On the second season of “Storage Wars: New York,” premiering on A&E with back-to-back episodes July 9, at 9 p.m., the crafty hunters return to transform New York’s trash into treasure.
In the second episode, the explorers battle it out with bids on storage rooms at a facility on 121st Street in Harlem. Front and center is “Joe P.” Pauletich, 52, the wily Flushing resident known for his midcentury modern finds and devious tactics that confuse fellow bidders. It’s not uncommon for Joe P. to proclaim the merits of a lot he’d never bid on.
“It does throw off newcomers because they don’t know what to expect,” admits Pauletich, who has been buying storage rooms’ contents for more than 22 years.
Harlem, he says, can be a hotbed for successful storage buys. On one hand, the neighborhood is rich with artifacts of cultural significance in black history.
”I have found stuff from the Apollo Theater,” says Pauletich. “Dancers, jazz singers, jazz dancers — I’ve even bought [the contents of] rooms of famous people. There’s a deep history there, and that’s valuable.”
Pauletich is quick to point out that in Harlem’s storage rooms, you can also find goods from wealthy Manhattanites unable to find space downtown.
Case in point: On the Harlem episode, Pauletich walks away with a ship’s brass light valued at $1,200 by a captain at Throgs Neck’s Maritime Museum.
Unfortunately, Pauletich has yet to sell the light, despite his creativity.
“That would be good for a restaurant with a nautical setting,” says Pauletich, the wheels in his head turning.