By CINDY LADAGE
Illinois Correspondent

LECLAIRE, Iowa — Collectors everywhere are switching their televisions on Mondays at 8 p.m. CST to a new show on the History Channel, American Pickers, in which Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz do what every collector wants: Digging through other peoples junk and treasures to pick out the diamonds in the rough.

Viewers everywhere are tuning in as the duo hit the road in search of the antique mother lode. “I am overwhelmed by the success,” Wolfe said. “This is a gift we have been handed.

“We wanted to give the things we find and the people that collect them a voice. I think they are the true historians. What can you do in your lifetime?” he mused. “If you have collected, that collection will live on forever.”

He has been interested in picking since he was a kid. “I think I got the bug from my grandfather, who was a junker-scrapper guy.”
Hunting for treasures is a visual history trip he thinks every child should take. “Junkyards are like history lessons,” he said. “There are so many kids that grew up with that fascination. It is cool to show them the places and people so they know they still exist, and that there are still adventures on the back roads of America.”
About five years ago Wolfe started filming his adventures because friends said they didn’t believe his stories. Using people he was visiting as his film crew, he began to make videos and put them on his website. Then, History picked it up.

“When we collect, it is a passion and when they see passion, it is such a positive thing. History understands and portrays that,” he said.

“The way we are is projected so well on camera. Our relationships with people transfers well. It is like we have just acquired a million friends.”

Before becoming a professional picker, Wolfe did many things: “I used to have a bicycle shop and I was even a bicycle messenger in Chicago. I have worn a lot of hats, but I have always gravitated to this.”

What really changed his business was the advent of the Internet and eBay. Those and the passion to follow his dreams now offer him a chance to encourage others who want to pursue their own dreams in the Midwest.

“I try to encourage people,” he said. “I was persistent and believed in it. It is neat being in the Midwest and sharing that something like this is going on in Iowa. When kids see we achieved this, it gives hope for them.”

Collecting is not a new advent for either man. Friends since the eighth grade, Wolfe and Fritz are business partners, and Wolfe owns a shop called Antique Archaeology in LeClaire, Iowa.
“This town,” he said, “is nestled in the Mississippi River Valley and feels like home. I have picked professionally for the past 20 years and opened the shop 10 years ago.”

Working at Antique Archaeology and planning the road trips for them is Danielle Colby-Cushman, who also appears on the show.
“Before the show, I’d do all the research and make the contacts by Internet or word of mouth,” Wolfe said. “We need at least three points, then once we are there, I would talk to them or run ads. We would be gone a couple weeks at a time.

 “Danielle is an extremely talented person. She is an artist and painter, and designs and makes clothes.”

These days Danielle is busy, he added, with the show and store, but her designs can be found on her website at www.daniellecolbydesigns.com

Wolfe said they do make unplanned stops. “We call it free-range-picking,” he said. “It is hard for us to drive by. If we don’t have the time, we stop and give them a flyer, then come back. You know how this business is run; you have to stop!”

Although the collector in him wants to keep his neat finds, he said, “I always am conscious of what we are buying and selling. It has to be an end result. Frank and I do what we do, it is the story, searching for people and experiences and you that won’t happen in any office.”

Wolfe is partial to anything to do with transportation: auto, signs, two–wheeled vehicles, and said Frank likes toys. “Some people call what we find junk. I call it our National Treasure, and it is fading fast.”

Some treasures work out better than others. Recently he purchased a saddle valued at $5,000 and sold it for $175.

Then again, he found some photographs of early American racing prior to 1910, not knowing they were worth much, and sold them to a museum. With derelict barns and leaning sheds and junkyards, picking can be a dangerous undertaking.

“I once fell through a floor of an old building, but I caught myself,” Wolfe said. “There are big snakes, poison oak and poison ivy, but what’s kind of cool is it is like being a kid, climbing over things and hoping something is around the corner.”

The east coast has been the best part of the country to find hidden treasures. “The towns are closer together and there is all the little towns’ architecture,” he said. “Immigrants all brought in their goods and the money leaked out into the countryside.”

Many items they find may be sold before they get home. They use experts to help assess value of items they don’t know about. “We will call Danielle and she will research and contact and ask if we can speak with someone. We really need to embrace the Internet; it makes it a world market,” Wolfe said.

For all the tractor and farm toy collectors out there, he said he has found some good John Deere signs, but although he has seen some great tractors, they were too big to haul. “I have a complete appreciation for them, but when we are on the road, we can’t haul it all, I have to think about the transport cost,” he said.

Wolfe often passes on those things he finds to other pickers or collectors. Viewers do comment when he passes over items they think are important. Although he knows he misses items, he said, “You can send in 10 different pickers and they will come up with 10 different things.”

So many items and so many stories … maybe one day, Wolfe will write a book. Right now he shares the stories of the items with potential buyers and viewers.

“There are so many amazing people,” he recalled. “One man, an old German, his wife had passed away. She collected crocks and out in the barn under a bunch of stuff, she had a box with thousands of dollars in it. She had placed it there.”

The man was surprised, and Wolfe was excited to uncover this box that may never have been found and pass the cash onto the owner.

“I believe a higher power was the reason I stopped there that day and found that needle in a haystack,” he added.