It's one thing to have single items brought into a pawn store, but quite another to enter people's homes and see what they've got in there. Much like the surprises lurking behind the doors on all those hoarding shows, one never knows what the "American Pickers" (Mon., 9 p.m. EST on History) will uncover. Luckily for them, it's rarely a house filled to the brim with junk. Rather, it's often a house lovingly filled with oddities, like Norm's house filled with pedal cars.
Mike and Frank walked into a rather unassuming house only to find these antique pedal cars all throughout the house, but each one was immaculately clean and meticulously cared for. It was just the plethora of them in every corner of the house that seemed a little strange. "Norm's house is like the Smithsonian of Pedal Cars," Mike Wolfe said.
The crown jewel of Norm's impressive collection was at the top of a stair well. "That's the rarest of rare. That's a 1925 Express Truck," he said proudly. "I traded my real '57 Thunderbird for this."
"You traded a real car for this?" Frank Fritz marveled. Norm had earlier revealed that the retail price of one of his pedal cars from the early 1900s was $69.95. That was the equivalent price, or a little higher, of a full-sized Model T. So in that context, trading a full-sized vehicle for a vintage pedal car may not be quite so crazy.
While Norm was willing to part with the Express Truck, the fact that it had been restored actually hurt its potential value, thus lowering what the guys were willing to pay. Unable to bridge the gap between Norm's asking price of $13K and the $8K it was estimated to be worth, Norm decided to hang on to it. The guys may not have picked up anything, but they certainly picked up some fun memories of a unique collection.
"American Pickers" airs Mondays at 9 p.m. EST on History.
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