $5,500. But I kept thinking that even if he believes he got a "deal", was it really worthwhile? Just think of it this way - would you let someone store something like that in your basement for 30 years if they promised to finally remove it and pay you $5500 in 2040? Now multiply that by all the other stuff that guy has stored that he will likely never receive a cent for and maybe it doesn't look like it was such a clever idea after all to hang on to all that stuff?
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Post by disarray on Mar 10, 2010 1:37:13 GMT -5
I just watched an episode for the first time. Maybe it's the hoarder/collector in me, but I was annoyed that the "pickers" were making such a big profit off of other people's stuff. I understand that's how they make their living, but it just didn't seem fair that the original collectors weren't receiving the true value of their items. I prefer Antique's Roadshow over this because of the fairness factor. However, it is interesting to look at other people's huge collections. (The one episode I watched didn't show what I would consider hoarding. It just showed massive collections.) But I'm like Arid, in that I shouldn't be watching shows like this or Antique's Roadshow. These types of shows definitely make me want to buy more stuff at yard sales and auctions because of the possibility of buying something for almost nothing.
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