American Pickers: Who is Jersey Jon?
You’ve seen antiques expert Jon Szalay on American Pickers, but what is his background? How did he make his name as a ‘picker’ on the Sky HISTORY series?
Image: Jersey Jon | American Pickers
Mike Wolfe’s search for America’s most unjustly overlooked antiques has undoubtedly brought him into contact with intriguing people. Many have proved instrumental in helping Mike to uncover that next big thing in the world of collectibles.
Certain experts appearing with Mike on the much-loved reality show American Pickers have become firm fan favourites. One good example is the furniture restorer and vintage motorcycle enthusiast Jon Szalay, otherwise known as ‘Jersey Jon’.
However, the New Jersey native (yes, you now see where the nickname comes from) isn’t just excited by finds of the two-wheeled variety. With his vast experience as a ‘picker’, he’s mastered the ‘buy low, sell high’ game. Here’s how he became a major asset to Mike’s team on Sky HISTORY’s American Pickers.
Jon Szalay’s early life and career
Jersey Jon has long been something of an enigmatic figure on American Pickers. He’s certainly forthcoming about what he thinks the treasures he comes across are really worth. As for his own personal life story, he’s somewhat kept that under wraps, but did start peeling back the layers in March 2025.
In an interview on The Paul Jr. Podcast, Jersey Jon remembered his father owning ‘a really pretty big lawnmower business and repair shop’. The young Jon would help out at the shop, but later took up woodworking at school. As a teenager, he brought in money as a cabinetmaker. He even went as far as buying a former bank building (with his father’s help) and refitting it as a workshop.
As Jon was able to build individual furniture components, antique dealers would ask him to provide new parts for existing furniture. It soon dawned on Jon that he could earn bigger bucks restoring furniture than making it from scratch. He eventually opened his own antiques shop and started stocking up on vintage motorcycle parts. This would see Jon cross paths with a certain Mike Wolfe.
How did Jon Szalay get involved with American Pickers?
Antique dealing is one thing, but antique ‘picking’ is quite another. Pickers pluck undervalued items from obscurity to finally fetch them the prices they deserve. There’s just the tricky part of figuring out where to find those gems in the first place. Pickers know from experience where to look, from basements to garages.
Mike Wolfe was already a trained picker when Jon Szalay first met him more than three decades ago. Mike agreed to source new stock for Jon’s antiques shop, enabling Jon to sell those wares himself. What Mike hadn’t done by that point was get his promising idea for a TV show off the ground.
Jersey Jon told The Paul Jr. Podcast: ‘I know he had to really beat down a lot of doors before he got his show. I know it was years of really trying to sell the concept before it got picked up.’ American Pickers made its TV debut in 2010, and it wasn’t too long before Jon started appearing on the show himself…
Jersey Jon’s best moments on American Pickers
Jon Szalay’s sporadic early appearances on American Pickers made a big impression. In one 14th-season episode, he even cheekily implored Mike and his then co-host Frank Fritz to buy some motorcycle parts for him. After Frank’s exit from the show (and subsequent tragic death) in the early 2020s, Jon’s profile rose. Here are some of his most memorable moments…
Wood you believe it!
Given his woodworking roots, you’d expect Jersey Jon to have quite the encyclopaedic knowledge of wood. Indeed he does, as is especially clear in the 23rd-season episode ‘Flea Market Junkie’.
Mike and Jon come across cypress wooden columns at a home in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana. ‘These are coopered columns,’ Jon gushes, also recognising them to be of 1880 origin.
‘This is what I love about picking with Jersey,’ Mike enthuses on screen. ‘Any time we find anything architectural, especially wood, we both geek out on it!’
Full steam ahead with a surprise catch
In the 27th-season episode ‘Picking Giants’, cast member Danielle Colby talks about a deceased man named Glen, who left everything he owned to the Humane Society. It soon emerges that those bequests included a Stanley Steamer, perking Jersey’s interest.
Jersey recalls his boyhood dream of getting his hands on a Stanley Steamer, a steam-powered car from the early 20th century. He and Mike acquire Glen’s for $24,000.
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