Why Some Fans Think 'American Pickers' Staged Its 1967 Shelby GT500 Mustang Find

"American Pickers" has been a car enthusiast favorite for years, with Mike Wolfe and the rest of the cast uncovering classic cars in unexpected places all over the United States. Watching a rusting old car go from collecting dust in an overstuffed garage to getting fixed up and sold for tens of thousands of dollars — like some of the most valuable finds from the History Channel show — is extremely satisfying for gearheads. However, one episode from Season 23 back in 2022 made fans wonder if the reality show wasn't as real as they had once envisioned. In this episode, Wolfe and Jon "Jersey Jon" Szalay heard of a rare Shelby in a barn in Alabama, sending them into a frenzy. When the two arrived, they saw a 1967 Shelby GT500 in rough shape. Despite its almost unrecognizable state, the duo remained quite giddy — the '67 Shelby GT500 is a very rare car with a lot of cultural significance (even Jim Morrison from The Doors owned one). 

The owner told the "American Pickers" crew that he only paid $3,700 for the car in 1983 — but when Wolfe offered the owner, Kevin, $75,000, he declined. This is when fans started wondering if the entire thing was staged for television. 

The 1967 Shelby GT500 may have been rare, but Wolfe knew it would need a lot of work. He called Richard Ellis to evaluate, who said it had a "rough life" due to its depressing interior and missing hood. However, the body didn't have any rust. Ellis estimated that the restoration would cost over $100,000 to bring it up to auction standards. Due to the troubling state of the car, Wolfe stuck to a $75,000 offer — an offer that Kevin turned down twice in the past. "It kills me to walk away from something like this," Wolfe said. "As rare as it is, as cool as it is, but after doing the math, none of it makes sense." 

Kevin explained that it was a "big decision" to make, but his love of rare cars kept him from selling the GT500. The decision caused the clip to go viral on Facebook, but maybe not for the right reasons. Viewers in the Facebook comments questioned why the owner would turn down the offer just to let the car rot away in the garage, especially since $75K was a generous offer. Others felt it was just too good to be true that a GT500 was mentioned as an afterthought when Wolfe and Jersey Jon were already there to check out a neon Chevy sign. "What a coincidence that they found a rare car on the day they were filming, I mean, what are the odds?" Comments about the episode being "staged" started flooding in, with fans accusing the "American Pickers" of planting the car in the barn just to get them riled up.

Like most reality shows, "American Pickers" has often been accused of being staged, with fans believing that the Pickers are already well aware of the cars and other memorabilia purposefully placed in the garages and barns. However, Wolfe has denied that the show is staged. In response to a viewer on TikTok who accused the show of being fake, Wolfe admitted that the squad knows where to go to find interesting items, but nothing about the interactions is scripted. Wolfe explained that the crew would "freestyle" pick in the past — stopping at random during a road trip to check out a spot — but the popularity of the show forced them to become more planned in their picking. 

Wolfe and the crew appear passionate about picking in real life, even when the cameras are not rolling – Wolfe owns a lot of classic rides himself. It's impossible to prove if the 1967 Shelby GT500 was planted in that barn or not, but let's hope it was eventually restored by somebody out there.