In Season 2 of King Of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch, Ken Goldin and his staff continue to go after some of the biggest collectibles in the sports world and in other entertainment genres, and visiting customers with massive collections. Of course, whenever they get their hands on a valuable item to sell, they make a 20% commission on the sale, so they not only try to encourage buyers to sell their high-value items, they also try to pump up the value as high as they can. KING OF COLLECTIBLES: THE GOLDIN TOUCH: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? Opening Shot: A safe is opened, and a box is taken out. Burly guys in suits bring it in and present it to Ken Goldin, founder of the collectibles auction house that bares his name. The Gist: It turns out that what’s in the box is one of the most valuable collectibles Goldin has ever obtained for consignment: Michael Jordan’s “flu shoes”, the Air Jordans he wore when he scored 38 points in game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals while suffering from severe flu-like symptonms. That just seems to be the tip of the iceberg of the amazing collectibles Goldin will consign this season. As the father-son item scout team of Robbie Davis Sr. and Robbie Davis Jr. unload their most recent finds in the parking lot of Goldin’s Runnemede, NJ headquarters, Ken Goldin tells them about a possible massive find: A T206 Honus Wagner card that was previously ungraded, having been stored in a vault since the 1970s. He takes his private jet to Florida to see the collector who now has the card; he’s had it graded out and it’s graded as a 5, one of the highest grades ever seen for a Wagner card. Goldin thinks he can get $25 million for it, but the collector isn’t sure he wants to part with it. In the meantime, the Davises have gotten in touch with the teenager who caught the first Yankee Stadium home run by rookie outfielder Jasson Dominguez in 2023 and have invited him to the warehouse to persuade him to have Goldin sell it. Their thought is that they should strike now while Dominguez is still thought of as a future phenom, rather than hold it in the hopes he becomes the next Aaron Judge. While all this is going on, consignment director Carlo Civitella takes Dave Amerman, the head of consignments, to Lancaster, PA to visit a customer who has bought six figures worth of items from Goldin but has never sold anything. They hand-deliver him a Tom Petty guitar he bought and see his collection of action figures, video game consoles and cartridges, some of which might fetch six figures each at auction. They convince him to sell some of his more valuable items in order to fund a business he wants to expand. What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Like we said before Season 1, King Of Collectibles is like Pawn Stars, but with much higher stakes. Our Take: King Of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch continues to be as gleefully aggro as it was in its first season, with Goldin and his crew getting really excited over items that they’re consigning, not only because of the item’s history but because of the money — and more importantly, commissions — they can attract. The only thing that gave us pause in the second season premiere was that Goldin and his employees are shown deploying what seems to be high-pressure tactics to convince people to let them sell their items for them. If these people were ready to sell, that would be one thing. But, at least as it’s portrayed on the show, the potential sellers are either reluctant to sell or are at least skeptical of the Goldin crew’s motivations. Even the Davises, portrayed in season 1 as road warriors who find items to consign all over the country, are shown trying to convince a teenager that now is the time to part with that Dominguez baseball. Yes, this is a reality show; the people that are being “convinced” to sell have likely already decided to let Goldin consign their items and auction them off. But watching Goldin and the employees he’s trained really put the pressure on to get people to part with their stuff made us feel uneasy. It seemed like they were looking for the dollar signs instead of caring about the seller’s wishes. Of course, it might just be a case that it’s a put on and Goldin and crew aren’t the best at pretending. But their desire to get the best and most sought-after collectibles sometimes comes off as bare-naked greed. And that’s not really a good look for someone on a show like this. Sex and Skin: None. Parting Shot: When Goldin gets wind that the owner of the T-206 Wagner card is fielding offers from other auction houses, he flies back down to Miami to talk to the seller, and brings stacks and stacks of cash straight from the U.S. Treasury in tow. Sleeper Star: We like that Zac Geig, the video game collector, has a modest house; it means he’s invested most of his money into his collection. Too bad we didn’t get a chance to hear from his wife; does she encourage his collecting habit or merely tolerate it?Most Pilot-y Line: It’s hilarious that the show says that Goldin’s headquarters is in Philadelphia, and shows the city’s skyline a lot. Runnemede isn’t that far from Philly, but it’s not exactly right across the Deleware River from downtown. Our Call: STREAM IT. While the high-pressure tactics that Goldin and company show in season 2 of King Of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch make us feel a bit queasy, seeing the amazing collectibles that the company has been able to consign is still what attracts us to the show. Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
