Bares für Rares, cash for rarities, has run on ZDF since 2013. Horst Lichter hosts it. People bring an old object to sell. Before any haggling, an expert examines the object and estimates its value. The seller names a price. A seller whose lowest acceptable price is above the expert’s estimate gets no Händlerkarte, the card that admits him to the dealers’ room. Inside, the dealers bid and bargain, and they do not know the estimate. The seller may refuse the best bid and take the object home. An evening special on 15 May 2017 had 6.38 million viewers.
The haggling is the entertainment. It starts only after an expert has said what the object is worth.