Season 3 of King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch is about as stereotypical as an American auction show gets but I absolutely love it as this collectibles series sticks closely to a tried and tested formula that makes the series a hit.
Insert a shot of a flashy private jet, big over-inflated personalities who can no way enjoy their job THIS much and throw in a few celebrities or two like Logan Paul with some big numbers to reel off when the hammer strikes and you have the perfect formula for binge-watchable TV.
Ken Goldin is striving to take Goldin Auctions to Billion Dollar company status and his team are hard at work chasing high-value collectibles to head to auction as Goldin now operates on a global stage with the help of a partnership with eBay.
Whilst the items are very samey samey across all seasons of King of Collectibles such as NBA trading cards, Pokemon cards or sports memorabilia in general what made Season 3 special was the acquisition of a movie prop house meaning Ken can now dive into the movie prop collectibles market which is huge business right now.
You only need to look at how many auctions Prop Store of London (and LA now) put on every year to know how profitable that business can be and now Ken has a slice of the pie too.
I’d have much preferred them to dive into the movie prop aspect a little bit more in this season as it keeps it fresh instead of recycling the old sports memorabilia angle over and over but there’s an audience for all that stuff so the show plays it safe and keeps it within its target audience.
Whilst many of the moments are heavily leaning into TV theatrics such as staged negotiations and client meetings with choppy editing raising the tension when in real life there was probably none whatsoever, it just adds to the cheese-factor of this whole ensemble.
Ken Goldin is chasing that billion dollar company and his passion has to be admired, he still has a future as bright as his outfit choices and his entire energy and desire even after his many years of collecting are still as savvy and driven as ever.
I couldn’t care less about Baseball, I live in the UK. I have no desire to ever play it or watch it on the TV anytime soon but Ken’s enthusiasm when he has been meticulously chasing down the T206 Honus Wagner card is infectious and seeing him finally get his hands on one (graded PSA1 no less) was quite exciting even for me, and I know jack about Baseball!
But hey, there’s a Cheetoh that looks like Charizard that sold for an eye-watering amount of money!
Season 3 is entertaining for comfort viewing but it does feel very same old same old in places so if that’s what you like it’s very much more of the same but it would be nice just to spin-off into other avenues of collecting in future series just to keep it fresh and different with every passing season.
Our Rating
Summary
King of Collectibles Season 3 is a glossy if albeit rich-man’s perspective on the collectibles industry as Goldin Auction drives towards that Billion Dollar company status. It’s what you come to expect of an auction formula show but it’s done with some staged, cheesy good fun
