“What is an item truly worth” is something that the reality show King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch asks. Part of Netflix’s foray into reality, this show, following an auction house, gave me quite a certain mental paradoxical effect. I watch ‘smart’ media all the time and all I can muster up is ‘where is the female representation’.

Meanwhile, a ‘dumb’ reality TV show like Collectibles sent me on a tailspin about exploitation and objectification. I first had this thought during the pilot when Goldin’s founder, Ken Goldin, was auctioning a piece of Jackie Robinson’s history. He tries to be respectful about it even if there’s something theoretically crass about auctioning off important Black history.

But then again, the Vandals legitimised the Church in Germany by cutting off the bodies of Saints from Italy. Which funnily enough, one of the pieces that have an arc in this season is, allegedly, the hand of Cleopatra. Auctioning off Jackie Robinson’s jersey or a Lebron card commemorating his championships – plural – doesn’t seem so crass in comparison then.

This season has a lot more arcs but it focuses more on the family-like working environment at Goldin. King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch takes that to a literal level by depicting Ken’s relationship with his daughter with a trickster side, Laura. Ken offers Laura a job at Goldin which she turns out for work elsewhere. But of course, she comes back into the fold as one of Goldin’s hip hop liaisons.

The episodes of this season are also longer to reflect Ken’s ambition to venture outside of auctioning sports memorabilia. But of course, King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch knows its namesake’s bread and butter with its episode arcs. An arc involves a Wembanyama rookie card offer that Ken’s rookie, Ryan, gets wrong. It’s obvious that shows like this exaggerate certain tensions but then again moves like this ARE risky.

To inspire his rookies, Ken shows the same determination, mixing his business with his friendships if he has to. One of the friendships depicted in Collectibles, albeit too short, is the one he has with GOAT Barry Bonds. The show interestingly depicts Bonds, once the scariest man in baseball, in a more effete yet surprisingly human way.

Collectibles has its share of depicting douchebags like from last season, Karl Malone and for this season, Steve Aoki. But underneath all of this douchebaggery is the human stories within the pieces they sell publicly or sometimes, privately. One of Goldin’s authenticators during the Cleopatra arc says that history moves at the speed of history. Wise words.

Watch King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch on Netflix.