American Pickers,' 'Antiques Roadshow' visiting New Mexico | Local News | santafenewmexican.com - Santa Fe New Mexican

The New Mexico Office Supply store in downtown Española looks unremarkable from the outside — but inside, antique cash registers, typewriters and other obsolete office equipment offer customers a trip back in time.

"My father started the business in 1959 as a typewriter service, and we've been collecting since then," said Marlo Martínez, the store's owner. "Remington, Royal Standard, Smith Corona. I have close to 200."

Martínez, 64, also collects antique phonographs, telephones and trophies. He heard American Pickers was coming to New Mexico and said he would love to host the show.

The show, which has been to New Mexico three times since it premiered on the History Channel in 2010, is returning to the state in March.

The show's hosts visit people's homes, barns and sheds in the hopes of finding antiques to buy, while uncovering backstories on how the collections came to be. Purchased items are intended for resale, for clients or for the hosts' personal collections.

Amateur and serious collectors, hoarders and people who have inherited antiques can invite the pickers to their homes. The show also veers into occasional "freestyling," when the hosts stop at places along the way that might yield treasure.

It is one of two opportunities for residents to showcase their collectibles for a national TV audience in coming months. The PBS show Antiques Roadshow announced this week it will be visiting Museum Hill in Santa Fe on June 14, offering expert appraisals of antiques.

That show will produce three episodes from the all-day event, which will air in 2023.

Admission to the Antiques Roadshow event is free, but those hoping to attend must apply for a ticket by March 21 at pbs.org/roadshowtickets. Ticket applicants later will be selected in a random drawing.

Johnnie Meier, owner of the Classical Gas Museum on N.M. 68 in Embudo, said American Pickers reached out to him about five years ago.

Meier has collected antique gas pumps, road signs and travel-related memorabilia for more than 20 years.

He said he loves the show, and has been watching it from the beginning.

American Pickers only shops private collections — no stores, flea markets, museums, auctions, businesses or venues open to the public.

But Meier isn't counting out his collection.

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"I watched episodes where they have visited museums, so I'm not sure that policy is that firm," he said. "I think it would be a fun episode," he added, speaking of the possibility of one featuring his museum "There's a lot of crazy stuff here."

The show's hosts have a preference for old cars, trucks and motorcycles, but look at all sorts of other collections. In their explorations, they hope to uncover American history.

Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz were the show's hosts until Fritz abruptly left in July.

Wolfe then brought on his brother, Robbie Wolfe.

Joining them is Danielle Colby-Kushman, who generates leads and runs the office at Wolfe's business, Antique Archaeology, in Le Claire, Iowa.

The show, which has produced more than 300 episodes, first came to New Mexico for an episode called "Space Oddities," which aired in August 2015.

Wolfe and Fritz went to a re-created Wild West town in Las Cruces. There, they haggled with Joe Soebbing, the attraction's owner, and scored a cigarette slot machine, a neon sign and a roulette wheel.

They also saw a tintype photograph of Billy the Kid and Dan Dedrick, which they said could be worth up to $1 million.

Wolfe and Fritz then traveled to Roswell, where they scavenged an old car collection and came away with two 1931 Ford Model A's.

In another episode titled "Daredevil Duffey," which aired the following week, the two met motorcycle jumper Bob Duffey and pored over his decades-old collection of bikes and memorabilia.

And in "The Ghost of the West," which aired in July 2020, Wolfe and Colby-Kushman traveled to Springer and paid a visit to Carrie and Mike Hobbs, who had purchased a nearly 2-century-old livery stable along the historic Santa Fe Trail.

The property, named the R.H. Cowan Livery Stable, was packed with maps, books, photos, furniture, car parts, flags and other antiques.

The two the traveled to Cuchillo, a town outside Truth or Consequences, and toured an historic adobe village that is now a rustic bed and breakfast. They also visited a private residence filled with antiques and an old bar, mercantile, post office and hotel that told the history of the town.