Wasn't someone on a reality show that aired today?

[JP135]

I know Strychnine and his woman are going to be in one, don't know when it's being aired though.

Surely someone on here has made it on Cops at some point, as many as they filmed in Fort Worth!

LOL, guilty.

Forgot about Strychnine's debut. Gotta watch for that.

[Chili]

LOL, guilty.

Forgot about Strychnine's debut. Gotta watch for that.

Which side were you on? Details man, let's look you up!

[JP135]

Which side were you on? Details man, let's look you up!

JPS/hospital district auto theft/car burglary one. Was with the auto theft task force at the time. My friend Reggie W was being interviewed on camera. I was just in the background. The kind of thing only your mother thinks is cool. Everybody else is all "Ninja, please".

[Chili]

JPS/hospital district auto theft/car burglary one. Was with the auto theft task force at the time. My friend Reggie W was being interviewed on camera. I was just in the background. The kind of thing only your mother thinks is cool. Everybody else is all "Ninja, please".

Haha.. I've seen Treadhead in the background on the news before.. Standing around texting, being useless.

[dsrtuckteezy]

Haha.. I've seen Treadhead in the background on the news before.. Standing around texting, being useless.

we might need to disable your ability to use that smiley

[Country cracker]

Come on Matt I expected more from a dfwmustangs member. Y'all could have offered $20 and half a cheeseburger for the pump.

[Country cracker]

$750 for an old junk ass table and chairs?

[Chili]

we might need to disable your ability to use that smiley

[Chili]

Too bad about the loss, it was close.. Now spill the beans on what your issues were about it!!

Did you get to keep all the stuff?

[yellowstang]

When's the next re-air? I was asleep, but had the TV on HGTV, woke up during the show and turned it off!

[Strychnine]

Too bad about the loss, it was close.. Now spill the beans on what your issues were about it!!

Did you get to keep all the stuff?

Yes. Didn't bring all of it home though. Just the fur, wheels, and spurs.

I'll post up the long story in a bit. I think we got screwed.

[Country cracker]

I noticed in the show at the end they made it look like you couldn't count. After they announced both profits they showed y'all in suspense.

[Strychnine]

Here's what I typed up after it happened. I knew people would want to know details and I didnt want to forget:





Premise:
There are four challenges. For each one there is a time limit and a dollar limit. At the end of the time we had to be at a certain place (any driving time just ate away shopping time) and there the items would be appraised (out of our presence). The goal was to have the largest difference between money spent and appraised value, and while filming this portion the hosts would talk about one or two items from each team’s collection then give the overall result.

Challenge 1
$100, 1 hour, find kitchen and/or bath item(s)
First stop we found an old iron hand pump. Owners told us it came from an old house and was used in the kitchen to supply water from the cistern. List $60 Paid $40 Appraised $100 - $60 to our total for the round.
Went down the road to another place and saw a clawfoot bathtub. Hell yeah! As I was walking up the owner I asked about the tub and he said he sold it about 30 seconds prior… to another team. We were pretty sure that the tub would be worth some good money so with time running out and feeling a bit defeated we landed on an old vanity. It was good solid wood, original hardware, and a marble top. Paid our remaining $60 after talking them down a lot and it appraised for $200 (?)

We get our junk back to the meeting spot and go eat lunch while the appraiser does his thing, and then reconvene for the “reveal.” We were sure that we’d lost because of that damn tub but we actually won the round. While reviewing the tub they said that while in good condition or if refurbished, it would be worth a great deal, in its present state (which is how items were to be appraised) it would require work so it was valued much less than we thought… and we made a mental note.


Challenge 2
$200, 3 hours, find items that could be repurposed – and the rendezvous spot was 45 miles south, but we got a 30 minute headstart for winning challenge 1.
We decided to stop all along the way, do quick looks and either buy or move quickly. The other teams either didn’t make many stops or skipped nearly 40 miles and only shopped the last bit.

The first purchase of the round was a gamble. I knew what I thought would work, but the appraiser’s knowledge was the wild card. We talked a guy down from $200 to $75 on a set of four ’37-’38 Chevy truck wheels (that had been blasted and powdercoated) with 2 (repop) center caps. The repurposing would be to turn them into a coffee table, wall clock, etc. Garage art, basically. At some other stops we got an old sled, and an old trunk. With about 5 miles and 5 minutes to go and half of our money left in our pockets we made the final stop. We ran up telling the guy (who had a mouth full of sandwich) what our mission was and he sold us a vintage standing radio and something else for cheap.

We paid $75 for the wheels and they appraised for $75 each. That right there sealed up the round for us, but with everything else we put $300+ margin on our total ahead of the other teams.

Later, off camera, another team and some of the producers all told us we were killing it. One producer even went so far as to say that we should be a bit more humble (???) because we had it locked up and were destroying the other teams.

Then the bullshit started the next day…

Challenge 3
$300, find at least three items from three different vendors that would make up a collection or have a common theme and meet up three hours later 55 miles to the south – and we got an extra $100 for winning challenge 2.

After fighting horrible traffic we stopped early at a large gathering of vendors with no set theme for our items. Right off the bat we were drawn to an old Smith & Cornona typewriter. We figured we’d get it them build around it. From there we went to a small writing desk – not a bad start to a theme. Well then we stumbled on a vintage fur coat. My wife knows her fur. She has a floor length mink that she (somehow, someway) got for <$200. We had it appraised for $5000 last year. Anyway, this was a full length raccoon coat with an immaculate lining and it had obviously been stored properly. Then vendor said he knew of others going for at least $500 on Ebay; a bit of a gamble but we trusted him. $100 later it was ours and we had the beginning to our story. After finding another small trunk and old suitcase our theme was this: “Ivy League college student retreats to family cabin over Christmas break to do some writing but she’s dumb as shit and can’t start a fire or really fend for herself.” We picked up some candlesticks, early 1900s books, tea cup/kettle and called it done.

We knew the fix was in when the appraisal values came up for this round. That fur that we paid $100 for was “valued” at $150. We lost a lot of margin. Then another team for this challenge came across a 1950s dinette set. It was a “mid-century modern” look but it was scratched, dinged, had rust on the table and all four chairs, etc. We were confident that it was a bad buy, because as the appraiser told me face to face in the morning meeting, “condition is everything.”

That table appraised for $700 and our lead was lost.


Challenge 4
$300 and 30 minutes. Find at least one conversation piece.

We were down and defeated at this point. Still pissed about that appraisal round we weren’t feeling it, but went out there anyway. With 10 minutes left and nothing in our hands we started talking to a guy who specialized in western/cowboy stuff. I told him what I needed and he pointed out a toboggan. No thanks. I reiterated that I needed his help… badly. He said, “well, I might have something. Follow me.”
He grabbed a pair of (obviously) old spurs and said they were Crockett’s. Not knowing WTF that meant he gave me the history of Oscar Crockett, his birth in Pecos, TX, his move to Kansas, and his rise to become one of the “big 3” in the late 1800s – early 1900s cowboy business and then he corroborated all of that with reference books and other material. He guaranteed me that these would appraise for nearly $600 and even offered to buy them back if he was wrong. I knew he was serious so I told him I only had $300 ($75 below his asking price) and while both of us did lots of thinking about what was transpiring we ended up on the same page. We walked away with one pair of Crocket spurs.

Back at the rally point we watched, from a distance, as the appraiser did his thing. We saw him pick them up, look them over… then pull out his cell phone and start searching. He didn’t know shit. We were unsure which way it would go, and then a producer asked where we bought them. Well some of the seller’s friends had come to where we were to check it out so they took the producer and appraiser back to speak to the seller. When they finally came back we had a bit of confidence, but not cockiness for sure.

The appraiser valued our $300 purchase at only $450 and it was over. We lost by <$200.

Doing the mental math I knew that any one of the big items that day could have sealed it up for us. If their table were not $700 we would have won. If the fur were valued higher we would have won. If the spurs were appraised better we would have won.

After the filming was over the guy who sold us the spurs came up to me with cash in his hand and said he was sorry. He told the appraiser the high and low end and what they should sell for that weekend at that place, but the appraiser said they couldn’t be worth that much. He even told us that after we walked away (after the initial buy) another man who was watching told him that if he bought them back from us that he’d pay $400 on the spot.

We opted to bring home the fur and the spurs.


Aftermath

That night was stressful. We just lost out on $5000, and we did not feel we were given a fair shot at that competition. One team winning every challenge was not “good TV” and the second day of filming added the drama they needed. Hanging out in Nashville we made some calls and we have an appraisal scheduled w/ a furrier Monday morning.

I’m also in contact now with two western/cowboy gear appraisers to have the spurs looked at.






We did some digging on that damn table that the other team took the lead with. It turns out its exact name is “Arvin Chrome Metal Plated Dinette Set.” We found a great condition one, complete with the extra leaf and six chairs (the other team had no leaf and four chairs) for $300. Then we found one in equally great shape (no big patches of rust the one that killed us) that SOLD for $165. That hurt.







$700 - $165 = a $5000 check for us. Hell $700 - $300 = a $5000 check for us.

When I end up posting this I’ll have values on the spurs and fur, but I won’t have $5000 in my pocket.






FWIW, we had the fur appraised...

$3000 insurance replacement value.

[racrguy]

Damn. That's shitty Matt. Sorry.

[Stoner]

Not on cops, but you might remember this story.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Chr...184125351.html