A lot of the time, when Mike Wolfe has gone picking on someone's property, their valuables are all related to a single given category. That was certainly the case in an early episode of "American Pickers" when Wolfe was blown away by the amount of petrol-related items a judge had obtained over the years. He related the story in a 2011 interview with Southeastern Antiquing and Collecting Magazine, "A judge I met in Florida has an incredible collection of petrobilia, signs and gas pumps. A lot of people have beautiful collections that are clean and on display. This guy, his stuff was piled on top of each other."
However, the items themselves were only part of the equation. Wolfe goes on to relate, "For me, I want to know why people go down this path, why they buy all high-quality stuff. For this guy, it was because he worked in a gas station when he was 13. Just that one experience changed his path. That's what interests me. I go in, and people have one hundred or one thousand of one thing, and it's the back story that is intriguing to me."
That's part of the reason why "American Pickers" likely resonates with so many people. It's not just about sorting through a bunch of old junk. It's about what these items mean to the people who collect them, which occasionally makes it difficult for them to sell them to Wolfe and his partners.
