I liked this show at the beginning. It has fascinating characters like the arrogant Dave Hester, the eccentric 'collector' Barry Weiss, the Sheets father and son, and young couple Brandi and Jarrod. There is an exciting bidding process. This is also a treasure hunt.
Now comes the problems. The first problem I noticed was the pumping up of the bids. It's exciting to bid higher and higher prices. The show fell into that trap. Once they started to bid higher, they can't seem to stop. The prices became ridiculous. Like an addict, the highs stop being exciting. It is such an obvious annoying setup that the bidding half of the show is now unwatchable.
The show was always prone to faking. The pieces were priced with questionable appraisals. The fact that the characters were paid by the show is not really news. Then planting pieces really blew up. I was willing to accept a few pieces, but the wide spread planting really hurts. It's obvious that things are rigged when every week, exactly 3 of the 4 teams get lockers while 1 team walks away empty handed. EVERY TIME.
The bidding process is now very boring. The characters are wearing a little thin. Dave Hester got booted for possibly complaining about planting of pieces. I still like to see the different buys whether planted or not. Overall, it's not the same anymore. It may have been a 7 at the beginning but it is no more than a 5 now and dropping.