Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Swap Shop’ Season 2 on Netflix, A Show Following Pickers As They Search For Vintage Resale Treasure

Netflix’s Tennessee treasure hunting reality show Swap Shop returns for its second season, and the potential deals on vintage items, quirky antiques, in-demand handicrafts, and barn-kept automobiles are once again emanating over the airwaves from WRGS in east Tennessee. People have been calling the radio show for over seventy years with items they’re looking to sell, buy, and swap. But Netflix is more interested in the personalities of the pickers.

SWAP SHOP SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: “The phone lines are now open, and we’re ready to get swappin’…” It’s sunrise over the rolling hills of East Tennessee. The Swap Shop show is on the radio, and Dale is driving his tractor through his farm’s fields.

The Gist: Dale and his business partner Scott are just one of the pairs of pickers we meet in the first episode of Swap Shop. The season one veterans own Kykers Xtreme Automotive, and they’re excited to check out a barn-kept 1970 Plymouth GTX muscle car complete with a 440 power plant, the kind of iconic engine that itself is worth thousands. Also returning from season one are Jen and Doug, owners of Pickers Paradise. “It’s my passion,” Jen says of the hunt for valuable old stuff and oddities. “I live and breathe for this.” When the couple hears about an estate sale right around the corner from their shop, they race to be the first ones on site. You gotta get while the gettin’s good, because there’s competition. Self-described “junkman” and Bobmart owner Bobby and his partner, fine furniture and goods auctioneer JD, are also motoring to the estate sale, as are brothers and Kentucky auction house owners Sammie and Mark Isaacs.

With first dibs, Jen and Doug are immediately taken with items like a vintage Lance cracker jar, elegant Fenton glassware from the 1900’s, and a set of nesting stoneware crocks that are sure to fetch hundreds of dollars at resale. With other buyers hurrying to the sale, the couple has to decide whether to buy the entire estate outright, and if so, what they can afford to offer. The bidding begins.

For Dale and Scott, a delay from getting stuck behind a slow-moving tractor prevents them from being first on the car selling scene, and they’re dismayed to see the Plymouth already trailered up and departing. But they chase the buyer down, because two avowed car guys aren’t just gonna let a classic like that go. With its original paint, intact interior, and low mileage, the GTX is worth fifty or sixty thousand at auction. Beyond that, it’s just a beautiful car to explore.

Back at the estate sale, JD and Bobby and Sammie and Mark encounter Jen and Doug on the front lawn as both sets of pickers converge on the site, and they immediately know they’ve been beaten to the punch. That doesn’t stop them from looking, though, because there are always side deals to be made. And to that end, a 1900’s tiger oak dresser with barley twist woodworking and circle dovetail craftsmanship becomes the hottest item in a boisterous bit of haggling.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The visceral thrill of watching folks lose their minds over random artifacts of the past embodied in the long-running PBS program Antiques Roadshow comes to mind here, as do the picking adventures of the guys on A&E’s American Pickers.

Our Take: Since it’s named after a venerable radio segment, you might think Swap Shop would feature more of WRGS’s role in all of this scrambling for vintage goods. But the show is only a frame, offering the announcement of a potential swap – a bag of 200 Beanie Babies, up for grabs in downtown Knoxville, or a realtor coordinating the pre-auction for a family’s assembled belongings – and getting out of the way as invested listeners debate their level of participation. Doug, for example, immediately discounts the Beanie Babies thing – it’s too far to drive for so little a return. But once the various teams of searchers are in motion and gaming for what they might find, Swap Shop finds its rhythm in pleasant notes of excitement and the potential for a picking goldmine. And since each episode clocks in at 30 minutes or less, it’s breezy enough to maintain our interest in the thrill of discovery even as we engage easily with the folksy back-and-forth between the various picking duos. These people are at odds with another, and there’s real money at stake. But you’d never know it by the amiable nature they bring to each bidding interaction. It lends real atmosphere to Swap Shop, and keeps the spark alive for whatever vintage revelation is around the corner, in the next bedroom, or buried in the basement.

Sex and Skin: Nope!

Parting Shot: Mark and his brother are weighing their drive time to the estate sale and getting into a price battle with their competing pickers against the return on their investment of time and money. “Even though I think we paid a bit too much for this chest, I still think we can get at least $800 out of it.”

Sleeper Star: “A picker’s superpower is being able to go into a space where everybody else sees junk and you see dollar signs,” Jen says, and she consistently balances bubbly excitement with measured and informative takes on existing market rates for vintage items ranging from the common to the arcane.

Most Pilot-y Line: “You put two auctioneers head-to-head, against an experienced picking team who’s trying to sell, it’s a recipe for losing money.” This line from JD gets at the professional grade haggling at the core of Swap Shop.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Fans of shows like American Pickers and Pawn Stars will love to vicariously dig for resale treasure alongside the pickers and auctioneers of the good-natured Swap Shop.

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges