Drew Pritchard found fame as an antiques dealer on Salvage Hunters.
But what is the story behind Pritchard?
Who is Drew Pritchard?
Drew Pritchard was born in 1970 in the medieval town of Conwy in Wales.
Pritchard’s father was a sign writer.
He said: “The family would go away in our VW camper van and, from the age of eight, my parents would take us around museums.
“It was my father who taught me how to look at things.
“Even as a young child, I couldn’t understand why people would buy new things. I used to think, “Are you mad? Why not buy something old?”’
Pritchard found his passion for antiques at a young age and would go and scour beaches and local tips looking for anything that people had thrown away.
He’d then salvage them and sell them on to buy sweets and magazines.
He said: “I loved the thrill of the hunt and decided that I wanted to be an antiques dealer by the time I was 11, but I couldn’t figure out how to raise the amount of money you needed to launch an antiques business.
“The way in for me was to become a restorer who found broken objects and added value to them.”
After leaving school, at age 16, he worked as a stained-glass restorer and designer before becoming an independent antiques dealer at the age of 23.
He now sells through his website and North Wales antiques showroom but building his business has been far from easy.
When starting out he couldn’t afford premises of his own, so his first site was in his parents’ garden, with an ad in the local newspaper that read: “WANTED! Stained glass windows, fireplaces, doors, flooring, architectural salvage.”
He’d travel up and down the country, sleeping in his car, and buying and selling antiques.
He only stopped sleeping in his car after waking up one morning to find a leak from the roof had frozen on his head.
He made good money “because one good choice at an antique fair would pay for 14 mistakes,” according to Pritchard.
But it wasn’t until 2011 that Pritchard got his big break.
He was chosen to host Salvage Hunters – a TV show that follows him as he scours the UK and Europe for rare and unusual items to sell in his shop.
In May 2023, Pritchard published a book called ‘How Not to Be an Antiques Dealer: Everything I’ve Learnt, That Nobody Told Me’.
What is Drew Pritchard’s net worth?
Drew Pritchard has a net worth of £7 million.
Pritchard has always had an eye for a deal and started out by buying top lights (the square led panes from Victorian windows) for just £2 and then sell them on for £4, making £600 profit per week.