Bargain Loss

07-12-2006

I caught an episode of Bargain Hunt today on the gym TV during my lunch break. If you have not seen it, it is where two teams go to car boot sales, antique fairs and flea markets with a couple of experts in tow in the hope of finding a bargain or two which they will later sell at auction at (hopefully) a profit.

Now I’ve seen a hell of a lot of episodes over the last few years and I cannot remember the last time that I ever saw any team make a profit, not even one penny! Even the experts prove useless. They’d never get a job on The Antiques Roadshow. When you go looking for a bargain you look for something that not only would you like to own, but you are happy with the price because it is far less than you would expect to pay for it. That way you stand a good chance of finding interested parties looking for a bargain at the auction. You don’t pay fifty large for a side lamp that looks horrible but may be a collectors piece. And when the so-called expert tells you that they are not exactly sure what it is but it may just prove a bargain, walk away, now.

Despite both teams making a loss by the end of each show I am surprised that they still crown a winner. Yep, the team that lost the least amount of money is the winner.

Why is this show still on the air? If you watch a home makeover show you get to see the nice home at the end. When you see Pimp my Ride you see the tricked out auto at the end of the show. When you watch Bargain Hunt you never see a bargain. All you see is people showing you how not to make money by buying something at a stall and then selling it at an auction at a loss. In fact the only people who make any money on this show are the people selling the “bargains” to the teams in the first place.

If you want to see people selling stuff for a profit and others finding bargains you’d be better off logging onto eBay than watching Bargain Hunt.