We move to Antiques Roadshow now?

Doctor con, you said you are an Antiques Roadshow.

with about five.

Million viewers each week.

Right now, the ongoing series is filming its 29th season and kicked off its tour right here in Las Vegas at the Springs Preserve.

That's where I spoke with the show's longtime executive producer, Marcia.

Benbow, about the show's return to Southern Nevada for the first time since 2007.

Why the return and why so long?

It's been too long.

That's why we finally do, to come back.

And we don't repeat it in any less than five years.

You have definitely qualified watching.

An episode from 2007.

I was surprised at the lack of Vegas memorabilia, and so it made me wonder how important the city really is to the show.

A city is important to a show.

You bet it is.

We really want a sense of place.

And here's the thing.

Good stuff has feet.

So good stuff walks and it's going to move.

And a lot of people and you know this better than me.

A lot of people come to Vegas from the East, a move west, and that stuff's coming with them.

And that's why we'll see that here.

We love to find and I hope to find a lot of Nevada related items today.

Okay.

But it's so serendipitous.

I know it's coming pretty much as much as you do.

We are interrupting you as you are on a filming day.

But let me ask you, what is going on behind us?

What is the typical experience like and at what point do you get involved?

Okay, so what's going on behind us right now?

You can see these are three of our over 20 categories 23 categories.

We got new scripts.

That's what we posted over there.

Even though I can't see it.

And photographs over there.

What first happened?

Anybody who came into the show went to an area we call triage.

It's very friendly.

There.

And they got a category ticket.

Now, do you have jewelry?

It's obvious.

But do you have decorative arts or folk art?

So we tell you where to go with those two tickets.

They've got tickets to go here.

They're going to go up and most people are going to find out they have a poster.

It's from 1970 or whatever it is.

It's worth $300 more about that.

And do you have any other questions?

And that's what happens there.

And they'll learn everything the expert knows about it.

And then there's somebody who has a really good poster.

And the appraiser would say, do you mind waiting for producer?

And they're waiting for me and three other producers who are running around today being pitched the stories by the experts.

Now, let's remember, we are public television.

The experts have donated their time.

They paid their way here.

We are not paying them.

They are volunteers.

So for a return on their investment, they really want at least be taped for the chance to make it to an episode.

And so they will pitch like mad bunnies basically, and they will pitch all day long anything decent that comes to them.

Which is why you need four of us running around to listen to those, and we'll make a decision.

Shall we tape it or not?

And if we decide to tape it, how to tape it?

What is the.

Highest an item has ever been appraised for?

Highest.

You know, if you watch road show, you know, we do vintage shows to the highest.

An item has been appraised for at the moment was 1 million to $1.5 million.

They were rhinoceros horn cubs.

We appraised them in the summer back.

And then we we in the summer.

The laws changed in November.

By the time we aired them, they weren't worth worth what they were worth in August, which is really kind of interesting.

But if you watch our vintage shows, you notice we update prices.

Highest price there is for a paddock watch for 2 to 3 million bucks.

Nice.

Let's say somebody does get that high appraisal.

The likelihood of them selling.

Is slim to none.

Most of what we see is inherited items.

Back when I first started doing the show, some decades ago now, I wanted to make a show.

What everybody did, they sold their stuff after they were done here, right?

No.

So we now make something special called Extraordinary Finds, where we tell stories about what people did after the show.

It's one hour.

It's one hour because it's meaningful stuff to the people who own it.

And they very often we're seeing inherited items.

The day you sell it, you can't afford to buy it back.

There's always a cost to sell.

And so people don't part with those inherited things unless they have a need.

You see that happen or they have children.

They don't know how to split it up.

Oh, okay.

That happens too.

Regardless of what they decide to do with their item once they leave here.

You have said in interviews you want them to have learned something, and you say that about the show too, that it is learning, but with a spoonful of sugar.

What do you mean by that?

I mean that if you watch a season of Antiques Roadshow and you don't learn something about our country, including the years that the Civil War happened, you didn't have the audio on, you will learn something about a country and not even noticed.

That's what I mean by a spoonful of sugar that's like that happened.

Wow.

And so it's a great sort of teaching with material culture.

We're going to show you and why it's so enticing to all of us is I can see it, I can touch it.

It's here.

It's telling me a story.

It's very powerful.

It's really powerful.

You know, I also think of Roadshow is this is a place where everybody is the same.

And I like that.

It's a great equalizer.

And in today's world, I like that.

And in today's world, well, always.

So I imagine that you've dealt with this where you are dealing with items that come from painful moments in history.

You brought up the Civil War.

Let's say you're approached with something that was a Confederate cause what do you do?

Tell the truth.

We're all about telling the truth.

The market values, Confederate items.

There's a whole set of population who finds them offensive.

So we talk about what the market values.

Because if you live in the South and you own a Confederate belt buckle, you shouldn't give it away.

I want people to understand what they own, even if you don't like the politics behind it or what happened there, you need to understand what you own so you don't give away something worth thousands of dollars for nothing unless you intend to give it away.

You don't want to give things away unwittingly.

You want to understand what you own.

So that you know what you're not.

That's not how you feel.

At least you made some money.

Season 29 of Antiques Roadshow airs right here on Vegas PBS.

Starting January 2025.