Has anyone here seen “American Pickers” or “Pawn Stars”? I believe it its discovery channel that airs them. I was watching them and it dawned on me that these shows illustrate the STV perfectly.
In “American Pickers” these two fellas go around looking for others who collect junk and antiques. When they find things that they think they can sell they will offer the owner some money. Most times the owners offer a counter bid and they go back and forth until they reach a price that is good for both of them. Then at the end of the show the things they bought are shown with the price they paid and then what they think they can sell it for to their clients. I thought it was great. By watching the show you can clearly see that any one item has more than one value. It can have several different values depending on the buyer, seller, and circumstance.
“Pawn Stars” follows what goes on in a pawn shop in Vegas. But once again it shows that one item can be worth different things to different people. The haggling between the owners of the pawn shop and the customers really demonstrates how prices are determined by the subjective values of the buyers and sellers.
Im not a big fan of reality TV and I find the guys on American Pickers extremely annoying but when I have watched the shows I cant help but think to myself “this is economics in action”.