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I totally enjoy watching ‘Flog It’. It’s not the more up-market types who come on Antiques Roadshow probably knowing they have something worth £10,000 and want everyone to know (but isn’t it fun to see the faces when they find out it’s only worth £200 and say “Oh I’d never sell it anyway!).

Flog It, presented by the masterful Paul Martin usually shows mid late afternoons on BBC1. What’s nice about it is that it’s ‘ordinary’ folk coming along with something they’ve had for years, maybe thought it could be worth a few bob or has been sitting in a draw for 30 years. It’s a bit like the Lottery, the hopefulness, even expectation that this could be ‘my day’.

It’s a rare event for anything to be worth more than a couple of hundred pounds, but you often see something similar to something you have, or worse still, did have befire you threw it in the Bin!

Paul Martin, with his obvious enthusiasm and friendliness, makes the Show all the more better and who can not smile at the end of the Auction when he says “Wow, £85, what are you going to spend the money on then”?
This is where you get some wonderful answers; “I’m putting towards a Holiday” (may pay the taxi fare to the Airport), “I’m putting in a Savings Account for my Grandchildren” (Crazy! when they’re 18 they’ll probably be earning thirty grand a year and the £85 wouldn’t pay for a night out for them!).

I prefer the purely open folk who actaully need it for themselves openingly admitting they want a new Sofa, they’re having a good night out or in one case with a chap from Anglessey “I’m hard up at the moment and need to pay the Road Tax”.

I think that’s it – there’s no harm in wanting something for yourself, especially those who’ve worked all their lives, bringing up children and seeing the harder times of years back when to buy anything, you paid by cash! So £85 may not seem a lot to many – but to many, it’s a lot!

Then you have the ‘Antiques Experts’ who give an estimate “Between £120 and £180”. The Auction comes up and they get £110 for it to the answer of they don’t believe it or “On a good day with 16 phone bidders” etc.
Worse still is when it sells for £360. Oh what joy is expressed by the Expert, but at the end of the day he got it completely wrong. Best make a note of his Antiques Shop and get round there quick to buy a few bits!

Auctions are strange places I must admit. I’ve picked up four 1950’s Radio’s for £8 and sold them for over £100 on ebay, one going to Spain! Equally I’ve paid £20 for three fine mirrors and they’re now covering up a hole in the Chicken Shed!

Also nice about the programme is the little info piece between Auctions where Paul Martin will show you around somewhere of local interest. The other week we got the history of the Northern Co-Op – fascinating.

But, if you look around your home and pull out all those little nick nacks gathering dust in a corner somewhere and if ‘Flog It’s’ coming to your area, who knows, maybe there’s a few extra pounds for you so take them along.
Even if they’re not worth anything, you’ll get a chance to see bubbly Paul Martin at work, scarf and all, plus meet other likeminded people who are searching their little dream that they’re sitting on a £5,000 Tea Pot!

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Paul Martin – After an education at Falmouth Grammer School, he studied Art and Woodwork. He ran a Stall in the Portobello Road in London and worked as a Scenic Painter at Pinewood Studio’s.
He is also a keen drummer and has done session work on quite a few Disc’s during the early 90’s.
He now runs an Antique Shop in Marlborough, Wiltshire.

See ‘Successful Boot Fairs’ and ‘Buying and Selling on Ebay’ on the main site