Freestylin’ for a Killer Back-Room Deal | American Pickers

♪ MIKE: I love freestyling in Pennsylvania, man.
I swear, it’s the best.
FRANK: Just… there’s so much old stuff.
MIKE: It is the best.
MIKE: Pennsylvania is a backroads treasure trove.
This is my favourite state, and always has been, to freestyle.
FRANK: This is a cool town.
MIKE: That’s got to be what he’s talking about right there.
FRANK: Yeah, it’s got the porch, it’s got a lot of knick-knacks on the front.
‘Please go away’, I don’t like that sign.
MIKE: Please go away… FRANK: [laughs] MIKE: Well, hey man, we can say Bruce sent us over here.
FRANK: Yeah.
MIKE: When you’re freestyling, you never know what you’re going to come across on somebody’s property.
FRANK: I’m getting a fresh flyer.
MIKE: Get the fresh… FRANK: Super fresh.
MIKE: Hopefully, we’re going to have handshake and not a shotgun in our face.
MIKE: What did Bruce say their names were?
FRANK: He didn’t.
MIKE: Hey, hey! How’re you doing?
ANDOR: Hello, what can I…
MIKE: You know a guy named Bruce over here?
ANDOR: Yes, I do.
MIKE: Right down hill on the other side?
Hey, I’m Mike, this is Frank.
FRANK: How’re you doing?
ANDOR: Hello, Mike and Frank.
MIKE: We stopped by Bruce’s because we’re looking for old advertising, any kind of old antiques, I mean, we have a list of stuff down here that we’d like to show you. He said…
you have the market nailed around here on antiques.
ANDOR: Well…
JAY: Well, why don’t we come down and look at your list?
MIKE: Okay. Yeah, we’d appreciate it.
JAY: We’ll be right down.
FRANK: There’s gotta be a reason that guy sent us up here.
I mean, look at this stuff here, look at the front of that door.
FRANK: I mean, we pull up to this place, it’s got a huge door on it, you can tell it’s custom made, it’s old…
Looks like it’s made in Transylvania or something, you know, but it’s a really killer piece, and if that’s what’s outside, who knows what they got inside.
MIKE: Nice to meet you, Jay.
So Bruce said that you guys have been collecting for a while.
JAY: Yes.
ANDOR: A long time. I collected her, for example.
MIKE: [laughs] How long have you guys been together?
JAY: We’ve been together 18 years.
MIKE: Life is all about timing, and Jay and Andor have actually talked about downsizing, getting rid of a few things, which is perfect for Frank and I.
There are lots and lots and lots of things here.
MIKE: Oh my gosh. FRANK: Whoa!
MIKE: So yeah, you guys do have a lot of stuff in here.
FRANK: Packed in here.
FRANK: It’s packed!
This is just the kind of place we want to be.
There’s smalls, there’s all kinds of stuff.
FRANK: Is the bus something you would sell?
JAY: Yes, I would.
FRANK: What are you thinking on that?
JAY: I really have to think, and I don’t want anybody to break my heart by saying a very little bit.
FRANK: Okay. MIKE: [laughs] FRANK: Would you mind if I got up there and…
JAY: I don’t mind at all. FRANK: Okay.
JAY: I want people to crawl, I want people to get down on their stomachs, I want people to reach up on ladders.
FRANK: It’s missing the back door.
JAY: Um-hm. Probably…
FRANK: You know it’s been scrunched up a little bit, here.
JAY: Yeah, well…
FRANK: You know, this thing looks like it’s out of the ’50s, it’s got a little futuristic look to it, you know.
FRANK: It’s a big piece, it’s a [?].
JAY: It’s not a toy; it’s a work of art.
It’s a spiritual piece.
That truck is bound for badness.
That is an evil truck.
FRANK: Truck is bound for badness?
JAY: Yes, it really is. The evil implicit in it.
FRANK: So do you think that, since you bought it in New Orleans, that… that’s the…
it’s spiritual because of the place?
JAY: Oh, absolutely not. No.
I bought a bunch of stuff in that place.
It was like a Suzie Cream Cheese place, and there was this evil thing.
MIKE: What’s Suzie Cream Cheese?
JAY: Well, it’s, na, na, na, have some nice little toys here, you know, that kind of thing.
And then there was that thing, you know, balefully in the corner looking out at you.
FRANK: Out at you, boy, it was just staring at you with sinister eyes?
JAY: Yeah, that’s an art object.
JAY: First of all, the aerodynamic shape, that gives it motion, but the colours and the patina, and it just seemed like a bus that was bound for nowhere…
nowhere good.
FRANK: You know, I’ve never had anybody describe a vehicle, especially a bus, as being evil, but Jay sees it a little bit different than I do, you know?
I see it as a vintage toy; she sees it as an evil art sculpture.
FRANK: How about $350?
JAY: Yes.
MIKE: Damn, Frank!
ANDOR: You didn’t break her heart.
Isn’t that nice? FRANK: Okay.
FRANK: I don’t mind paying up for this one, ’cause these buses are rare, and ones with evil spirits, are even rarer.
MIKE: Whoa… that’s great.
FRANK: Wow.
MIKE: As we walk up the staircase and through the halls, it’s like a scrapbook snapshot of their lives.
MIKE: This is your Martin Luther King painting?
ANDOR: Yes. MIKE: With Gandhi?
ANDOR: I did it for Clarion University.
MIKE: As you’re walking through the halls, you can’t help but notice all the famous people in these photographs.
MIKE: You have JFK, man, that’s a great shot.
JAY: Yeah, isn’t that great?
Did you see the proof sheets on that?
MIKE: No… JAY: Yeah.
MIKE: Wow…
MIKE: So Jay explains to us that her ex-husband was a famous photographer named Robert Adelman.
JAY: He was taking the cover picture for Life .
MIKE: That was for the cover of Life ?
JAY: Yeah. FRANK: Wow.
JAY: After Kennedy was elected.
MIKE: Tell me about these pieces, the Warhol ones.
JAY: They’re all for sale.
MIKE: They’re all for sale…
JAY: I just have to find out what they’re worth…
MIKE: The value of them? JAY: Yeah.
MIKE: And who shot these?
JAY: They’re all Robert Adelman.
MIKE: Your ex-husband shot all of these?
JAY: Yes, he did and gave them to me.
JAY: He knew Andy Warhol long before he knew me.
And he would go to the Factory.
Andy would just let him roam around there.
I mean, he has pictures from that Factory that were…
absolutely unbelievable!
I mean, what went on in that Factory…
♪ ♪ ♪ MIKE: Can I snap some photographs of these Warhols?
JAY: Of course you may.
MIKE: So what I want to do, is send those to Danielle, let her know who the photographer was, give her the back story, and let her do the research.
MIKE: Dani, can you hear me?
DANIELLE: Yeah, I can hear you.
MIKE: Alright, I got, like, one bar.
Okay, so did you get the photographs?
DANIELLE: Yeah, they’re super cool.
MIKE: Did you find any information on them?
DANIELLE: I made a few calls to some galleries, so I was able to collect a little bit of information for ya.
Okay, so you see the measurements that are written on some of the prints?
FRANK: Oh, I see it, yeah. MIKE: Yeah.
DANIELLE: Okay, so that tells me that the photos were printed around the same time as they were actually developing the negatives.
MIKE: Yeah. JAY: Yes, I see them, yes.
DANIELLE: So these would be some of the first original prints.
JAY: Yes, he did those after he had been to a party at the Factory.
MIKE: Oh, he would actually go to parties at the Factory?
JAY: Oh, Adelman went to parties at the Factory and told me great tales of what went on, yes.
MIKE: I bet!
DANIELLE: And there’s a stamp on the back of the photo which proves that this is the work of Robert Adelman.
It gives the whole thing provenance.
MIKE: Okay.
Dani, what else did you learn?
DANIELLE: These particular shots, they weren’t really widely seen.
JAY: That’s correct.
DANIELLE: I mean, they were in a couple of exhibitions here and there, but they were never published to a magazine or anything like that.
So I mean, they’re pretty special.
Okay, with all that information, I think I have a clear idea of their value.
MIKE: Okay.
DANIELLE: So for all of the pictures, except the one in the supermarket…
JAY: Yes, at Gristede’s.
DANIELLE: It’s somewhere in the range of like 55, to 6,500.
MIKE: 55, to 6,500 each?
DANIELLE: Each!
MIKE: Okay… FRANK: Okay.
MIKE: And we’re just like… wow…
DANIELLE: Okay, so the one with Andy Warhol and the shopping cart, that’s like $7,500.
MIKE: Wow…
FRANK: Even though it’s smaller?
DANIELLE: That one’s just going to command a higher price, because, I mean, if you look at it, the subject matter alone, like he’s got Brillo pads and Campbell’s soup cans in the shopping cart.
That’s so iconic!
FRANK: Okay.
MIKE: Alright hey, we very much appreciate you getting back with us so soon.
DANIELLE: Alright. FRANK: Thanks, Danielle.
DANIELLE: Yeah, anytime, anytime.
Alright, good luck.
MIKE: Thank you.
DANIELLE: Alright, we’ll see you later, bye.
MIKE: Alright.
MIKE: So now that we know the retail price, what we have to determine is what she’ll sell them for.
JAY: Oh, okay, well… this is one I think, see, this is one I personally dislike.
FRANK: Because of the girl?
JAY: I personally dislike it because the lovely young woman is dead. Edie Sedgwick.
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ MIKE: So you’re saying this is a photograph that you would sell individually, away from this collection?
JAY: Yes.
MIKE: Because of the subject matter and you just don’t care for it?
JAY: Yes, the subject matter makes me sad, and I don’t like having in my home, a picture of a beautiful young girl who died tragically.
MIKE: How about 4,000 bucks for this one, then?
JAY: Hm…
MIKE: I’ll take a chance on that, because then at the end of the day, if I have to go to a gallery and pay a fee, or if I have to go to an auction to pay a fee, and I get 55 out of it, then…
JAY: Yes, I understand.
MIKE: When I go to sell this Warhol photo, I’m going to be a little out of my element.
I mean, it’s not like I can just take this thing and stick it in the window at the shop.
JAY: I’d say 5, because I think you’re going to get a lot of money because this is sensational.
MIKE: Why don’t we do this…
JAY: Yeah?
MIKE: How long were you married to this gentleman?
JAY: 3 years.
MIKE: Okay, 3 years. JAY: Mm-hm.
So… I’ll pay you the $5,000, if you just write me up a letter.
Just basically saying, hey, this was…
JAY: Oh, I’ll be happy to, yes.
‘This was a gift from Robert Adelman.’ MIKE: ‘This was given to me as a gift from my husband Robert Adelman.’ JAY: I will be happy to do that.
MIKE: You wanna do that?
JAY: Yes, I’d be perfectly happy to do that.
MIKE: Thank you. ANDOR: Thank you.
MIKE: I want a letter from her, just to cement that, in writing, documentation, so we have that to go with the photograph when we sell it.
FRANK: Later, Sneezy! MIKE: [laughs] JAY: Oh, I’ll tell ya…
This has been so much fun!
ANDOR: We invited them in, they knew their business, they knew what they wanted.
They are fair people, knowledgeable people…
JAY: And fun! ANDOR: Good mannerisms.
MIKE: Thank you.
FRANK: Thank you ever so much.
JAY: Oh, thank you.
FRANK: She didn’t want to let go.
JAY: I always said I want to get my hands on that little one! FRANK: You got it.
FRANK: I was like…
FRANK: Nice to meet you, partner.
JAY: It was so nice. I really, really enjoyed you.
FRANK: Nice meeting you today. JAY: Thank you.
MIKE: Alright. We’ll be back around.
MIKE: Andor and Jay are probably one of the most interesting couples we’ve ever picked.
Certainly the most eccentric.
[honks horn] MIKE: See you guys! JAY: Bye! Bye!