Do you not watch the show? They've talked about this numerous times...
They've known each other since they were kids, and have been pickers for decades.
There's guys like this all over the country, these two just put a name to it and packaged it for TV. I've known junk collectors and pickers all my life, they either have their own stores or they buy from people and supply the antique stores.
Frank does the same thing Mike does; have you not noticed they both buy stuff separately?
Frank has his own store, and used to supply other stores before that:
http://frankfritzfinds.net/
Frank Fritz Finds
324 Main Street
Savanna IL
Mike ran his shop alone prior to the show; once he was picked up for TV he hired Daniel (who was a friend) to run the shop while he was on the road more often. And Frank and him used to travel together to save on travel expenses and continued to do so after the show was picked up.
The focus with the show is on Mikes store, since its technically his contract. But Franks always been a part of their buying trips. They just do way more buying trips now than they used to.
And neither was particularly wealthy before the show. They make more from their television contracts than they do from their sales. (although that may have changed now with their essentially free advertising and much higher turn over rates)
Its kind of like pawn stars; that was a pawn shop takining in about 4 million a year in gross profit (thats before paying employees and expenses); their pay from the show was higher (per person) than their pay from the store. Now with their additional free advertising and higher turn over rates? The store brings in 20 million a year in gross profits. How much each individual makes though? Who knows, I'm sure for Corey and Chumlee they are paid more per episode than they make from the store itself (for Rick and the Old Man, they may make more now from the store since they own a larger percentage of it)
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