This week on another all new "American Pickers" season 15 rolls on with an episode titled, "Picked a Peck of Pepper." Mike and Frank are still in Texas this week and are on a hot tip from Danielle about a location that might be one of the best Dr. Pepper memorabilia stashes ever accumulated. The guys pull up to the first Dr. Pepper bottling plant and what they find inside is amazing.
Frank jokes about the plus sized Sports Illustrated
While driving, Frank tells Mike he just saw the Sports Illustrated with only plus sized models on the cover and that 70 million people read the magazine, 16 million of which are women.
Mike asks Frank why he even pays attention to that kind of stuff and Frank tells him that it's good for him, being a larger man. Frank says that things are finally trending his way and people may not see him as out of shape with his, "Dad bod." Mike reminds Frank that he doesn't even have kids. Frank jokes that he's gone from being out of shape to being high in demand.
More Dr. Pepper items than they expected
Danielle sends the guys to the Dublin Dr. Pepper Plant, which started bottling the soda in 1891 under Sam Houston Prim and didn't stop until 2012. It's a factory with a museum and the guys are told to go meet up with a guy named Kenny, whose official title is Head Soda Jerk. He's a historian with an amazing amount of knowledge about the history and previous owner, Bill Kloster, a fanatical collector who left behind the majority of memorabilia items.
Dr. Pepper, created in 1885, was around before Coca-Cola, created in 1886 and before Pepsi, first brought to the market in 1893. The plant in Dublin is very close to Waco, Texas, where Mike says Dr. Pepper was created, so the guys are extremely close to the source on this pick. Mike is excited because they could potentially have many early pieces of memorabilia they've never seen previously.
Rare pieces of Dr. Pepper memorabilia
Inside the back warehouse, Mike and Frank dig around the duplicates and sale items. Immediately a 1940's pair of large and small Dr. Pepper signs catch Mike's eye and he makes a bundle offer for the two at $1,500. They find some old fan pulls that have survived and are still in mint condition.
One is a Halloween pumpkin pull and another was a Christmas pull. They even find an old bottle topper promotion that's mint with a pretty girl on it. The guys call in a favor to a friend on the phone for prices and also ask about a Dr. Pepper watch fob. Frank then scores a pair of framed calendar pages with woman drinking Dr. Pepper for $475. Mike finds a pair of Kickapoo Joy Juice stand up advertising cardboard figures with Li'l Abner and Daisy May and scores them both for $75. When Charles the soda expert calls back he prices the bottle topper featuring model Cindy Garner at $150, the pumpkin fan pull at $150, the Santa Claus fan pull at $85 and prices the fob at $85, if it's in the right auction.
Frank offers $250 for the bottle topper and two fan pulls and the seller agrees. Kenny is happy Mike and Frank came by and says the money will help kickstart them into a new era at the bottling plant.
