Hull furniture trader Matt Welburn is starring in hit TV show Storage Hunters UK, on Dave, where colourful characters try to make big money bidding on repossessed shipping containers. He tells Ian Midgley about competing with Heavy-D, Big John, Dumb and Dumber and Dapper Dan.
ROOTING through someone else's discarded junk on an industrial estate in Reading sounds like an unlikely recipe for a smash hit TV show.
But for the producers of Storage Hunters UK, the premise is proving to be TV gold, with a reproduction furniture salesman from Hull emerging as one of its main stars.
Matt Welburn, 26, of west Hull, is one of the contestants in the hit show, broadcast on digital TV channel Dave, which attracted 1.1 million viewers when it launched last month – more than many terrestrial TV channels.
Fans say it is compulsive viewing, a mixture of Antiques Roadshow and Bargain Hunt, with a dash of Big Brother thrown in for good measure.
The colourful bunch of second-hand dealers, with names such as Heavy-D, Big John, Dumb and Dumber and Dapper Dan, all try to outbid each other for the contents of repossessed storage "bins".
At the centre of the carnage is a US comedian-turned-auctioneer Sean Kelly, backed by a burly security guard called Mini-Mile, who tries to bump up the bids while ramping up the tension at the same time.
It is a cut-throat business full of bluff and double bluff, but for Hull's Matt, the series has proved to be an eye-opener, as well as a money-making opportunity.
Dubbed "Eminem" by Kelly because of his similarity to the rapper, Matt said the frantic auctions and the conflict between the rivals bidders is real.
"It's definitely real," said Matt.
"You have to turn up at the different auctions all over the country and it's your own money that you're spending.
"You have to have your wits about you. A lot of the people on the show may come across as right characters, but they're really sharp, successful dealers in their own right.
"Big John and his wife Natalie have their own successful, quirky vintage shop in Stoke and they're absolutely on top of their game. She's a powerhouse.
"Dapper Dan is a really good dealer and Linda, the blonde one, may come across as a bit ditzy on TV, but she's a sharp operator, who knows what she's doing.
"It's a properly cut-throat business and you have to be careful what you're bidding on because, before you know it, you could be lumbered with a bin full of rubbish."
Willerby-raised Matt, who runs his own reproduction furniture company, Welbrook Interiors, was spotted by the programme's producers at Kempton Antiques Market in Middlesex when he was selling his wares.
"I think they liked the fact I'm new to the game and liked a bit of banter with the customers," he says.
"I'm a Yorkshireman and I say what I think, actually, maybe a bit too much because a lot of it doesn't make it to TV."• Matt will be bringing his furniture wares to Beverley Christmas Market on Sunday, December 14.'Heavy-D ate my chicken!'
SO FAR, the biggest score Matt made bidding blind on a bin was buying a container filled with decorative furniture made out old Ferrari parts.
Going halves with fellow contestant George, the Storage Hunters made £2,000 profit each reselling the furniture – not a bad haul for a day's work.
Once the bidding is over during the nine-hour filming days, there is friendly banter between the contestants, says Matt.
However, he did have a run-in with one of the biggest characters on the show, Heavy-D – a man who shouts "Boom" after every bid.
"I was doing some filming with Sean during the lunch break and when I came back, Heavy-D had eaten my chicken," says Matt.
"I wasn't happy. We had words."
