Salvage Hunters Drew Pritchard

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

3 hours ago, MauriceMynah said:

Say nothing Maurice, say nothing.

Yes, with you in the house MM, I should have phrased it differently 😂

[johnb]

During the 1980s/90s I was on a couple of bbc films when I called, prearranged, on elderly people. I rang the door bell of one lady, the camera man already filming. The lady answered the door but said she didn’t need us (she had known me For years so that’s probably why!) the camera was turned off And it was decided to start again, so everybody back into the lift, Out again, ring the Bell-no reply. Then I gently pushed the door to find that being practical, she had left the door open and was back sitting in her armchair. So mumbling something about she must be expecting us we entered and got on with the filming. So most ‘entrances’ on television are not the first -too many things can go wrong. We had 18 minutes of film for 9 minute slot, so it had to be edited by half, the folk were fantastic but not always politically correct so the editing started there. It’s not only animals and children who one has to be careful working with. 

[Upcycler]

Since my last few holidays on the Norfolk Broads a friend of mine made me aware of this site, so now and again I have been viewing this site to make me wonder if it is worth joining.

I have to say that I am a keen up cycler and The repair shop, Salvage Hunters and Money for Nothing, I am very much a fan of. I know a lot of these things are pre arranged in these programmes, and with Money for Nothing Jay Blade and his two tone colour of his chairs, seems to do nothing for The Repair Shop, but I have to stick up for Drew Pritchard here.

What a lot of people don't realise the after costs of making a sale goes into re-selling.

You have to factor in staff, fuel, dwelling, the list goes on concerning costs. Please only comment if you know the business! 

[SteveO]

On 04/01/2020 at 09:00, Poppy said:

That's how most of the antiques trade operates, surely ? Buy it as cheap as you can and sell it on as high as the market will let you...  I don't see any of the schools and religious establishments as particularly short of cash !

On a couple of the episodes I watched, the establishments were selling off their heritage to pay bills, so deseperately needed cash. They were also totally commercially naive as to the value of what they were selling. A win-win for the likes of Pritchard.

[SteveO]

14 hours ago, Upcycler said:

Since my last few holidays on the Norfolk Broads a friend of mine made me aware of this site, so now and again I have been viewing this site to make me wonder if it is worth joining.

I have to say that I am a keen up cycler and The repair shop, Salvage Hunters and Money for Nothing, I am very much a fan of. I know a lot of these things are pre arranged in these programmes, and with Money for Nothing Jay Blade and his two tone colour of his chairs, seems to do nothing for The Repair Shop, but I have to stick up for Drew Pritchard here.

What a lot of people don't realise the after costs of making a sale goes into re-selling.

You have to factor in staff, fuel, dwelling, the list goes on concerning costs. Please only comment if you know the business! 

From what I have seen of the business and these programmes, they seem to oscillate between fantasy economics and downright exploitation. A 1970's chair with a single purple leg does nothing for me, but I do have a healthy respect for craftspersonship. I can't see the cost of hiring a man and van and a big shed and getting your wife to do a bunch of internet research to concoct a provenance costing very much, particularly if a TV company is also paying you, presumably handsomly. I am not a scrap dealer or a craftsman so I don't "know the business" but I do know business and understand costings, so I reserve my right to have a say on this without you trying to close me down.

[MauriceMynah]

The TV programs about antiques have almost destroyed the trade (I am an antiques dealer @Upcycler). Yes there is always a bit of wriggle room in the prices but if someone asks me what my best price is, then when I tell them they offer me less, I usually, in as ruder way as I can, just turn away.

The general public now thinks that half the ticket price is a fair price to pay. Trust me, in the vast majority of cases, that's less than the seller paid for it.

So why does it work on TV?   Simple! The whole shooting match is set up for TV and entertainment. It should be remembered that most dealers get most if their stock from auction, These programs are not designed to educate people, but to entertain them.

Now for "upcycling"

It breaks my heart when I see a beautiful sideboard or whatever, being taken and vandalised. "Paint it grey, wallpaper the front and paint one of it's legs blue" I hear them say, then they sell it to some gullible prat who has a shop full of similarly vandalised stuff.

Further gullible people watch the program, believe that this is the new fashion and go out buying the stuff... Oh give me strength!!!

As a result of all this, I love watching the repair shop doing their restorations but dislike watching Money for nothing and the like.

There, I have spoken!  .   

 

[grendel]

I an not an antques dealer, but I do like buying old stuff and making it useful again, I once bought a mutilated spinning wheel at a boot fair, and removed the lamp that had been fitted to the top, repaired the flyer, made new bobbins and redid the drive band, just to get it back to a useable condition. this weekend just gone I picked up another, fortunately rescuing it before it was mutilated, it was sold to me as 'it would look nice in your living room if you put a lamp on top and made it into a nice floor lamp' , a new drive belt made and it was back to fully functional.

I also pick up old tools (wooden planes etc) and clean them up, sharpen them up and put them back to use, some of those old tools hold a far better edge than the modern equivalent and still work nicely given the right treatment.

[Regulo]

See? MM is not as daft as I look.

[ranworthbreeze]

Like Grendel I buy old tools, mostly cast planes and agree that the older blades when set up correctly out perform the new  versions of these planes, my preference is for the Stayset blades used on some of the record planes.

There is great satisfaction by planing a piece of hardwood with a well honed plane by hand rather than using an electric plane.

Please see a picture of the dresser I made from scratch.

Regards

Alan

[Lulu]

It seems that with most of these upcycling programmes  are that if you don’t know what to turn it into, turn it into a lamp, whatever the item originally was.   If I watch them, I try and guess, will it be a lamp? 

[Chelsea14Ian]

Marina has a old pram that she has had since a child. She is thinking of contacting the repair shop.It is need of some one to make it look good.Will let you know if she makes contact with them 

[Regulo]

Turn it into a lamp.

[SteveO]

There was one particular programme that got my goat - Find it, Fix it, Flog it, which featured an awful woman who's favourite line was to screech "Let's paint it purple" in a whiney Liverpool accent. She devalued many a worthy antique with her nasty paint jobs and "creative" (not really) ideas.

I would much prefer to see the folks on Repair Shop restoring old stuff in a sympathetic way, often using the same crafts, techniques, tools and materials that our forefathers perfected. I don't care what is involved, whether it be clocks, furniture, toys, leather stuff or even old teddy bears. It all makes for fantastic TV. I just wonder why some of the "cherished heirlooms" have been allowed to get into the parlous state in which they are presented for repair, if they really mean something to the people involved.

[unclemike]

4 hours ago, Regulo said:

See? MM is not as daft as I look.

is anyone, even you?

[Regulo]

You have a point. 

[Poppy]

6 hours ago, SteveO said:

On a couple of the episodes I watched, the establishments were selling off their heritage to pay bills, so deseperately needed cash. They were also totally commercially naive as to the value of what they were selling. A win-win for the likes of Pritchard.

That's capitalsim ! A lot of people like that  - apparently

[SteveO]

1 hour ago, Poppy said:

That's capitalsim ! A lot of people like that  - apparently

I would say it is more like robbery.

[finny]

plenty affordable decorative salvage at lathams for those who want waccy 

 

finny

[JennyMorgan]

1 hour ago, finny said:

plenty affordable decorative salvage at lathams for those who want waccy  

finny

Or even absolute crappy!

[floydraser]

11 hours ago, MauriceMynah said:

The TV programs about antiques have almost destroyed the trade (I am an antiques dealer @Upcycler). Yes there is always a bit of wriggle room in the prices but if someone asks me what my best price is, then when I tell them they offer me less, I usually, in as ruder way as I can, just turn away.

I can see your point clearly and to be fair, the dealers who participate in these tv programs are partly to blame. I spend a lot of time (and money!) in antique shops and I find it's always better to make the effort to be a good (polite) customer. But I hear others who believe they are doing the dealer a favour by taking the stuff off their hands. What you describe is a frequent senario on Antiques Road Trip but in that show, the answer to the dealers best price is often, "40?, I was hoping to get it for 30." And they settle on £35. They usually cave in to the lovely Christina!

Sometimes though, the dealer just wants rid of the stuff: I found bubble sextant from a WW2 bomber at Hemswell. No price tag but I expected to pay between £40-£60. I asked the price and the dealer started to get it out of the cabinet. I told him not to go to the trouble because I didn't want to mess him about (good customer!). He said the price tag was £175. No point even thinking about it so I thanked him for showing me and said I wouldn't bother. He then said, "Well I've had it for ages and I need the space in the cabinet, how about £35?

I've cleaned it, bought a handbook for it and if anyone wants to see it and have go, I'll bring it over sometime. I'll even growl in your earhole and shake you by the shoulders for a bit of realism!

[floydraser]

11 hours ago, ranworthbreeze said:

There is great satisfaction by planing a piece of hardwood with a well honed plane by hand rather than using an electric plane.

I am seriously jealous of anyone who can work wood like that. Love the dresser.

Wood is evil. It is alive. It hates me. You measure it 47 times and it still shrinks after you've cut it. Why is that? I must have been a Lumberjack (and I'm OK..) in a previous life and now the trees want their revenge!

Metal is a lot more forgiving. All you have to do is get it hot enough, hit it with the biggest hammer you can find, and it will do anything.

I may hold a design competition for a drinks cabinet for the Denham Owl, winner gets to build and install it...

[ExSurveyor]

Wood is beautiful, I used to do a lot of woodworking. Now I have boats I don't have the time or the space.

With retirement looming and my workshop being emptied of eldest sons accumulated rubbish i might start up again, or get another boat.

I can hear a classic wooden speedboat calling me.

[addicted]

My father was a cabinet maker and was once charged with the task of making a  10' high long case clock for King Alfonse of Spain. This he did and when it was finished it was shipped out to Spain. During transit a foot was broken off and it was returned to dad for repair. In all,  this occurred 4 times! He often wondered what became of his clock and  if it stood up to the rigours of the Spanish civil war of a few years later.

 

 

Carole

[Upcycler]

On 07/01/2020 at 10:53, SteveO said:

From what I have seen of the business and these programmes, they seem to oscillate between fantasy economics and downright exploitation. A 1970's chair with a single purple leg does nothing for me, but I do have a healthy respect for craftspersonship. I can't see the cost of hiring a man and van and a big shed and getting your wife to do a bunch of internet research to concoct a provenance costing very much, particularly if a TV company is also paying you, presumably handsomly. I am not a scrap dealer or a craftsman so I don't "know the business" but I do know business and understand costings, so I reserve my right to have a say on this without you trying to close me down.

That's the thing, you don't know the business and while you are being sucked in by the TV, you should watch TOWIE and the Kardashians while your at it!

I noticed that someone posted how tv does things to get you interested and basically that is how things work on tv. Drew has mentioned on numerous occasions how he can visit many allocation and get nothing, but we don't get to see that, just the prearranged stuff. Otherwise if we were to see what the average salvager does, the public would soon switch off.

I know some people can't understand what Money for Nothing is about, but you would be surprised what someone will pay for something that is unique and been on a tv show!  Henry Cole is close to what my friend is all about and that's why I like FIFIFI or drive it. But if something was to highlight what I wish I could excel at and that would be the Repair Shop. I not very good at remembering names but all the repairers on there are simply magnificent. Unfortunately these trades are dying out because the youngsters of today think these trades are too tiresome and boring and their facebook status is much more important.  

[Upcycler]

On 07/01/2020 at 12:00, ranworthbreeze said:

Like Grendel I buy old tools, mostly cast planes and agree that the older blades when set up correctly out perform the new  versions of these planes, my preference is for the Stayset blades used on some of the record planes.

There is great satisfaction by planing a piece of hardwood with a well honed plane by hand rather than using an electric plane.

Please see a picture of the dresser I made from scratch.

Regards

Alan

If you built that from scratch, I would like to say what a magnificent job you have done. I just hope you have passed on your masters degree on carpentry to one of your offspring.