If you do the math on any of these shows, they very seldom make enough to pay for gas on any one "trip" much more than cover salary and expenses. As presented there is no way on Earth the pickers are making a living on what is shown. They often tend to pay too much as well. I suspect that when they get really good deals, ie. take advantage of the innocence of the home owners, that is not shown on TV and I suspect that those items are removed from the truck before they film them "arriving" at the shop.

Yeah it is "scripted" yeah its edited. Real work is way too boring for tv.