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Sports collectible boom, Goldin Auctions success sparks reality TV show project
With the sports collectible industry in the midst of an historic boom era, few companies have benefitted more than Goldin Auctions, which has sold more than $150 million in merchandise this year and is on the verge of perhaps its biggest auction yet.
Now the dramatic success of the industry and companies like Goldin may land the red-shot sports collector business its own reality TV show.
According to Bloomberg, a show about Goldin and its outgoing founder, Ken Goldin, is in the works. The show is the brainchild of Brent Montgomery, the former producer of “Pawn Stars,” and Connor Schell, formerly of ESPN’s 30 for 30 series. The duo has met with several streaming services and TV networks and is actively engaged in a “bidding war” for rights to the show, Bloomberg reports.
“Goldin is the kind of outsized personality designed for reality TV,” Bloomberg writes in its report. “He has an encyclopedic knowledge of sports and memorabilia, and already goes live on Instagram several days a week to open new packs of cards.”
“Pawn Stars,” which followed a quirky family-run pawn shop on the Las Vegas Strip, was a big hit on History Channel. The success of the show allowed Montgomery to sell a majority stake in his Leftfield Pictures company for $360 million. He is now the CEO of Wheelhouse Entertainment with partner Jimmy Kimmel.
According to Sports Collector Daily, this is not Montgomery’s first attempt to create a sports memorabilia reality show. In 2012, Montgomery was the executive producer of “Ball Boys,” a show about a hobby shop in Baltimore that aired several episodes on ABC. Around the same time, Discovery channel also aired “All Star Dealers” about Grey Flannel Auctions.
