American Pickers Mike Wolfe Net Worth, Wife, Jail Biography

• Mike Wolfe was born in Joliet, Illinois, USA and raised by a single mother
• Struggled through academia, but built a career of his own in bike sales, racing and owning bike stores
• Founded Antique Archaeology in 2000 and starred in "American Pickers" on the History Channel in 2010
• Married Jodi Faets in 2012, with whom he has a daughter, Charlie, and a son, Kyle
• Has a net worth of $5 million



Known for movies

Short Info

Date Of BirthJune 11, 1964, June 11, 1964
SpouseJodi Faeth, Jodi Faeth, Jodi Faeth
MarkHigh energy
FactMike launched a kids' initiative in 2012 called Kid Pickers.


Anyone who has had to clear out a family home knows just how much miscellanea accumulates over the years. While a majority of this can usually be turfed, what most people don’t realize is that there some items of real value in there, items that will prick up the ears of Mike Wolfe, and have him pulling up in your yard. Mike is the mind and one of the main members featured in “American Pickers”. Built around the success of his stores, Antique Archaeology, Mike shows us the near nomadic life of a picker, as he travels nationwide to unearth forgotten artifacts. In addition to being a businessman and reality TV star, Mike is a loving father and husband, providing his wife with the much-needed support during her battle with cancer.

Tune in tonight! NEW @americanpickers headed your way 9/8c pic.twitter.com/s6VGZGTn0g

— Mike Wolfe (@AmericanPicker) July 13, 2020

Early Life and Family

Mike Wolfe was born on 11 June 1964, in Joliet, Illinois, USA, the middle of three children with a brother named Robbie and a sister named Beth. Mike and his siblings have never disclosed the identity of their biological father, as their parents divorced when the children were still very young. Rita Wolfe, raised them as a single mother, and instilled in them all the values they have today. Mike seemed to know what to do almost by instinct, scavenging for artifacts and items in the trash from as early as four years old. Due to his family circumstances, there was a lot that the Wolfe family could not afford when he was growing up. When Mike salvaged a banana seat bike from his neighbor’s yard, it gave him his first taste of freedom, and was the acquisition that launched Wolfe’s lifelong passion for restoration and picking.

Education

Mike Wolfe struggled through his years of academia. He could barely focus on his textbooks, and it would take multiple reading of a page to interpret the information. However, Mike stuck it out and matriculated from Bettendorf in 1982 – albeit as third from the bottom of his class. Mike spent some time floating between community colleges, but his heart was simply not in it. Realizing that his passion lay far from the world of academia, he set out to build a career of his own.

Career

Odd Jobs and Bikes Salesman

Mike spent a while working as a messenger in Chicago, but found that the constant travel was putting a strain on his relationships. In 1987, he applied for a job at Hike ‘n’ Bike, with his only credentials being his passion for bicycles and a youth spent repairing them.

Mike would work for $7 an hour, assembling as many as 13 bikes per day. He became a pro at selling bikes and his boss even noted his efficacy on the show floor. It was this job that gave him his first glimpse of classic bikes, when his boss showed him his personal collection.

Enthralled by the streamlined beauty of the motorbikes, Wolfe immediately wanted one of his own, so he drew up flyers and distributed them far and wide, and began buying bikes from far and wide for anything from $25 to $100. While this appears to be a strange hobby for a man on his pay-check, after restoring the motorbikes he was able to sell them for up to $5,000 – a fortune compared to what he was earning assembling them.

Racing

With his large collection of restored motorcycles, it was inevitable that Mike would be attracted to the racing culture. For nine years from 1989 to 1998, Mike poured his soul into biking, participating in cat4 and cat3. He boasts that he was always in the top five in the races, and won one state time trial championships in the cat4 category. However, his responsibilities as the owner of a bike store required more and more of his attention, and racing eventually fell to the wayside.

Bike Store

While working as a sales representative in 1993 at the age of 29, Mike called a store only to discover it was a bike store, that was on sale.

Mike Wolfe knew that this was his opportunity and took every cent he had, sold his beloved 1934 Harley, and purchased the store. From there, his success was exponential, Mike telling Bicycling that “I did $150 the first day and took the store from 75 bikes a year to 500 bikes a year in the first year. That’s when mountain bikes were taking off. I was the largest Manitou dealer in the country. It was nuts. We were rocking it so hard we opened another store in East Davenport.”

However, it was not all sunshine; after years of owning the stores, a fire broke out in the store above him, collapsing into his shop and setting it ablaze.

In addition to this, the store’s previous owner had completely misled and deceived him about the shop’s insurance, and it would take years for him to get a cent out of the insurance company. Although the second shop was still in good shape, the wind was taken from under his wings, and he found himself at a loss and completely Broke.

Antique Archaeology

With little left of his bike business, Mike discovered E-bay. The idea spurred his creativity, and soon he had set up a website and took to the road in a cargo van. Thus, his pickings store – Antique Archaeology – began in 2000. He opened his first storefront in Iowa, and after the subsequent success of both his store and his role on reality TV, he opened a second store in Nashville, Tennessee.

“American Pickers”

Highly aware of the unconventional twist his life had taken, Mike Wolfe realized that what he was doing would make a great reality show. However, after pitching the idea to several companies, it became all too likely that such a show would never see fruition. Eventually, History Channel realized the potential of the gambit, and so decided that they would be the ones to film the show, which premiered on 18 January 2010, and runs to this day.

While the show is fixated on Mike Wolfe and Antique Archaeology – being what Mike describes as “Basically, the show is a profile of my life — about me” – this is not to say that it lacks personality and characters.

Mike travels across America in the company of Frank Fritz, a friend from high school and another picking store owner. Manning, or better to say, womaning the administration fort and finding sources at their base is Danielle Colby, a fascinating personality in her own right.

Author

After realizing how much picking appealed to the public, and recognizing the way it had impacted his childhood, Wolfe went on to write two books on the subject. He released his first book “American Pickers Guide to Picking” in 2011, then co-wrote the book “Kid Pickers: How to Turn Trash into Treasure” in 2013, making the subject accessible to people of all ages.

Personal Life

Family

Mike Wolfe met Jodi Faets in 1994, long before he rose to fame. Jodi already had a son from a previous marriage named Kyle, but this did nothing to intimidate Mike. Jodi recounts that Mike would often take her on picks, claiming they were dates. Nonetheless, the two fell in love and entered a committed relationship. On 18 January 2012, they welcomed their daughter Charlie into the world, and this proved to be the impetus that urged them to marry later that same year on 8 September 2012. Despite rumors, Mike isn’t dead but alive and healthy.

Medical Matters

Things have not always been easy for the Wolfe family. Their daughter Charlie was born with a cleft palate, a condition that requires surgery to rectify.

Fortunately, after two facial reconstructive surgeries, the problem was successfully treated, and she is a perfectly happy child.

In the wake of that medical drama, Jadi was diagnosed with stage two of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2013. The doctors immediately began treatment, and to the family’s huge relief, she survived the cancer after a series of both surgery and treatment.

Appearance

Mike Wolfe has a slim build and a broad smile, in lieu of which, his face always looks as if he will begin to laugh at any minute. He parts his greying hair down the middle and has dark brown eyes. Mike is 6ft (1.83m) tall and weighs around 150lbs (70kgs).

Net Worth and Salary

Mike Wolfe has pulled himself up by the bootstraps, transforming his life from having absolutely nothing to having a virtual empire in the picking industry. With two successful stores and the income from the vastly popular “American Pickers”, he can live a life far removed from his humble origins. As of mid-2020, Mike has an impressive net worth of $5 million.

General Info

Date Of BirthJune 11, 1964, June 11, 1964
Place Of BirthJoliet, Illinois, United States
Height1.83 m, 1.83 m
ProfessionTelevision producer, Writer, Actor, Television producer, Writer, Actor, Television producer, Writer, Actor
NationalityAmerican, American, American

Family

SpouseJodi Faeth, Jodi Faeth, Jodi Faeth
ChildrenCharlie Faeth Wolfe, Charlie Faeth Wolfe, Charlie Faeth Wolfe
SiblingsRobbie Wolfe, Beth Wolfe, Robbie Wolfe, Beth Wolfe, Robbie Wolfe, Beth Wolfe

Accomplishments

NominationsEdgar Award for Best First Novel by an American Author, PEN Award for Poetry in Translation
TV ShowsAmerican Pickers, American Pickers, American Pickers

Social profile links

Marks

#Marks / Signs
1High energy
2Loud and frequent laugh
3His use of "picker slang"

Quotes

#Quote
1[on seeing a motorcycle for the first time] I was 13 when I saw my first motorcycle. I was walking down the sidewalk when this guy who was like the high school champion stud-he was the team quarterback, got all the chicks, everything-did this incredible burnout on his Honda 900. I can remember the day so clearly, how warm it was, and him looking at me as I walked by. I thought, "Oh, man. That is the coolest thing in the world." That's what started me on my journey of wanting a motorcycle.
2[on his first pick] I was walking to school one day and saw all these bikes in the garbage. I was just amazed because I didn't have one and I found it incredible that anyone was throwing them out. So I gathered up as many as I could and put them all in our garage. They were mostly banana-seat bikes from the '60s, maybe one was a Schwinn. There was a girl's balloon-tire bike, too. That was the first bike I learned to ride because there was no bar in the middle-I was little, so I would ride it almost right above the cranks. ... Then I sold one. It didn't take much to get it going. I put air in the tires and cleaned it all up and stuff, and then I sold it to an older kid down the street. I think I was six then. I was always fascinated with bikes because when I was young I was very small and slow, but I could go fast on a bike.
3[on racing bikes competitively] I started racing pretty heavy, from like '89 until '98. I did road racing and criteriums. I was a Cat 4 rider, and then I moved up to a Cat 3 for a little while, and then I kind of got out of it. When you run a bike shop, you never really get out of it, though, because you're around it so much. ... I liked the Italian stuff. I rode Bottecchias. My first really high-end bike was a Viner and that was my first handmade frame, and I always rode Campagnolo. Even when I was in high school, I had a Super Record Campy bike, which was a very expensive bike back then. I had an Atala, which is another Italian bike. I raced that quite a bit, did really well on that one. When the balloon-tire craze was hot, I was buying Phantoms and Panthers, anything with a horn tank. I love the Schwinn stuff. But I was a purist. I grew up watching these pros and they were all riding handmade Italian Colnagos and Medicis and all that stuff. And everything was Campagnolo, and it was all exotic and amazing and beautiful. I wanted that, so when I started racing and had my own shop, those were the kind of bikes I rode.
4[on his first bike] It was a Kawasaki 100, a little Enduro. It was sitting in a friend's garage, kind of beat-up and rundown. He had a couple older brothers who had moved on and left the bike. I traded him my stereo speakers for it. I never took it home, though, because my mother would have absolutely killed me if she knew I owned a motorcycle, so I kept it in different friends' garages. Motorcycles keep me on the road. All the other stuff is gravy.
5[on working hard and his current success] I'm a businessman, so I'm gonna make hay while the sun's shining. I've been self-employed for 23 years. That's an accomplishment in itself. You gotta be out there hustling. If you're not, you're not gonna make it. ... Everything has an expiration date. I'm a realist. Do I think I'm Pickin' Jesus? No. That's ridiculous.

Facts

#Fact
1Mike is the oldest of three children; he has a brother Robbie, and a sister, Beth. Robbie often appears on "American Pickers" with his children.
2His first motorcycle was a Kawasaki 100. He upgraded to a Honda Elsinore 250. A Can-Am 250 came next.
3Mike's motorcycle collection includes a 1948 Indian, and a 1913 twin with pedal cranks, made the first year the Indian had a rear suspension.
4Mike and wife Jodi Faeth welcomed daughter Charlie Faeth Wolfe on January 30, 2012.
5Mike married Jodi Faeth on September 8, 2012, in an "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?"- themed ceremony in Leiper's Fork, Tennessee.
6Mike's home in Le Claire, Iowa, is in a former grocery and boardinghouse built in 1860 that looks over the Mississippi River that he purchased for $175,000 in 2004. The ground floor holds two home decor stores and includes a two-car garage and courtyard.
7After the $8.7 million effort to restore the historic Franklin Theatre in Franklin, Tennessee, was completed a few years ago, Mike was recruited to provide vintage 1940s fixtures for the green room.
8Mike and "American Pickers" co-star Frank Fritz met in junior high school.
9In his early 20s, Mike was a competitive bicycle racer (from '89 until '98, he was Cat 4 and Cat 3). He also owned two different bike stores in Iowa during the 1990s: The Village Bike Shop in East Davenport and a store in Eldridge, Iowa, that he financed from the money he made by selling a 1934 Harley Davidson motorcycle to a collector in Bangkok, Thailand.
10Mike launched a kids' initiative in 2012 called Kid Pickers.
11Mike tried to sell the idea for a reality show about pickers for five years before The History Channel gave him the green light.
12MIke's first TV show concept, "American Pickers," debuted on The History Channel on January 18, 2010, drawing 3.1 million viewers. It was TV's highest rated new non-fiction program among adults 25-54 of that year. In its fourth season, it averaged 4.7 million viewers a week.
13Mike owns and operates two locations of Antique Archaeology, in Le Claire, Iowa, and Nashville, Tennessee, where he sells treasures from the road and official "American Picker" merchandise.
14Mike began picking at the age of six, pulling an old bicycle out of his neighbor's trash. He cleaned it up and sold it to another kid for $5 - his first profitable flip.

Pictures

All pictures

Movies

Writer

TitleYearStatusCharacter
American PickersTV Series documentary creator - 5 episodes, 2013 - 2017 created by - 1 episode, 2017
American Pickers: Best Of2017TV Series creator - 4 episodes

Producer

TitleYearStatusCharacter
Going Cambo2017TV Series executive producer
American Pickers2013-2017TV Series documentary executive producer - 9 episodes

Actor

TitleYearStatusCharacter
Pieces of History2012Video short
The Big Pick2012Video short

Self

TitleYearStatusCharacter
American Pickers: Best Of2017TV SeriesHimself
American Pickers2010-2017TV Series documentaryHimself
Music City USA2015DocumentaryHimself
Today2015TV SeriesHimself
Good Morning America2013TV SeriesHimself - Guest
Home & Family2013TV SeriesHimself - Guest
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire2013TV SeriesHimself - Celebrity Contestant
Pawn Stars2012TV SeriesHimself
Late Show with David Letterman2011TV SeriesHimself
American Restoration2011TV SeriesHimself
Rachael Ray2010TV SeriesHimself

Source: IMDb, Wikipedia

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