In the often fickle world of reality television, American Pickers has proven to be one of the shows with the greatest staying power. Recently beginning its 20th season for the History Channel, American Pickers has been on the air since 2010 with over 250 episodes under its belt. Making household names out of “pickers” Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz (to the point that Mike made a cameo appearance last year as himself on NCIS), the show also includes the duo's various employees, colleagues, and partners-in-crime, most notably, Danielle Colby, Robbie Wolfe, Lauren Wray Grisham, and Dave Ohrt.

The main setup of the show is that Mike and Frank are buyers, sellers, and personal collectors of various antiques and other collectibles, which they most commonly obtain by “picking” through people's homes, barns, storage sheds, backyards, and anywhere that people have a bunch of random stuff that might contain something unique and/or valuable. The pair then negotiate with the owner of the item(s) in question, trying to buy for as low as possible so that they are able to re-sell the item for a profit via their respective antique-selling businesses. Of course, Mike and Frank aren't just flying by the seat of their pants and making things up as they go along, there are various rules that they need to follow, be it general guidelines for the industry or specific restrictions put on them by the nature of being on television. That said, rules are made to be broken, and Mike, Frank, and their teams don't always toe the line like they're supposed to. Here are the 15 Rules American Pickers Have To Follow (And 5 They Love To Break).

Have To Follow: Don't Intimidate People Into Selling

Reputation means a lot in this business, and it doesn't bode well if it gets around that antique buyers are pressuring people to sell things they weren't completely ready to part with. While it is certainly fine to know how to sweet-talk people to a certain extent, it is absolutely frowned upon for Mike and Frank to outright force people into selling.

Mike and Frank say that all business conducted on American Pickers is cleared by producers in advance insofar as it is determined that people are 100% ready and willing to part with their items before the pair even show up to make their offers. In fact, it makes for better television if the sellers want to sell and are eager to negotiate to get Mike and Frank to pay more.

Have To Follow: Don't Compete For Profit

Though they are co-stars on American Pickers and mostly travel together to sites to look for treasures, Mike and Frank actually run separate (and therefore, technically rival) antique shops. Shows of this kind are often most compelling to viewers when there is some sort of competitive aspect, and that is certainly true with American Pickers as it is entertaining to watch the two men bid against each other to try and score the deal for their respective businesses.

However, the show isn't about cutthroat competition as with series like Storage Wars or Wicked Tuna; Mike and Frank keep their rivalry friendly and lighthearted and don't compete for profit, giving American Pickers a more laid-back vibe befitting its subject matter.

Have To Follow: Avoid “Modern Antiques”

The term “antique” means a lot of different things. While the general consensus is that it describes something old, there are a lot of things that are considered modern antiques in that they are newer items that were just created and marketed in an antique style. To use a mainstream example, it's the difference between vinyl LPs manufactured in the last few years of albums from the '60s and '70s, and vinyl LPs that were actually released in the '60s and '70s.

The Pickers are not interested in modern antiques. What they focus on buying and selling are legitimately classic items, generally avoiding anything that has been made in the last four or five decades so that their shops are exclusively stocked with actual antiques and genuinely classic curios.

Love To Break: Don't Go Back On Agreements

When making transactions at an actual antique shop, things are pretty cut and dry – the buyer pays for the item and they take it home. But, things aren't so simple when it comes to deals made “on the field,” where trust becomes of the utmost importance. Once a deal is made, it doesn't look good for Mike or Frank to go back on it.

However, that's what happened when an American Pickers viewer saw a piece of farming equipment on the show that he wanted to buy and reached out to Frank directly. After coming to a mutual agreement on the price, the buyer sent the check and Frank confirmed receipt. Then, for no apparent reason, Frank decided not to sell, and even though he hadn't yet cashed the check, the buyer still took him to court and won.

Have To Follow: No Tresing

Just because you are rummaging through people's old barns and storage sheds that they haven't looked at or thought about for years, it doesn't mean that you can just help yourself to what is there. Entering people's property without permission is still tresing, and it is not something that Mike and Frank do.

Besides it obviously being illegal to tres on private property, anything you then remove from that property constitutes stealing. According to the book American Pickers Guide to Picking, reputable collectors like Mike and Frank take every necessary step to enter people's property with full permission, and not remove anything from said property without disclosing it. The last thing a dealer wants is to get caught selling items that were obtained dishonestly and illegally.

Have To Follow: Don't Pay “Retail” Price

While Mike and Frank do occasionally buy items for their own personal collections, the vast majority of what they obtain (especially on camera for American Pickers) is to be “flipped” at their respective antique shops. It wouldn't really be worth their time and expense to travel to a location, spend the day looking through items, transporting the item back, and doing any necessary refurbishes on it just to break even or take a loss.

So, as they explain in American Pickers Guide to Picking, one thing they can never do if they hope to earn any profit at all on an item is to pay retail price for it – that is, what they would be able to sell it at their shop for. Only by buying below retail can you make money selling at retail.

Have To Follow: Only Buy What Will Sell

Following from the previous entry, there is another very important factor that everything Mike and Frank buy has to have in common: it has to be something someone else will actually want to buy. Otherwise, the piece will just sit in their shop taking up space and never recoup the cost of obtaining it.

While the duo encounters a lot of really cool, interesting items on their travels, they have to be realistic about the things they are buying to resell. Something that people are just going to get a kick out of looking at in a store but not actually pony up the money to buy isn't a smart investment for a picker, so such items need to be avoided, or at least only bought by a picker who plans to keep it for himself.

Love To Break: Don't Lie About A Sale

Every single reality show on the air has at least some facet that is at least partially scripted in order to make for good television. It needs to be pointed out that “scripted” doesn't necessarily mean “fake,” it just means that a certain aspect of the job or activity being portrayed has been reconstructed a bit in order to make for a smoother, more streamlined viewing experience.

To that end, most of the transactions on American Pickers are somewhat worked out in advance, with only the final details being hammered out for the cameras. What's important is that the show be honest about the sale after the fact. Unfortunately, that hasn't always proven to be the case, and Mike and Frank have been accused of not being completely accurate in how they've represented the numbers of various transactions.

Have To Follow: Don't Buy Items Connected To A Crime

It's not enough that Mike and Frank themselves not obtain items illegally, they also have to make sure that anything they buy wasn't obtained illegally by any past owners. Moreover, they have to ensure that there is no criminal activity of any kind connected to an item before they find it in their possession.

American Pickers Guide to Picking explains that every effort must be made by a picker to find out if everything is above board about an item they are buying, and that there isn't anything questionable attached to it. If they are found to be in possession of such an item, they need to be able to prove without a shadow of a doubt that they had no knowledge of it and bought it on good faith that nothing was illegal about it.