Pawn Stars s03e02 Episode Script
Whale of a Time
On this episode of Pawn Stars What do we have here? Maps and battle plans of Iwo Jima.
This is the view the marines had as they made their way onto the beach.
It puts you right there.
We got a piece of history, and I want it.
One way or the other, it's gonna belong to me.
It's my miner's ore cart.
It's like something out of Indiana Jones.
I can just picture flying down the track on this thing, whipping some bad people.
It's a '67 F-100 truck.
Why don't you crank it up and let me listen to it? [Engine grinding.]
Oh, [Bleep.]
.
I'm Rick Harrison, and this is my pawn shop.
I work here with my old man and my son, Big Hoss.
Everything in here has a story and a price.
One thing I've learned after 21 years, you never know what is gonna come through that door.
Hey, what can I help you with? Howdy.
What do we have here? Maps and battle plans of the battle of Iwo Jima.
These aren't top secret anymore, are they? I don't think so.
I didn't think so either.
[Explosions.]
I decided to come to the pawn shop today to sell my maps and battle plans of the battle of Iwo Jima.
It's one of the most well-known battles of world war ii in the pacific, the raising of the flag on Mount Suribachi, that's one of the most famous pictures of world war ii there is.
So how did you get these? They were my dad's.
He was a landing craft operator.
Took the marines on the beach.
His name is on the papers itself.
No, w.
D.
Fells, coxswain.
What's a coxswain? The coxswain was the steerer of the boat.
He was in charge of the boat.
My dad actually carried these maps into the battle itself.
They were briefed on this beforehand.
They were all top secret.
No one knew of exactly what was going on until the actual battle itself.
All these maps show the different depths of tides at certain times of the day, what was in each certain section of the beach.
Iwo Jima is only 650 miles from Tokyo.
Capturing that island meant that we could reach their largest city.
And this was a key to victory.
They put thousands and thousands of people on this beach in a matter of hours, son.
It was one of the biggest battles in the pacific.
This is the view the marines had as they made their way onto the beach.
This guy's dad knew this map by heart.
But when he saw that beach for the first time, he must have been terrified.
You really, really got me here.
What did you want to do with it? My daughter's getting married.
I'd like to sell it.
I mean, it's really, really unique.
I mean, it really tells a story about what went on that day, which a lot of people would really be interested in.
The only thing I can think of right now is, I have a friend.
He's a curator of the Clark county museums here.
Okay.
Let's have him take a look at 'em.
He can sort of give me an idea of the rarity, or I can come up with a value.
We'll go from there? Yeah, we got to go from there.
Okay.
All right, cool.
Sounds good.
All right.
How you doing? Oh, pretty good.
I have a script here from in the heat of the night signed by nine of the stars.
Series or movie? The tv series.
The only thing I didn't like about that show was that it came on right after Saturday morning cartoons, which meant when the heat of the night came on, I had to get up and go do something.
[Laughs.]
That's why I liked it.
[Laughter.]
Decided to come to the pawn shop today to try to sell a tv script from the heat of the night signed by nine of the stars, including Carrell O'Connor.
I did some research on the Internet, and some of Carrell O'Connor's signatures were going as high as $3,000 because he did pass away a few years ago.
Heat of the night, it had Carrell O'Connor in it.
He was a police chief or something, right? Right, it was set down in Mississippi.
Show aired in the late '80s, early '90s.
In the heat of the night was a successful adaptation from the Sidney pottier classic film.
It featured tv icon Carrell O'Connor, who was best known for his classic role as Archie bunker.
The episode name was "blessings.
" It's number 18.
Do you know why it was called "blessings"? I didn't read it, but I understand it's like a Christmas type episode.
Well, let me look through it.
All right, Corey.
I'll be the clerk.
You be Bubba.
Why do I got to be Bubba? If you yelled out into a room, "Bubba," everyone would look at you.
[Laughter.]
That's just, like, hurtful, dude.
All right, now, remember.
You got to talk with a Southern accent.
Okay? Have you got insurance? What this lady needs right now here is a doctor.
All right, all right.
You stick to working in the shop.
All right, so what do you want to do with this? I thought I did pretty well there, dude.
Okay, all right.
Pawn it or sell it? Sell it, possibly.
You know, but again, it all depends upon what it's worth.
All right, to tell you the truth, I've never had luck with tv scripts.
For some reason, they don't sell.
Every time I've had one of these things, it's sat around forever, I damn near ended up having to give it away.
I mean, Carrell O'Connor was a star, but he wasn't, like, an uber-star.
And it's really hard to sell those signatures.
It really is.
Yeah.
And these other people, I don't even know who they are.
Well, I appreciate you bringing it in.
It's just there's nothing I can do with it.
I appreciate it.
We definitely had fun with it, buddy.
Oh, yeah, that's for sure.
I am disappointed that they didn't buy it.
I hope I can find someone who likes the show and watches the show and hopefully will then buy the script because of that.
What do you got here, son? It's a '67 f -100 truck.
Got a 460 in it.
It's fast as hell.
I think it's badass.
I would have loved driving this back in the day.
Chumlee, back in the day for you is about ten years ago at the most.
Oh.
[Engine revving.]
I'm coming to the pawn shop today to try to sell my '67 f-100 truck.
I bought this truck about two years ago.
I really like it.
It has a really big engine.
It's fast as hell.
I put at least $8,000 into this truck.
I'm hoping to sell the truck today and get some good money for it.
When this truck came out, it was a workhorse.
They used 'em in construction, farm, deliveries, et cetera, et cetera.
Trucks like these were the workhorse of the Ford fleet.
They were tough.
They were dependable.
They were built to last, just like me.
So what you think? You've done some nice work on it, but there's still a lot to do.
It needs a paint job.
It's missing a window.
Yeah, I'm having problems with my neighborhood, people breaking into it.
It's been stolen three times.
They stole this three times? Oh, yeah.
That's why I'm trying to get rid of it today.
I keep having to do the repairs on it instead of, you know, spending money to get a paint job or anything.
Hey, son, why don't you crank it up and let me listen to it? All right, no problem.
Let's hear this lion roar.
Crank it up.
[Engine roaring.]
This truck's in pretty good shape.
But it needs a few things done to it before it can be sold.
Did you hear that engine? [Engine roaring.]
Yeah, you better believe I want this thing.
What are you wanting to do, sell it, pawn it? Yeah, I want to sell it.
Now, what are you trying to get out of it? Well, I'd like to get four grand for it.
No.
To get the truck fixed and brought up to where it could bring some money, it's gonna take a lot of money.
I'm looking at three or four grand for a paint job.
Well, I put eight grand in it.
Well, when it comes to cars, they're just big money pits.
When you put money in them, you don't get it back, son.
Well, I want to get back something.
If you want it, I'll go $2,500.
And I'm talking cash money right now.
But I'm not gonna go over that.
All right, well, I guess $2,500 is better than me paying for more repairs.
So I'll take it.
All right.
Appreciate it.
Chumlee, go do some paperwork.
I'm happy with this deal.
If I get it fixed up at a good price, I just might have a good week.
My dad had the plans in his pocket when this went down.
But the date on them is 1944.
The invasion wasn't until February of 1945.
I want this thing to look badass when we get through with it.
Here we go.
Here we go.
Yeah! Earlier, a guy came in with some maps and some plans from the battle of Iwo Jima.
I have no idea how rare these things are.
So we're on our way to Clark county museum to see mark to have him check them out.
What's going on, mark? Hey, old man.
How you doing? Haven't seen you for a while.
Oh, I'm all right.
I'm the administrator of the Clark county museum system.
I am passionate about the role and value of museums and the role of artifacts and how we can use that to learn about history.
These are interesting.
These are very nice.
So how did you come up with these? My dad was a landing craft operator.
So he was at Iwo Jima? Yes, he was.
Well, I doubt whether he met my dad, but my dad was there as well.
They could have waved at one time.
They could have, indeed.
The battle of Iwo Jima began in February of 1945.
The idea was to take the island and use it as a base for bombers as part of the strategic bombing campaign over Japan.
What's interesting about them is, if you notice, the date on them is the fourth of July, 1944.
The invasion wasn't until February of 1945.
So these are much earlier.
And they talk about it coming from aerial photography, from aerial photographs.
They thought that the invasion would be relatively easy.
It didn't turn out to be an easy one, unfortunately.
One of the oddities with Iwo Jima is that it's volcanic sand there.
And it turned out that volcanic sand made very good concrete, which was not a good thing for our side, because the amount of fortifications that were built into it, the tunnels and all of that, it was very difficult to get into.
It was going to be a bloodbath no matter what we did.
The Japanese knew that we were coming.
They knew that Iwo Jima was a logical place for us to next invade.
That's why they spent the amount of money and the amount of manpower to fortify the island to the extent that they did.
So these were actually used in the field? Yeah, he would have needed to have this to know, okay, if you're going in on blue one, this is what you need to be aware of at the beach that you're going into.
The interesting thing is, where it says "hot rocks," that's what they called Mount Suribachi on the plans.
So that's correct on these.
To me, documents like this bring alive the battle.
The bullets are flying.
The machine guns are going.
The mortars are going.
The bombs are going.
All of this is going on, and he's got this thing in his pocket.
And you can you see it, and it just makes it real.
And when you think about that, 40,000 men fighting and dying for this chunk of land out in the middle of the ocean.
As late as 1951, the last two Japanese in the tunnels on Iwo Jima surrendered.
It was 1951.
They were still hiding out in the tunnels there.
Wow.
So these speak very directly to the battle.
It's a wonderful piece.
Mark, have you got any idea what the value is? Well, you know I'm not gonna give you a price on it.
I know that.
But how rare are they? My guess is that these are extremely rare.
I don't think you're going to find another one in your lifetime.
You know, you should be really proud of what your dad did.
Very much so, yeah.
This speaks directly to what his experience was in world war ii.
Thank you for bringing them by.
Thank you.
I am very pleased.
Not a problem.
Rick, good to see you again.
Thanks again, mark.
Thank you, old man.
Thanks for coming out.
Hey, thank you.
It's always a pleasure.
This was great.
I learned a lot about these documents.
And I feel confident about making an offer now.
I just hope we can make a deal, as I'd love to have these.
Earlier today, we got a call from a guy who said he's got a whole bunch of 1800s mining gear.
I have no idea what he has, exactly.
But if it's really old mining stuff, it could be very collectible.
So this is it, huh? That's it, my 1860s miner's ore cart.
Okay.
This thing's sweet, man.
It's like something out of Indiana Jones.
I suppose.
[Whip cracks.]
I decided to call the pawn shop to have the guys come out and look at an ore cart.
The reason why I was looking to sell this ore cart is, my son's getting ready to turn 16 here pretty soon, and we need to get another truck.
So what can you tell me about this thing? Well, it came out of the Columbia district in Goldfield, Nevada Okay.
Which is a fairly popular mine up there, produced a lot of gold.
Back in the day, we used to go down a few of the old mine shafts out there, and we'd drag things out of there that was of interest.
It's just real dangerous, especially with old rafters around.
There's rattlesnakes around.
I don't anybody that does it anymore, to tell you the truth.
So you just don't find them anymore.
You sure don't.
I've heard stories about guys who used to work in the mines around here.
But I've never actually seen one of these carts in person.
Looking at this thing, I just can't imagine being in one of these mines.
I mean, filling this thing up and pushing it around this thing has to weight 700 pounds empty, never mind filled up.
You mind if I check it out? Oh, yeah.
Can I get in it? You can kick the wheels on that a little bit.
I can just picture flying down the track on this thing.
[Humming theme from Indiana Jones.]
Whipping some bad people.
Badass, Big Hoss.
You're too much, dude.
Get out of the guy's cart.
Chum has no idea about the history he's sitting in right now.
I mean, he naturally thinks it's a toy.
But gold was a driving force to get people to move out west.
And this cart would have made a huge difference in someone's job.
I mean, it made it a whole lot easier than lugging rocks out by hand.
How much does this thing weigh? The box, I would bet, weighs 300 pounds.
And the iron wheels are probably 200 pounds each.
I definitely wouldn't want to be working at the bottom when these things broke loose and started coming back at you.
I mean, it was definitely a dangerous job back then.
So how much are you looking to get out of it? $1,500 is my asking price.
You definitely got to buy this, Big Hoss.
Oh, do I? Could use it to transfer stuff from one side of the store to the other.
I mean, I definitely think it's cool.
But for the amount of real estate this thing's gonna take up in my shop, it's I just feel as if I could use that space to make more money.
Okay.
No problem.
I got a buddy who does own a stage prop company, though.
I'll give him a call for you.
All right, yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, thanks for showing me, man.
I'm sorry we couldn't make a deal.
Not a problem.
See you later.
This thing is really neat, but when I headed out here, I had no idea it was close to 700 pounds.
I mean, there's just no way chum and I can handle that.
I'd have to hire somebody to move this thing.
And I just don't think there's enough money to be made to make all that effort worth it.
Earlier, I bought a 1967 Ford f -100 pickup truck.
It needs some work, so I called my buddy Mike to come down and check it out.
I'm Mike.
I'm the owner of AAA collision in Las Vegas, Nevada.
We do custom paint and restore old cars.
So what do you want to do with this thing? Personally, I'd like to chop the roof off, throw some hydraulics on this thing.
Chumlee.
Some racing harnesses and bucket seats.
Shut up, chumlee.
You don't know what you're talking about.
Some tvs in the back that fold up chumlee, shut the [Bleep.]
Up.
I know what I'm doing, chumlee.
I've been around for a while.
That's what worries me, boss.
Chumlee means well.
I love him to death, but sometimes he just irritates the [Bleep.]
Out of me.
What do you guys want to do with this bed here? It's welded shut.
Cut it loose and put a couple notches on it.
Are you okay with the way it looks? Yeah, that's fine.
Also, this wood, it looks kind of sun rotted and faded.
Yeah, go ahead and replace it, Mike.
With a new paint job and everything, it's gonna need new wood in it.
That'll help the value of it.
Yeah, I want this thing to look badass when we get through with it.
I want it painted.
I think it would look good with two-tone, maybe a gunmetal gray with a red top.
And replace the vent window.
Fix it up so we can sell it.
That's all.
We're gonna hook this truck up for you.
All right, thanks, Mike.
Thank you much.
You're welcome.
I only paid $2,500 for this truck.
If Mike can get this thing fixed up at a good price, I might make some serious money.
I might even consider letting chumlee drive it back to the shop when hell freezes over.
Earlier, a guy came in with some maps and some plans from the battle of Iwo Jima.
I had no idea how rare these things are, so I brought it over to my buddy mark at the Clark county museum.
And now that we've learned more about them, I'm ready to make a deal for them.
This is some real history, and I'd love to have it in the shop.
All right.
Now we got a better idea, what do you want for it? [Sighs.]
That's the problem.
You know, when you don't have something to compare it to, it's really hard coming up with a price.
After talking with mark, I got pretty excited.
Yeah, I mean, it's definitely different stuff.
Like I said, I'm just trying to generate some money for my daughter's wedding.
Make me an offer.
Okay.
A dollar.
The problem you have with a one-of-a-kind item like this: You don't know what it's worth.
It could be peanuts, or it could be the whole peanut farm.
I can't come up with a clue of what this stuff is worth.
And I'm just taking a real shot in the dark here.
I'll give you two grand for the stuff.
I mean, that is a complete shot in the dark.
Way back in my head, I had a little number, like, $3,500.
Oh, no.
But it's not my number.
Yeah.
$2,700.
It's a big pig in a poke.
You know that.
I'll go $2,200.
How about $2,400? $2,300.
Done.
$2,300, it's a deal.
I'm really happy the way this turned out for everyone.
He got some good money for his daughter's wedding.
We got a piece of American history.
And I can't wait to tell some of my veteran buddies about it.
One, two, three.
Thank you.
Thanks a lot, man.
Okay.
Earlier, I bought a And my friend Mike's been fixing it up.
Today we get to see what he's done, and it better be badass.
Here we go.
Here we go.
Yeah! Whoo, yeah! Oh, yeah.
Yeah! This thing is sweet.
What do you guys think? I think you outdid yourself this time, Mike.
Thanks.
We put a lot of hours in this one.
This really looks great.
This truck brings back some fond memories of when cars were pieces of art.
People took pride in them.
Now they're all the same.
So what all did you have to do to it? We had to paint this thing inside and out.
If you look here, we painted the dash and cleaned it up and painted inside the doors.
This thing was rough when y'all got it.
It's great now.
I can't wait to take this bad boy for a spin.
No.
Not only no but hell, no.
This thing is way too nice to have chumlee touch it.
Hell, I don't even want him breathing on it.
So what did this cost me? Your total was $4,000.
That's not bad.
I can probably sell this for $12,000 or $14,000 on a good day, $10,000 to $12,000 on a bad.
Thanks a lot, Mike.
We appreciate it.
We'll do it again real soon.
Yeah, I hope to do another one soon.
All right, chumlee, I'm gonna drive this piece back to the shop.
You can follow me.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
You ain't driving the damn thing, chumlee.
Boss, your wife just called, and she said she needs you to go to the house.
So just my car, and I'll drive this.
No, no, no, no.
Come on.
Get away from me, chumlee.
You ain't got a snowball's chance in hell.
This is are you serious? I never get to do anything fun.
I think I can make five grand on this thing.
Rick can't say that very often.
So I think maybe the old man deserves a treat on the way home.
Mm, damn brain freeze.
Ooh!
This is the view the marines had as they made their way onto the beach.
It puts you right there.
We got a piece of history, and I want it.
One way or the other, it's gonna belong to me.
It's my miner's ore cart.
It's like something out of Indiana Jones.
I can just picture flying down the track on this thing, whipping some bad people.
It's a '67 F-100 truck.
Why don't you crank it up and let me listen to it? [Engine grinding.]
Oh, [Bleep.]
.
I'm Rick Harrison, and this is my pawn shop.
I work here with my old man and my son, Big Hoss.
Everything in here has a story and a price.
One thing I've learned after 21 years, you never know what is gonna come through that door.
Hey, what can I help you with? Howdy.
What do we have here? Maps and battle plans of the battle of Iwo Jima.
These aren't top secret anymore, are they? I don't think so.
I didn't think so either.
[Explosions.]
I decided to come to the pawn shop today to sell my maps and battle plans of the battle of Iwo Jima.
It's one of the most well-known battles of world war ii in the pacific, the raising of the flag on Mount Suribachi, that's one of the most famous pictures of world war ii there is.
So how did you get these? They were my dad's.
He was a landing craft operator.
Took the marines on the beach.
His name is on the papers itself.
No, w.
D.
Fells, coxswain.
What's a coxswain? The coxswain was the steerer of the boat.
He was in charge of the boat.
My dad actually carried these maps into the battle itself.
They were briefed on this beforehand.
They were all top secret.
No one knew of exactly what was going on until the actual battle itself.
All these maps show the different depths of tides at certain times of the day, what was in each certain section of the beach.
Iwo Jima is only 650 miles from Tokyo.
Capturing that island meant that we could reach their largest city.
And this was a key to victory.
They put thousands and thousands of people on this beach in a matter of hours, son.
It was one of the biggest battles in the pacific.
This is the view the marines had as they made their way onto the beach.
This guy's dad knew this map by heart.
But when he saw that beach for the first time, he must have been terrified.
You really, really got me here.
What did you want to do with it? My daughter's getting married.
I'd like to sell it.
I mean, it's really, really unique.
I mean, it really tells a story about what went on that day, which a lot of people would really be interested in.
The only thing I can think of right now is, I have a friend.
He's a curator of the Clark county museums here.
Okay.
Let's have him take a look at 'em.
He can sort of give me an idea of the rarity, or I can come up with a value.
We'll go from there? Yeah, we got to go from there.
Okay.
All right, cool.
Sounds good.
All right.
How you doing? Oh, pretty good.
I have a script here from in the heat of the night signed by nine of the stars.
Series or movie? The tv series.
The only thing I didn't like about that show was that it came on right after Saturday morning cartoons, which meant when the heat of the night came on, I had to get up and go do something.
[Laughs.]
That's why I liked it.
[Laughter.]
Decided to come to the pawn shop today to try to sell a tv script from the heat of the night signed by nine of the stars, including Carrell O'Connor.
I did some research on the Internet, and some of Carrell O'Connor's signatures were going as high as $3,000 because he did pass away a few years ago.
Heat of the night, it had Carrell O'Connor in it.
He was a police chief or something, right? Right, it was set down in Mississippi.
Show aired in the late '80s, early '90s.
In the heat of the night was a successful adaptation from the Sidney pottier classic film.
It featured tv icon Carrell O'Connor, who was best known for his classic role as Archie bunker.
The episode name was "blessings.
" It's number 18.
Do you know why it was called "blessings"? I didn't read it, but I understand it's like a Christmas type episode.
Well, let me look through it.
All right, Corey.
I'll be the clerk.
You be Bubba.
Why do I got to be Bubba? If you yelled out into a room, "Bubba," everyone would look at you.
[Laughter.]
That's just, like, hurtful, dude.
All right, now, remember.
You got to talk with a Southern accent.
Okay? Have you got insurance? What this lady needs right now here is a doctor.
All right, all right.
You stick to working in the shop.
All right, so what do you want to do with this? I thought I did pretty well there, dude.
Okay, all right.
Pawn it or sell it? Sell it, possibly.
You know, but again, it all depends upon what it's worth.
All right, to tell you the truth, I've never had luck with tv scripts.
For some reason, they don't sell.
Every time I've had one of these things, it's sat around forever, I damn near ended up having to give it away.
I mean, Carrell O'Connor was a star, but he wasn't, like, an uber-star.
And it's really hard to sell those signatures.
It really is.
Yeah.
And these other people, I don't even know who they are.
Well, I appreciate you bringing it in.
It's just there's nothing I can do with it.
I appreciate it.
We definitely had fun with it, buddy.
Oh, yeah, that's for sure.
I am disappointed that they didn't buy it.
I hope I can find someone who likes the show and watches the show and hopefully will then buy the script because of that.
What do you got here, son? It's a '67 f -100 truck.
Got a 460 in it.
It's fast as hell.
I think it's badass.
I would have loved driving this back in the day.
Chumlee, back in the day for you is about ten years ago at the most.
Oh.
[Engine revving.]
I'm coming to the pawn shop today to try to sell my '67 f-100 truck.
I bought this truck about two years ago.
I really like it.
It has a really big engine.
It's fast as hell.
I put at least $8,000 into this truck.
I'm hoping to sell the truck today and get some good money for it.
When this truck came out, it was a workhorse.
They used 'em in construction, farm, deliveries, et cetera, et cetera.
Trucks like these were the workhorse of the Ford fleet.
They were tough.
They were dependable.
They were built to last, just like me.
So what you think? You've done some nice work on it, but there's still a lot to do.
It needs a paint job.
It's missing a window.
Yeah, I'm having problems with my neighborhood, people breaking into it.
It's been stolen three times.
They stole this three times? Oh, yeah.
That's why I'm trying to get rid of it today.
I keep having to do the repairs on it instead of, you know, spending money to get a paint job or anything.
Hey, son, why don't you crank it up and let me listen to it? All right, no problem.
Let's hear this lion roar.
Crank it up.
[Engine roaring.]
This truck's in pretty good shape.
But it needs a few things done to it before it can be sold.
Did you hear that engine? [Engine roaring.]
Yeah, you better believe I want this thing.
What are you wanting to do, sell it, pawn it? Yeah, I want to sell it.
Now, what are you trying to get out of it? Well, I'd like to get four grand for it.
No.
To get the truck fixed and brought up to where it could bring some money, it's gonna take a lot of money.
I'm looking at three or four grand for a paint job.
Well, I put eight grand in it.
Well, when it comes to cars, they're just big money pits.
When you put money in them, you don't get it back, son.
Well, I want to get back something.
If you want it, I'll go $2,500.
And I'm talking cash money right now.
But I'm not gonna go over that.
All right, well, I guess $2,500 is better than me paying for more repairs.
So I'll take it.
All right.
Appreciate it.
Chumlee, go do some paperwork.
I'm happy with this deal.
If I get it fixed up at a good price, I just might have a good week.
My dad had the plans in his pocket when this went down.
But the date on them is 1944.
The invasion wasn't until February of 1945.
I want this thing to look badass when we get through with it.
Here we go.
Here we go.
Yeah! Earlier, a guy came in with some maps and some plans from the battle of Iwo Jima.
I have no idea how rare these things are.
So we're on our way to Clark county museum to see mark to have him check them out.
What's going on, mark? Hey, old man.
How you doing? Haven't seen you for a while.
Oh, I'm all right.
I'm the administrator of the Clark county museum system.
I am passionate about the role and value of museums and the role of artifacts and how we can use that to learn about history.
These are interesting.
These are very nice.
So how did you come up with these? My dad was a landing craft operator.
So he was at Iwo Jima? Yes, he was.
Well, I doubt whether he met my dad, but my dad was there as well.
They could have waved at one time.
They could have, indeed.
The battle of Iwo Jima began in February of 1945.
The idea was to take the island and use it as a base for bombers as part of the strategic bombing campaign over Japan.
What's interesting about them is, if you notice, the date on them is the fourth of July, 1944.
The invasion wasn't until February of 1945.
So these are much earlier.
And they talk about it coming from aerial photography, from aerial photographs.
They thought that the invasion would be relatively easy.
It didn't turn out to be an easy one, unfortunately.
One of the oddities with Iwo Jima is that it's volcanic sand there.
And it turned out that volcanic sand made very good concrete, which was not a good thing for our side, because the amount of fortifications that were built into it, the tunnels and all of that, it was very difficult to get into.
It was going to be a bloodbath no matter what we did.
The Japanese knew that we were coming.
They knew that Iwo Jima was a logical place for us to next invade.
That's why they spent the amount of money and the amount of manpower to fortify the island to the extent that they did.
So these were actually used in the field? Yeah, he would have needed to have this to know, okay, if you're going in on blue one, this is what you need to be aware of at the beach that you're going into.
The interesting thing is, where it says "hot rocks," that's what they called Mount Suribachi on the plans.
So that's correct on these.
To me, documents like this bring alive the battle.
The bullets are flying.
The machine guns are going.
The mortars are going.
The bombs are going.
All of this is going on, and he's got this thing in his pocket.
And you can you see it, and it just makes it real.
And when you think about that, 40,000 men fighting and dying for this chunk of land out in the middle of the ocean.
As late as 1951, the last two Japanese in the tunnels on Iwo Jima surrendered.
It was 1951.
They were still hiding out in the tunnels there.
Wow.
So these speak very directly to the battle.
It's a wonderful piece.
Mark, have you got any idea what the value is? Well, you know I'm not gonna give you a price on it.
I know that.
But how rare are they? My guess is that these are extremely rare.
I don't think you're going to find another one in your lifetime.
You know, you should be really proud of what your dad did.
Very much so, yeah.
This speaks directly to what his experience was in world war ii.
Thank you for bringing them by.
Thank you.
I am very pleased.
Not a problem.
Rick, good to see you again.
Thanks again, mark.
Thank you, old man.
Thanks for coming out.
Hey, thank you.
It's always a pleasure.
This was great.
I learned a lot about these documents.
And I feel confident about making an offer now.
I just hope we can make a deal, as I'd love to have these.
Earlier today, we got a call from a guy who said he's got a whole bunch of 1800s mining gear.
I have no idea what he has, exactly.
But if it's really old mining stuff, it could be very collectible.
So this is it, huh? That's it, my 1860s miner's ore cart.
Okay.
This thing's sweet, man.
It's like something out of Indiana Jones.
I suppose.
[Whip cracks.]
I decided to call the pawn shop to have the guys come out and look at an ore cart.
The reason why I was looking to sell this ore cart is, my son's getting ready to turn 16 here pretty soon, and we need to get another truck.
So what can you tell me about this thing? Well, it came out of the Columbia district in Goldfield, Nevada Okay.
Which is a fairly popular mine up there, produced a lot of gold.
Back in the day, we used to go down a few of the old mine shafts out there, and we'd drag things out of there that was of interest.
It's just real dangerous, especially with old rafters around.
There's rattlesnakes around.
I don't anybody that does it anymore, to tell you the truth.
So you just don't find them anymore.
You sure don't.
I've heard stories about guys who used to work in the mines around here.
But I've never actually seen one of these carts in person.
Looking at this thing, I just can't imagine being in one of these mines.
I mean, filling this thing up and pushing it around this thing has to weight 700 pounds empty, never mind filled up.
You mind if I check it out? Oh, yeah.
Can I get in it? You can kick the wheels on that a little bit.
I can just picture flying down the track on this thing.
[Humming theme from Indiana Jones.]
Whipping some bad people.
Badass, Big Hoss.
You're too much, dude.
Get out of the guy's cart.
Chum has no idea about the history he's sitting in right now.
I mean, he naturally thinks it's a toy.
But gold was a driving force to get people to move out west.
And this cart would have made a huge difference in someone's job.
I mean, it made it a whole lot easier than lugging rocks out by hand.
How much does this thing weigh? The box, I would bet, weighs 300 pounds.
And the iron wheels are probably 200 pounds each.
I definitely wouldn't want to be working at the bottom when these things broke loose and started coming back at you.
I mean, it was definitely a dangerous job back then.
So how much are you looking to get out of it? $1,500 is my asking price.
You definitely got to buy this, Big Hoss.
Oh, do I? Could use it to transfer stuff from one side of the store to the other.
I mean, I definitely think it's cool.
But for the amount of real estate this thing's gonna take up in my shop, it's I just feel as if I could use that space to make more money.
Okay.
No problem.
I got a buddy who does own a stage prop company, though.
I'll give him a call for you.
All right, yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, thanks for showing me, man.
I'm sorry we couldn't make a deal.
Not a problem.
See you later.
This thing is really neat, but when I headed out here, I had no idea it was close to 700 pounds.
I mean, there's just no way chum and I can handle that.
I'd have to hire somebody to move this thing.
And I just don't think there's enough money to be made to make all that effort worth it.
Earlier, I bought a 1967 Ford f -100 pickup truck.
It needs some work, so I called my buddy Mike to come down and check it out.
I'm Mike.
I'm the owner of AAA collision in Las Vegas, Nevada.
We do custom paint and restore old cars.
So what do you want to do with this thing? Personally, I'd like to chop the roof off, throw some hydraulics on this thing.
Chumlee.
Some racing harnesses and bucket seats.
Shut up, chumlee.
You don't know what you're talking about.
Some tvs in the back that fold up chumlee, shut the [Bleep.]
Up.
I know what I'm doing, chumlee.
I've been around for a while.
That's what worries me, boss.
Chumlee means well.
I love him to death, but sometimes he just irritates the [Bleep.]
Out of me.
What do you guys want to do with this bed here? It's welded shut.
Cut it loose and put a couple notches on it.
Are you okay with the way it looks? Yeah, that's fine.
Also, this wood, it looks kind of sun rotted and faded.
Yeah, go ahead and replace it, Mike.
With a new paint job and everything, it's gonna need new wood in it.
That'll help the value of it.
Yeah, I want this thing to look badass when we get through with it.
I want it painted.
I think it would look good with two-tone, maybe a gunmetal gray with a red top.
And replace the vent window.
Fix it up so we can sell it.
That's all.
We're gonna hook this truck up for you.
All right, thanks, Mike.
Thank you much.
You're welcome.
I only paid $2,500 for this truck.
If Mike can get this thing fixed up at a good price, I might make some serious money.
I might even consider letting chumlee drive it back to the shop when hell freezes over.
Earlier, a guy came in with some maps and some plans from the battle of Iwo Jima.
I had no idea how rare these things are, so I brought it over to my buddy mark at the Clark county museum.
And now that we've learned more about them, I'm ready to make a deal for them.
This is some real history, and I'd love to have it in the shop.
All right.
Now we got a better idea, what do you want for it? [Sighs.]
That's the problem.
You know, when you don't have something to compare it to, it's really hard coming up with a price.
After talking with mark, I got pretty excited.
Yeah, I mean, it's definitely different stuff.
Like I said, I'm just trying to generate some money for my daughter's wedding.
Make me an offer.
Okay.
A dollar.
The problem you have with a one-of-a-kind item like this: You don't know what it's worth.
It could be peanuts, or it could be the whole peanut farm.
I can't come up with a clue of what this stuff is worth.
And I'm just taking a real shot in the dark here.
I'll give you two grand for the stuff.
I mean, that is a complete shot in the dark.
Way back in my head, I had a little number, like, $3,500.
Oh, no.
But it's not my number.
Yeah.
$2,700.
It's a big pig in a poke.
You know that.
I'll go $2,200.
How about $2,400? $2,300.
Done.
$2,300, it's a deal.
I'm really happy the way this turned out for everyone.
He got some good money for his daughter's wedding.
We got a piece of American history.
And I can't wait to tell some of my veteran buddies about it.
One, two, three.
Thank you.
Thanks a lot, man.
Okay.
Earlier, I bought a And my friend Mike's been fixing it up.
Today we get to see what he's done, and it better be badass.
Here we go.
Here we go.
Yeah! Whoo, yeah! Oh, yeah.
Yeah! This thing is sweet.
What do you guys think? I think you outdid yourself this time, Mike.
Thanks.
We put a lot of hours in this one.
This really looks great.
This truck brings back some fond memories of when cars were pieces of art.
People took pride in them.
Now they're all the same.
So what all did you have to do to it? We had to paint this thing inside and out.
If you look here, we painted the dash and cleaned it up and painted inside the doors.
This thing was rough when y'all got it.
It's great now.
I can't wait to take this bad boy for a spin.
No.
Not only no but hell, no.
This thing is way too nice to have chumlee touch it.
Hell, I don't even want him breathing on it.
So what did this cost me? Your total was $4,000.
That's not bad.
I can probably sell this for $12,000 or $14,000 on a good day, $10,000 to $12,000 on a bad.
Thanks a lot, Mike.
We appreciate it.
We'll do it again real soon.
Yeah, I hope to do another one soon.
All right, chumlee, I'm gonna drive this piece back to the shop.
You can follow me.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
You ain't driving the damn thing, chumlee.
Boss, your wife just called, and she said she needs you to go to the house.
So just my car, and I'll drive this.
No, no, no, no.
Come on.
Get away from me, chumlee.
You ain't got a snowball's chance in hell.
This is are you serious? I never get to do anything fun.
I think I can make five grand on this thing.
Rick can't say that very often.
So I think maybe the old man deserves a treat on the way home.
Mm, damn brain freeze.
Ooh!