MAC Forum

I really find TV shows about antiques and collectibles entertaining, and try to watch things like Collection Intervention, American Pickers and Storage wars whenever I get the chance. Public broadcasting (PBS) has its own version called Market Warriors. In this show, four antique dealer pickers go through flea markets, trying to buy items that they are able to re-sell at auctions for profits, and the one who makes the most "wins." The producers give each dealer the same amount of money and they must follow a set of rules. Of course, success is difficult and the dealers often end up "in the red."

I always look at the items on the sellers' tables in the background, as toys are never a featured item for the pickers. The episode that aired Monday, January 08, however, featured one of the pickers (John Bruno) purchasing a polished metal airplane for $300 - much lower than the seller's retail price. He thought it was a one-of-a-kind custom hand made plane and it looked like one of these inaccurate models one sees today. The wings were swept and it had four, 3-blade props that turned. The wings and fuselage detached, and the oversize landing gear was retractable. I was surprised to see the bidders at a California auction house raise the price to $425.

I too saw that episode and my first thought was: What a piece of shit!
Certainly not vintage in any way...usually it's an artist's impression of an airplane - this time a four engined airliner. Very disappointing.

I saw that episode and have to agree with MichaelB.

The airplane was something someone cobbled together and some fool overpaid for it, thinking it was something else.

My wife asked me what type of an aircraft it was and laffing, I had to reply "A Junker!"

I've seen guys pay as much for a franklin mint and pretend to be proud of it. Some of the early ident models have questionable provadance as well. Collecting any kind of antique is scary with all the ways to weather items. When your use to diecast and only see seams it's hard to truely critique wooden models.

ArtworksIII wrote:I've seen guys pay as much for a franklin mint and pretend to be proud of it. Some of the early ident models have questionable provadance as well. Collecting any kind of antique is scary with all the ways to weather items. When your use to diecast and only see seams it's hard to truely critique wooden models.

No doubt, this John Bruno fellow on this show knows nothing of the aviation category and neither did the seller. Remarkably, in the end though, this piece of 'junk' actually paid-off in the auction by deceiving another who thought it was something else of more importance.

Amazing what a home-made piece of polished aluminum can achieve, eh?