I love a great story. I love a beautiful bit of vintage. It turns out those things go together rather well and make for some fantastic TV! Antiques Roadshow is something most people are familiar with and they are still running and making new content on both BBC and PBS. Sad thing is, it’s not accessible to Canadians for streaming! There’s no Antiques Roadshow on our Netflix. Plus, if you try to stream it on PBS.org, or BBC.co.uk you just get the infamous “Sorry, not available in your region” message so many Canadians are sadly familiar with. I tried subscribing online via an app – nope. Sure, if you still have cable you can likely find it and PVR but otherwise, you’re out of luck. Come ON!!! Canadians love you and we (at least I) would gladly pay to access the content we are missing since pulling the plug on cable.
In the absence of Antiques Roadshow, I’ve gone treasure hunting for other content to scratch my itch for this genre of television. I thought I’d share these with you as they’ve all been quite a bit of fun to watch.
On Netflix
Endless Yard sale Showdown. A new Facebook Friend turned me onto this one and it was the tip of the iceberg for ferreting out fun content. It’s set up like a reality game show where teams shop the yard sales and flea markets for items they think will get the highest appraisals. 1 season (2015) is available.
This is a Canadian show where two treasure hunting guys drive their van down as many dirt roads in Ontario as they can looking for the goods. I loved this show and all their goofy shenanigans. So much fun. 2 seasons (2015, 2016) available.
This is a quirky British reality show where pickers try to earn a bit of money for the folks who donate their items to the show. It’s full of charm and SO MANY unreal British vintage goodies that we would drool over here! They do a bit of upcycling which is fun too. 1 season (2016) is available.
Dealers put your money where your mouth is
This is another quirky British bit of fun where the participants try to flip items found at flea markets and auctions for a profit. They pass over SO many items that I would have scooped up! Oh the treasures abound in this one. 1 season (2013) is available
Honorable Mention
This is a super fun show but it’s less about treasure and more about up-cycling which I think is rather interesting, but it might not be up your alley. Give it a watch, if nothing else, it helps us to see that with a little creativity we could be tossing out cash with our trash.
Online Streaming
History.ca has American Pickers free for the streaming. There are 7 mini Web Exclusive episodes available. Stream your wee hearts out – for a few minutes. If only they did the same for Canadian Pickers! Unfortunately, that’s locked down unless you still have cable. Ah well, it’s repeats anyway, as Canadian Pickers stopped filming in 2014. Hmmm…seems I don’t really care if the content is old, I’d still watch it! Shocker, right?
Found on the Science channel, Oddities is rather, odd. Like American pickers they have short mini Web Exclusive clips available for free streaming but that’s it. Still sort of fun to watch if you have a few moments and a strong constitution.
There is content to be had on Youtube though, I can’t be certain if it’s adhering to the rights of each show. I suppose that’s for Youtube to figure out isn’t it? Just do a search for antiques, etc and you’ll find much to keep you entertained!
Well, there you go! I hope you pop some popcorn and snuggle up with a crochet blanket for some good old fashioned binge time. Sadly, I didn’t find anything on Prime Video
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